Yeah you can use the mulch from home depot but if it is holes in the bag (which there most likely will be from the mulch) or It is kept outside you should bake the mulch to kill anything in it. I use Cypress with My Water Dragon and curly tailed lizard, just make sure your picking up the original all natural stuff not cedar or pine mulch.

The aspen idk i buy mines from petco so i cannot help ya there.