How many bales of straw
 

We want to put down straw in our back yard; we live in a 2- bedroom courtyard villa...does anyone have any idea how many bales we will need?

The back yards in Courtyard Villas vary greatly. I have seen some that are less than 300 square feet and others that are well over 1000 square feet. If you tell us the size of your backyard we can probably provide more useful information.

I recommend using Adam's Earth (ADAM'S EARTH...FORMERLY COMPOST COW MANURE) to do it for you. Probably about the same cost of DIY. His people put it down, clean up the overage. Also, when comparing bale prices I do think his bales are larger than the big box stores.

I have had Adam (352-342-1384) do my yard a few times with both pine straw and pine bark nuggets. I would recommend the nuggets over the straw, even though it is a more expensive, because they look better and last longer. The last time, he used 65 bags of nuggets at a total cost of $325. I don't remember how much straw he used, but the cost was about $200. I highly recommend having him do it instead of doing it yourself.

As I recall KB landscaping suggested a bale to cover 8 to 10 square feet, so if you know the number for square feet you need to cover you can calculate the number of bales you will need.

Watch for Ticks..,,,😃

I assume you mean bales of pine straw. The typical bale will cover about 30 square feet but it does depend on how thick you want it.

Need to decide on thickness first. Or buy one bale and see how many sq feet it will cover and than decide.

I had pine straw at a house once. It looks good originally but broke down quickly and it was a twice a year endeavor.
I'd absolutely go with the pine nuggets. Just my opinion.

I agree with twice a year, however we have found this to be much cleaner than mulch.

If you do it yourself, I was informed by one of the local nurseries that they find live scorpions inside the bails once in a while….

I never encountered any when I used to do the job myself but was always on guard for anything that might have been lurking ! :)

Better options
 

IMHO organic material ie straw and wood chips attract bugs and snakes especially straw. Also neither stays put in heavy rain or wind. Spend the money on heavier material such as stone, shells, recycled rubber tire material that doesn't deteriorate and it's a one and done project. Only maintenance is some weed killer occasionally. Just my opinion having been down that road.

Volume = Length x Width x Height

I know that but material will degrade over time so you want to start with a thicker cover and would imagine would do it by eye.

Must get ARC. approval

University of Floriday Gainesville Veterinary School
Google Veterinary Surgical Center in Orlando. There are a number with five star ratings.

Personally, I wouldn't get ARC approval to install some pine straw or pine bark nuggets.

What does this have to do with straw?

Like most topics no shortage of Opinions. There are at least two different sizes of pine straw being sold. There are also different types of pine. The ones from LONGLEAF pine tend to cost more and last longer. Twice a year? The initial application will take far more material, as it decomposes you add more on top.

Pine nuggets is pine bark a waste product from when trees are cut for lumber. Again not all pine is the same. Bark from CEDAR takes longer to decompose and is less attractive to insects.

Pine straw is far easier to weed-you can use stand up tools. Nuggets, stones etc you must crawl around to pull weeds. Landscape fabric sounds good but you will still have some weeds.