Calculate Your Mulch Needs

Mulch is a wonderfull product for dressing up the area around your shrubs, trees and flower beds, to both beautify the area and reduce the maintenance required.

Mulch Guy knows that buying mulch or topsoil can be a challenge when you don't know how much you need. We understand that many people do not know how to or want to take the time to do the math to calculate how much mulch is needed. We have an automated mulch calculator to help with this.

There is a fairly easy formula to figure how much mulch, dirt or topsoil is needed for an area.  First, it is critical to know there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. One cubic yard will cover a 324 square foot area with one inch of soil or mulch.

Figure out the square footage of your bed, that's width times the length for square- or rectangular-shaped beds. In order to figure out the area of a triangle, it is the base times height, divided by two.

Circular beds are popular in some areas. To find out the square footage, go to the middle of the circle and measure to the outside. This is your radius. Multiply this number by itself.

For example, if the distance was six, multiply by six to get 36. Then multiply 36 by 3.14 (which is pi, remember pi?). This will determine your area in square feet. Won't you impress your friends when you tell them you used pi to figure out how much mulch to buy?

Taking the time to calculate the amount can be worth the effort. Although a little extra mulch around the house is kind of like having money in the bank, too much can be overwhelming. In this case, a neighbor may be the beneficiary of over-buying.

Multiply your square footage times your depth in inches and divide by 324 square feet, which is one cubic yard, one inch deep. This will tell you how many cubic yards you will need. If you have 100 square feet and want to add three inches to the depth, multiply 100 by three, and then divide by 324 to convert to cubic yards. This equals .92 cubic yards that you need, so you can buy nine of the three-cubic-feet bags. Since 27 cubic feet equals one cubic yard, you will have just a little bit left over.

Mulch prevents moisture loss, and come July and August, those newly-planted trees and shrubs will need all available moisture. It keeps soil from being compacted. Compacted soil prevents moisture from reaching those roots and stifles the available oxygen. Mulch keeps the soil cool in the Summer and actually stabilizes it in the Winter too.

One much-overlooked benefit is that mulch helps deter weeds. Weeds that practically need a stick of dynamite to be removed in tight soil can usually be easily plucked in a well-mulched bed. Pay attention to what landscapes catch your eye and which ones look most professional. Landscapes with plantings on raised beds with an application of fresh mulch usually will be the ones that receive those appreciative stares.