Hi Sally, and welcome to ATP!
>> Where can I purchase good organic soil and mulch in Albuquerque.
Unfortunately, I don't know Albuquerque. I would check prices at Lowe's, local "dirt yards", and ask some nurseries and landscapers where they buy.
A landscaper or lawn service might even offer you free wood chips or grass clippings, though many will caution you to worry about herbicides and weed seeds in lawn clippings.
If your soil is starting out "pretty good", or anything less than "excellent", I would spend my money on more compost and pine bark fines, to improve the soil I already had, instead of buying more so-so-soil. Even "unusually good topsoil" is still not as good as very well-draining, rich, fertile GARDEN soil, or "intensively improved raised bed soil"..
Raised beds really let you get maximum benefit from really good, rich soil. You can plant densely and still get high yields and rapid growth.
You would probably get more benefit from adding 2-3 inches of compost and other soil amendments, and mixing them into the beds with forks or a Roto-tiller, than by just adding a few more inches of heavy or not-very-rich soil.
I agree about adding compost. You might or might not get a better price buying it by the cubic yard from a "dirt yard". Near me, the price is similar whether I buy a cubic yard and have it delivered, or buy bags of "manure-compost mix" from Lowe's ($1.25 for 1 cubic foot), and shlepp them around in the trunk of my Ford Escort.
However, the quality from Lowe's is MUCH better: it is real compost and aged manure. The "dirt yard" sold me "Cedar Grove Compost" that had so much sawdust and so many wood shavings that it was almost worse than nothing.
What I like best for mulch is coarse pine bark nuggets (or almost any evergreen bark product). Big wood chips also work well, as long as you don't turn them under into the soil.
Once underground, wood helps microbes "steal nitrogen" away from plant roots. Wood is best used as a top-dressing for several years, and by then is OK to turn under (or, better, compost it first).
I like bark from Lowe's much be4tter than from Home Depot. My local HD sells "bark mulch" that's full of dirt, wood and pebbles. I figure that it's just logyard trash, scooped up along with weed seeds and oil drippings. Lowe's sells bark nuggets that are obviously clean, screened BARK.
P.S. If you tear open a plastic bag of bark and it feels wet and smells faintly like garbage, it was probably stored wet (and anaerobic) long enough to start fermenting. Try to find a store that keeps bark drier. Too much fermentation creates acids, alcohols and other fermentation products that are not very good for young roots. No big deal as long as they get enough rain or watering to dilute and flush the breakdown products away.
Any mulch protects soil from drying out and baking in the sun. The value of coarse mulch is that it lets water, air and CO2 pass right through. The roots and soil microorganisms need quite a bit of oxygen and they release CO2.
Fine mulch, like sawdust or coffee grounds can "pack down" and turn into a hard crust that slows down gas exchange and grabs any rain or watering and holds it up where the roots can't find it. If sawdust or coffee grounds are all you have, use a thinner layer like one inch, and rake it around every so often to keep it broken up. When you water, water enough to saturate the fine mulch. Only the water that passes THROUGH the mulch will do your plants any good.
Other good mulches are pine needles, straw or hay (if it has few weed seeds and NO herbicides). Some people use plastic film with slits for water and air to pass. In small raised beds, you might even consider something like rectangles cut from cardboard boxes. Gaps would let water and air through. Weeds are easy to pull out of loose RB soil.
If you have enough coffee grounds to consider using them as mulch, instead turn them into the soil as instant, high-N compost. They loosen the soil, hold some water, release some Nitrogen, and also attract worms.
Or use the coffee grounds to jump-start a fast compost heap. Combined with sawdust or paper or brown leaves, coffee grounds will help those break down fast and produce 2-3 times as much compost as the original coffee grounds.
