A single 35-pound bale of pine straw covers about 50 square feet, at a depth of 2 inches.

A single bale of pine straw, which weighs about 35 pounds, covers about 50 square feet. Compare that to a standard 2-cubic-foot bag of wood mulch, which weighs about 25 pounds and covers 12 square feet. The pine straw covers close to 1.5 square feet per pound, while wood mulch covers about 0.5 square feet per pound.