There are many different ways to calculate an area to generate a general consensus of how much mulch you need for your business. First, lets take a look at why mulch is an important First Coast Land Care installation service. Our team may use mulch to tie together a garden area and give the overall bed a very clean and professional appearance. Mulch also delivers a benefit of reducing water loss from the soil through evaporation and providing a barrier to sprouting weeds. Remember, as degradable mulch like straw or bark decompose, they improve the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients. First Coast Land Care may offer another type of mulch, such as gravel, since it does not breakdown and the need to replace the mulch is less frequent. Regardless of which type of mulch you select for your business, the first thing you will need to do is find our about how much mulch do you need?
First Coast Land Care approaches the calculation by cubic yard. Depending on the shape of the area and the amount needed for the installation, here is a quick process to derive a figure that would be close to what you may need.
Calculating Cubic Yards
Measure the length and width of the area in feet. Multiply these figures together to find the area in square feet. Do this for all areas where you want to lay mulch and then add the square footage together to get the total square footage of the areas you need to cover.
Determine how deep you want to layer your mulch. In most flowerbeds and vegetable gardens, 2 to 3 inches is a good depth. For heavy weed or grass suppression, put down a 6-inch layer of mulch.
Multiply your total area in feet by how deep you want your mulch in inches. For example, if your square footage is 648 and you want a 2-inch depth, multiply 648 by 2 to get 1296 (648 x 2 = 1296).
Divide your answer by 324 (1 cubic yard of mulch will cover 324 square feet 1 inch deep). Round the result to the nearest whole number to find out how many cubic yards of mulch you need to purchase. In this example, we need to purchase 4 cubic yards of mulch (1296 / 324 = 4).
Circular Bed Square Footage
Measure the diameter of the bed in feet. Divide this by half to get the radius. For example, if the bed measures 6 feet across, the radius is 3 feet (6 / 2 = 3).
Take the radius and square it (multiply it by itself). In this example, multiplying 3 by 3 equals 9 (3 x 3 = 9).
To get the area in square feet, multiply the radius squared by 3.14 (pi). In this example, multiply 9 by 3.14 to get 28.26 square feet (9 x 3.14 = 28.26).
Multiply the area in square feet by the desired depth in inches, for example 2 inches (28.26 x 2 = 56.52). Divide this figure by 324 (56.52 / 324 = 0.2). For a 2-inch layer of mulch on this 6-foot circle, you will need 0.2 cubic yards of mulch. Because this bed is so small, the number is rounded to the nearest tenth, rather than the nearest whole number.
Garden beds are rarely perfectly square and it is okay to make rough measurements. It’s better to estimate too large than too small when making such a measurement. Remember that you are calculating for cubic yards, not cubic feet. Loose mulch is sold in cubic yards, but bags of mulch sold in garden centers are often in cubic feet. To convert your answer from cubic yards to cubic feet, multiply by 27.