Long-leaf pine straw that can be used to mulch your new and existing garden spaces. Each bale covers roughly 40 square feet at 2.5 inches deep. If you’re used to using wood mulch, another good conversion is 3 bales of pine straw covers roughly the same area as 1 cubic yard of wood mulch. Pine straw, when used as a mulch, has a nice natural look to it. I find that it looks even more natural and established as leaves fall onto it, which tends to make wood mulched areas look a bit on the messy side.