How Much Mulch Do I Need?
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Need
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to know how much mulch, topsoil or pine straw you need to cover a given area? A few rules of thumb: 1 cubic yard of

mulch will cover 100 square feet to a depth of 3 inches. That's enough to fill the bed of a midsize truck. Bagged, you'd need 13 of the 2-cubic-foot bags or nine 3-cubic-foot bags.
One cubic yard of topsoil will add a 2-inch layer over an area of 100 square feet. A bale of pine straw is enough to cover about 35 square feet. Here's a handy online calculator.

Source: Carolina Country, published by NC Association of Electric Cooperatives, Inc.

The benefits of mulching your garden are:

  • It retains moisture, reducing the need for watering.
  • It helps build soil. By keeping the soil moist at the surface, it encourages worms to come up and do their work of building soil. It also provides organic matter to the soil as it breaks down.
  • It defines areas.
  • It suppresses weeds.