I can see you're trying to minimize the work which is understandable. About all you can do is slit the end of the bag, pick up by the other end and dispense it as evenly as possible.

That seems like a lot of mulch but what do I know. :-]

Maybe lay out the bags evenly across the garden area, to begin with say 6-8 inches apart, then adjust so that the intra-bag intervals are equivalent, then with a sharp knife, slit down the side of the mulch bags, lift, leaving small 2 cubic ft piles evenly dispersed.

Using: http://www.mulch4you.com/coverage-calculator/

Length (in feet): 23

Width (in feet): 16

Depth (in inches): 4

Number of 2 cubic foot bags needed: 61

60 bags wasn't enough; I had to buy 10 more bags at Lowes to finish the job.

Next time look into purchasing bulk bark mulch. 70 - 2cf bags is just over 5 yards of bulk mulch, which goes for about $20 a yard. Compare that to the $4.49 per bag price of the bagged stuff at Lowe's and you should recognize a substantial savings.

In January, I considered buying the mulch in bulk but it's 200 feet from the dumping location to my garden. I'd have to move the much immediately since the dumping location is the parking area of my condo development or I'd be violating the CC&Rs. I'd then have to get a wheelbarrow or another device transport the mulch, making many back-and-forth trips between the dumping location and my garden. I decided buy the mulch in bags to avoid all those complications. The bags didn't cost $4.49; I waited until Lowes had a "4 bags for $10" sale.

Well, there you are, then :-) Sometimes bagged does make more sense. Glad you were able to get it on sale.

The first 60 bags cost $2.50 each (on sale); the last 10 bags cost $3.33 each (regular price).

If you find a "best way", let us know. And by us, I mean me. The second best way I know of is to slice the bags wide open and try to somewhat control the flow as I dump it...but then again, if I have to push a little mulch around, not exactly the hardest thing in the world.

The best way I know is to have someone else do it, but that's usually more frustrating to watch than it is to do it yourself.

The way I did is was...

My 400 sq. ft. garden is bordered by scalloped brick edging blocks so I started along one side and placed a 4"x4"x6' (as a depth-guide) about 2 feet away from the edging.

I then poured a bag of mulch into that space, leveled off the mulch and slid the board along to the next area.

(I know the board is actually only 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" so, after doing the whole garden, I added about one more inch of bark mulch and did a final raking to even out the high/low spots).

My 400 sq. ft. garden needed 70 2-cu.-ft. bags of bark mulch.

Just for the record, I wasn't questioning your calculations, I was just trying to imagine 60 bags laying on a 20x20 space and it seemed like nothing but mulch bags in my imagination. :-D

When I brought the first 60 bags of bark mulch home, I stacked them in my two-car garage -- looked like a thousand bags -- until my garden ready for the mulch.

Now that all of the mulch is in my garden, I was even able to clean up my garage -- and it's spacious again.

Now I need another "project" (aka "chore") to tackle.