How much does one bale cover?

One round bale covers about 80 square feet once it is spread. That is a bed about 4 ft by 20 ft. These are round bales, not the small square ones stacked outside a shop.

How do you measure a bed?

Pace it. One step is about three feet, so count your steps along the bed and then across it, and multiply the two. Do that for every bed, add them together, and divide by 80.

How deep should pine straw be?

About two to four inches once it has settled. Four or five inches raked out on the day packs down to roughly two. Thinner and weeds find the light; much thicker and it mats together instead of letting the rain down to the roots.

How often does it need doing?

Once or twice a year suits most yards. Fresh straw is copper and turns gray over a few months, and it keeps breaking down into the bed, so the bed gets thin. When it looks flat and gray, it is time.

What if the order comes up short?

Say so on the day. The truck usually carries extra bales, so more can often come off the same trip, each at the same price a bale as the rest of your order. Give the bigger number when you call anyway: the count is agreed with you before any work happens, so you can still take fewer, down to the smallest order.

What if the yard is small?

The smallest order is $150 either way: 10 bales spread, which covers about 800 square feet, or 20 bales delivered only. If your beds come to less than that, the smallest order still applies.

A brick house with one long bed of fresh pine straw running the whole way along the front

How much you need

How much pine straw your beds take.

One round bale covers about 80 square feet. Add your beds together, divide by 80, round up. That is your bale count, checked on the phone before anything is loaded.

What that comes to in bales

A yard with 500 square feet of bed takes 7 bales. One bed on its own, 4 ft by 20 ft, is a single bale.

Always round up. There is no such thing as most of a bale.

You do not have to be exact and you do not have to own a tape measure. Say roughly how much bed you have on the phone; the sum is done while you are on it.

Call (912) 256-6051

A round bale of pine straw held in one hand, which is about how big one is

Measure it with your feet

Nobody has a tape measure in their pocket. Your own steps are close enough for this.

1
Walk the length

Start at one end of the bed and walk to the other, counting your steps. One step is about three feet, so steps times three is roughly the length in feet.
2
Walk the width

Now step across the bed the same way. A bed along the front of a house is usually one step or two.
3
Multiply, then add

Length times width is the square feet of that bed. Do each bed the same way and add them together.

Beds that curve or wander are fine. Take the longest way across and the widest point; guessing high is the safer way to be wrong.

Common yards, and what they take

Find the one that sounds most like yours. These are the same sizes the estimator below works from.

Common bed sizes and the number of bales each one takes
What you have	Roughly	Bales
One bed along the front of the house	4 ft by 20 ft	1
A ring around one tree	6 ft across	1
The whole front of an average house	3 ft by 60 ft	3
Front beds and both sides	about 500 sq ft	7

Bales are $15 each, delivered and spread. The smallest spread job is 10 bales, so a yard that works out under that is priced at $150. Rather spread it yourself? Delivered only is $7.50 a bale, and the smallest delivered only order is 20 bales, $150.

A porch front with fresh pine straw spread around the shrubs and out to the edge of the lawn

What will it cost?

Pick the one that sounds like your yard, then say who spreads it.

Who spreads it

Spread for you $15 a bale Delivered only $7.50 a bale, you spread it

Front beds About 800 sq ft, 10 bales Spread $150 Delivered only $150, the 20 bale minimum Front and one side About 1,600 sq ft, 20 bales Spread $300 Delivered only $150 All the way round About 2,400 sq ft, 30 bales Spread $450 Delivered only $225 A big property About 4,000 sq ft, 50 bales Spread $750 Delivered only $375

$150

10 bales at $15, delivered and spread.

The smallest order is $150 either way. Add $150 once for the trip outside Glennville, Reidsville, Claxton, Ludowici, either way. The truck carries extra bales, so if your beds need more on the day, more can usually come off the same trip, each at the same price a bale as the rest of your order. The job is confirmed with you before any work happens, so this is an estimate and not a quoted price.

How deep it wants to be

Four or five inches raked out on the day, which settles to two to four. What looks generous on the day is thinner by the next month.

Thinner than that and weeds find the light through it. Much thicker and it mats together instead of letting the rain down to the roots.

A bed that still has old straw in it takes less than a bare one. There you are topping up the depth and the color, not building the bed up from dirt, so the same square feet can come out a bale or two lighter.

Beds along a brick building with old straw gone thin and gray — Thin and gray, ready for more

The same kind of bed with fresh copper straw laid deep and raked to a clean edge — Fresh, with the depth back in it

If the number comes out wrong

Too few

You get a thin bed, or one bed left bare. The truck usually carries extra bales, so say so on the day and more can often come off the same trip, each at the same price a bale as the rest of your order. If it cannot, making it good means a second trip out, and past the free drive that is a second trip charge as well.

Too many

The count is agreed with you before any work happens. If it looks like more than your beds need, take fewer and pay for fewer, down to the smallest order.

So guess high

Bales you do not take cost you nothing, down to the smallest order. Running short is not always fixed from the truck. If you are between two numbers when you call, give the bigger one.

Round bales set out along a bed line, ready to be opened and spread

The smallest job

$150 either way: 10 bales spread, which covers about 800 square feet of bed, or 20 bales delivered only. A smaller yard than that is still $150, because the loading and the drive are the same either way.

If your beds come to less, the smallest order still applies. One answer is to wait until you have enough beds you want done to make one trip worth it.

Not sure which side of it your yard falls on? Ask Branden; it takes a minute on the phone.

A single round bale of pine straw sitting on a wooden trailer bed

Where the trip comes in

Inside a 30 minute drive of Glennville the trip costs you nothing; the bales are the whole bill.

Past that there is one flat $150 for the trip. It is charged once, however many bales you order, so it weighs heavily on a small load and hardly at all on a big one.

About 85 minutes out is as far as the truck goes. The price of a bale is the same wherever you are.

Every town on the list, with its drive time

The back of a box truck standing open, packed to the roof with round bales of pine straw

Things people ask

How much does one bale cover?: One round bale covers about 80 square feet once it is spread. That is a bed about 4 ft by 20 ft. These are round bales, not the small square ones stacked outside a shop.
How do you measure a bed?: Pace it. One step is about three feet, so count your steps along the bed and then across it, and multiply the two. Do that for every bed, add them together, and divide by 80.
How deep should pine straw be?: About two to four inches once it has settled. Four or five inches raked out on the day packs down to roughly two. Thinner and weeds find the light; much thicker and it mats together instead of letting the rain down to the roots.
How often does it need doing?: Once or twice a year suits most yards. Fresh straw is copper and turns gray over a few months, and it keeps breaking down into the bed, so the bed gets thin. When it looks flat and gray, it is time.
What if the order comes up short?: Say so on the day. The truck usually carries extra bales, so more can often come off the same trip, each at the same price a bale as the rest of your order. Give the bigger number when you call anyway: the count is agreed with you before any work happens, so you can still take fewer, down to the smallest order.
What if the yard is small?: The smallest order is $150 either way: 10 bales spread, which covers about 800 square feet, or 20 bales delivered only. If your beds come to less than that, the smallest order still applies.

An entrance walk with fresh straw in the beds on both sides

Say roughly how much bed you have, and get the number.