Ok,

while selling cookies we saw several people buy several bags of bark.

What is bark used for? Do you use it instead of regular soil in the garden?

Is bark better than soil for outdoor plants/flowers?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Potting soil is for planting in -- bark is mulch for putting on top of the ground after you plant. It helps keep moisture in and weeds out...to some extent.

Tolstoy is exactly right. If you buy potting soil to put in pots, be sure to line the bottom of the pots with some pebbles so the water can drain through. Make sure your pots have a hole in the bottom and the rocks/pebbles will also keep the soil from draining out. If you plant in the garden, be sure your soil is healthy (not too dry, not too much clay (wet) and it has plenty of nutrients). You can adjust it by adding cow manure (Moo Doo for example) and either peet to lighten the soil or plain old topsoil to fill in. It's a good consistency if you can clump it together but it crumbles easily.

There are many types of mulch and many different colors. I personally don't like the looks of it much, but I have to weed more. If you choose mulch, be sure to leave enough breathing room around the plants stems because if they are covered by the mulch, the plant may die.

Have fun with it and let us know how it goes!

Potting soil is for planting in -- bark is mulch for putting on top of the ground after you plant. It helps keep moisture in and weeds out...to some extent.

Yeah mulch is what they call it. I do garden some so I know a little about it. Also sometimes people use different kinds of mulch some like the decorative effect it brings to the yard, while others are more into how it will keep weeds from overtaking the flowers they plant.

One thing to note when buying potting soil: Cheaper isn't always better.
I found this out the hard way. I had three plants, one medium sized and two small. I decided to repot them all last fall, and bought a bag of Miracle Grow potting soil. About a week after repotting them I started to notice little black bugs that looked like gnats flying around in my face. So I did some research and found out that they WERE gnats, the adults lay the eggs in the soil, and the eggs tend to hatch whenever there's enough water. Which pretty much means almost every single time. I ended up having to get rid of all of them, since the only product I could find for them wasn't safe to use with my kitty around.
One solution: Get a big roasting pan (the cheap throw away aluminum ones are good) and bake all of the potting soil at 350 for thirty minutes before using it to pot plants. This kills off all of the eggs.

As a general rule the bark is used to cover the soil, primarily to choke out the weeds and stop them coming up and invading your garden..At least that's what I do-and it works!