Mulch is an essential part of gardening.
It helps plants grow by keeping soil temperatures consistent and locking in moisture.
It can also deter pests.
Mulch also creates an even appearance.
However, it can be tricky to know how much mulch you’ll need for a yard or garden.
Learning how much mulch is in a bag can help you calculate what you need.
How many bags of mulch are in a yard?
Most bags of mulch contain 2 cubic feet of mulch. A cubic yard, on the other hand, is 27 cubic feet. This means that there are about 0.07 cubic yards of mulch in a single bag. If you want a full cubic yard of mulch, you’ll need about 13.5 bags. However, how much mulch you need for your yard or garden depends on several other factors.
How many bags of mulch do I need?
To determine how much mulch you’ll need, you first need to figure out the size of the area you’re mulching.
Take the dimensions of any gardens and find the area of each garden section, then add these areas together.
This tells you how many square feet you have that need to be mulched.
Next, you’ll want to figure out how deep you want the mulch to be.
Most people consider 2 or 3 inches of mulch to be perfect, but some people prefer 1 inch, while others feel that 4 inches is best.
What your climate is like and what you’re growing to can also affect how deep your mulch should be.
One bag of mulch, measured at 2 cubic feet, will cover 24 square feet if the depth of the mulch is 1 inch.
If the mulch is 2 inches deep, one bag will cover 12 square feet.
If your mulch is 2 inches deep and you’re using 1 cubic yard of mulch, you’ll be able to cover about 162 square feet.
To calculate exactly how many yards you need for an area, take your area measurement of square feet, multiply it by the depth of the mulch, then divide it by 27.
There are about 13.5 bags of mulch in a cubic yard.
Types of Mulch
Before you purchase your mulch, you’ll also need to decide what type of mulch you want.
Mulch is available as either organic or inorganic mulch.
Organic mulch is made from things like wood chips, which are the most common mulch material, grass clippings, pine needles, sawdust, straw, leaves, or compost.
Inorganic mulch can be made of plastic or rubber. Some inorganic ‘mulches’ are also large sheets of landscape fabric or plastic.
Any type of mulch will help to keep away weeds and pests while protecting and maintaining the temperature and moisture content of the soil.
Organic mulches tend to break down over time, but as they deteriorate, they release nutrients into the soil.
Because of this, organic mulches are often a favorite of gardeners. However, inorganic mulches can also be beneficial.
These mulches tend to warm the soil more, so even though they don’t release nutrients, they can nurture plants that love warmth.
Proper Mulching
Before you lay down your mulch, make sure the garden area has been thoroughly weeded.
Mulch can inhibit weed growth, but only if there aren’t any already growing there. If you’re mulching around trees or shrubs, keep the mulch about 1 foot away from the trunks.
Mulch piled near tree or shrub trunks attracts pests such as mice.
You’ll also want to be sure that, if your mulch retains a good amount of moisture, it’s not too close to the stems of any plants, as this can cause rot.
Pulling the mulch away a bit can help to prevent this.
