So, do you need to fill your new garden bed with soil?
Use my soil calculator to determine the amount of soil you need for a rectangular, round or triangular bed. It also works with other types of materials, such as sand, compost, and mulch. Each calculator provides the amount of yards and cubic feet, as well as the number of bags for purchasing bagged soil or bagged compost.
Rectangular bed
Round bed
Triangle bed
How to calculate soil volume
Three measurements are required from the raised bed. The length, width and depth (in inches) of the area to be filled (with the foot). It is recommended to add 1-2 inches to the depth as the soil will settle over time.
If you want to fill a round bed, you need to know the depth (in inches) and radius (in feet). If you want to fill a triangular bed, you will need measurements of depth (in inches), base (foot), and vertical height (foot).
If you enter these values in the fields above, the calculator will automatically calculate the soil that must be purchased automatically.
What if you want to mix soil types?
Reading my guide on creating the ideal soil blend for a raised bed, I am considering buying two or three different ingredients and mixing them together (e.g. Topsoil + compost, or Topsoil + Compost + coarse sand, etc.).
Simply calculate the total amount of material needed to fill the bed and divide that amount by percentage.
Example: Suppose your calculator indicates that you need 5 yards of material in total. If you want 60% topsoil and 40% compost, you should buy 3 yards of topsoil (0.60 x 5) and 2 yards of compost (0.40 x 5).
What is a “garden”?
In gardening and landscaping terms, the “garden” of material refers to a cubic yard. It is a method of measuring soil, a standardized method of purchasing soil from a landscaping company, whether to load yourself into a truck or deliver it under dump load.
Visually speaking, a cubic yard is the amount of material that fits inside a 3-foot cubic body on each side (length x width x height).
However, soil sold in bags is usually measured in cubic feet in amounts of 1 cubic feet, 1.5 cubic feet, 2 cubic feet, and 3 cubic feet. 27 small bags (1 cubic foot) rival yards of soil.
It is often more economical to buy materials in the garden, as the bags can be added quickly to fill a large, completely empty bed.
How to measure multiple garden beds
You have two ways to proceed with it:
Assuming that all beds are the same size, we measure one bed and calculate the soil we need. Next, multiply the amount of soil by the number of beds you have. If the beds are all the same size, measure the length and depth of one bed and enter their values into the calculator. Next, measure the width of one bed and multiply the number of beds you have. Enter this value for Width. The calculator provides the total amount of soil required for every bed.
Example: Suppose you want to fill a bed that is 8 feet long and 4 feet wide, and 12 inches deep. Enter length 8, depth 12, width 16 (determined by hanging a 4-foot bed).
How to measure irregular areas
If the garden bed is irregularly shaped due to the curve, imagine the area is covered with a rectangular shape (or two) so that the rectangular size is about the same size as the bed. Please. Measure the imaginary rectangles and use their values to calculate the approximate amount of soil.
The bed has straight sides, but if it consists of rectangles of different sizes (like an L-shaped bed), then measure each rectangle individually to get the amount of soil needed for each area and add them together to get the total amount of soil.
Example: For the L-shaped bed shown below, measure the length x width x depth of area 1 and use a calculator to obtain the amount of soil you need. Measure Area 2 in the same way and add both amounts to get the total soil volume.
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