Mulch & Topsoil Calculator

Bulk Delivery vs. Bagged Mulch

Bagged mulch is convenient for a small border bed, but the per-yard price climbs fast once you're covering more than a couple hundred square feet. Somewhere around 3 cubic yards, a bulk delivery from a landscape supplier usually starts beating a trunk full of bags, even after the delivery fee.

• A standard 2-cubic-foot bag covers about 8 square feet at a 3-inch depth.
• One cubic yard covers roughly 100 square feet at 3 inches, or 160 square feet at 2 inches.
• Shredded hardwood mulch settles and compacts faster than mulch nuggets, so it needs slightly more frequent topping up.

How Deep Should Mulch Actually Be?

Two to four inches is the range most extension offices and nursery staff recommend for garden beds. Go past that and you start smothering roots and trapping moisture against the soil instead of regulating it. And skip the classic mistake of piling mulch up against a tree trunk in a cone shape, sometimes called a mulch volcano: it holds moisture right against the bark, which invites rot and pests instead of protecting the tree.

How Often Does Mulch Need Replacing?

Organic mulch like shredded hardwood or bark breaks down over time as it feeds the soil underneath, which is part of its purpose, but it also means most garden beds need a fresh top-up layer once a year, usually in spring. You rarely need to remove the old layer first; a thin refresh of an inch or two on top of what's already broken down is usually enough, which is why the second and third years of maintaining a bed typically cost less than the first full application.

Colored and Dyed Mulch: What's Actually Different

Dyed mulches, the deep reds, blacks, and browns you see at garden centers, are usually the same wood base as natural mulch, just colored with an iron oxide or carbon-based dye rather than a different material. The color fades faster in direct sun than natural mulch's own weathering, so a dyed bed in a sunny front yard typically needs its color refreshed sooner than one in shade, even if the mulch itself hasn't fully broken down yet.