Landscaping Calculators – Mulch, Gravel, Soil & More
56 free tools that turn your yard measurements into exact cubic yards, bag counts, tons, and dollar costs – using the same math US suppliers and landscapers use. No sign-up, no guesswork, built for American yards.
Mulch Calculators
Cubic yards, bags, and coverage for every mulch type sold in US stores.
Cubic yards, bags & cost – the master tool
Coverage & bags for aromatic cedar
Dyed black mulch quantities
Dyed red mulch quantities
Natural brown mulch coverage
Shredded hardwood volumes
Nugget coverage by size grade
Bales needed by square footage
Recycled rubber depth & weight
ASTM fall-height safe depths
Tree ring volumes by diameter
Soil, Dirt & Sand Calculators
Topsoil, fill dirt, compost, and specialty sand quantities by the yard or bag.
Cubic yards for lawns & grading
Quarts & bags for containers
Soil blends for garden beds
Amendment volumes by area
Bulk fill for holes & grading
Compressed bale coverage
Composted manure application
General sand tonnage & yards
Sandbox fill by bag count
Sand for mortar & block work
Bedding & joint sand depths
Filter media by tank size
Rock & Gravel Calculators
Tons and cubic yards for every stone type – from pea gravel to river rock.
Tons & yards – the master tool
Multi-layer driveway builds
Coverage for paths & patios
Decorative rock by size class
#57, #8, #411 stone tonnage
Recycled base material
Millings for driveways
Ag lime & limestone rock
White marble coverage
Lightweight volcanic rock
DG paths & patios
Drainage gravel by trench
Stone for drainage swales
Compacted base depths
Plants, Turf & Fencing Calculators
Seed rates, sod pallets, plant spacing, and fence material counts.
Pounds by species & region
Thin lawn renovation rates
Rolls & pallets by square feet
Rolls, seams & infill
Spreader settings by product
Pounds of N per 1,000 sq ft
Herbicide mix ratios
Plants per bed by spacing
Shrub counts for privacy rows
Orchard & shade tree layout
Bulbs per bed by variety
Picket counts by fence run
Rails & posts per section
Fabric, posts & fittings
Water & Pool Calculators
Pool gallons, pond volumes, irrigation run times, and rain harvesting.
How to Measure Your Yard Like a Pro (and Stop Overbuying)
Every spring, American homeowners waste millions of dollars buying the wrong amount of landscaping material. The pattern is always the same: eyeball the yard, grab “about 15 bags,” and end up either driving back to Home Depot mid-project or storing six extra bags in the garage until fall. The fix isn’t complicated – it’s a tape measure and sixty seconds of math, which every calculator in this hub does for you.
Here’s the core problem: US suppliers sell landscaping material in three different units. Bagged goods are sold in cubic feet (usually 0.75, 1.5, or 2 cu ft bags). Bulk yards sell by the cubic yard – 27 cubic feet. And heavy stone is often quoted by the ton, which changes with the material’s density. Comparing a $5.49 bag against a $45 bulk yard means converting everything into one unit first, and that’s exactly what these tools automate.
The Three Numbers Every Project Needs
- Square footage – length × width for rectangles, 3.14 × radius² for circles. Break odd shapes into simple pieces and add them.
- Depth in inches – the number that controls everything. Two inches versus four inches literally doubles your order.
- Waste factor – pros add 5–10% for settling, spillage, and uneven grade. Every tool here includes it.
Bags or Bulk? The $100 Question
The break-even point for almost every material lands between 1.5 and 2 cubic yards. Below that, bags win: no delivery fee, no minimum order, and you can haul them in a sedan. Above it, bulk delivery gets dramatically cheaper – often 40–60% less per yard. A typical 3-yard mulch job costs roughly $200–$280 in 2 cu ft bags but only $105–$150 delivered in bulk. Our Mulch Calculator runs this comparison automatically with your local prices.
Depth Standards US Landscapers Actually Use
- Mulch: 2–3 inches on established beds; 4–6 inches for playgrounds (ASTM fall-safety standard)
- Decorative gravel: 2–3 inches over landscape fabric
- Driveway gravel: 4–8 inches, built in 2–3 compacted layers
- Topsoil for new lawns: 4–6 inches minimum for healthy root depth
- Paver base: 4 inches compacted gravel + 1 inch bedding sand
For soil health questions before you order, your local university cooperative extension offers free or low-cost soil pH tests – find yours through the USDA Cooperative Extension network.
Landscaping Calculator FAQs
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Start With America’s Most Complete Mulch Calculator
Multi-bed support, bag vs. bulk comparison, truck load check, PDF report, and WhatsApp sharing – free.
Open Mulch Calculator ›Landscape Material Planning Guide: Volume, Weight, and Coverage
Almost every landscaping order in the US comes down to one conversion: square feet and inches of depth into cubic yards, and sometimes cubic yards into tons. Get that conversion right and the rest of the job follows. Get it wrong and you are either paying a second delivery fee or staring at a pile that will not fit behind the garage. This guide explains the math behind every calculator in this hub so you can sanity check any quote from a landscape supply yard.
The one formula behind most of these tools
Cubic yards = square feet x depth in inches / 324. The 324 comes from 27 cubic feet per cubic yard multiplied by 12 inches per foot. From there, multiply by the material’s density in tons per cubic yard if the yard sells by weight, or divide by the bag size in cubic feet if you are buying bags at the store (a 2 cubic foot bag means 13.5 bags per cubic yard).
| Material | Typical depth | Coverage of 1 cubic yard | Approximate weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shredded hardwood or mulch | 2 to 3 in | 162 sq ft at 2 in, 108 sq ft at 3 in | 400 to 800 lb per yd³ |
| Topsoil | 4 to 6 in for new lawns | 81 sq ft at 4 in | about 1.0 to 1.3 tons per yd³ |
| Gravel and crushed stone | 2 to 4 in, more for drives | 81 sq ft at 4 in | about 1.3 to 1.5 tons per yd³ |
| River rock | 2 to 3 in | 108 to 162 sq ft | about 1.3 tons per yd³ |
| Paver base | 4 to 6 in compacted | 54 to 81 sq ft | about 1.5 tons per yd³ |
| Sand | 1 in bedding | 324 sq ft at 1 in | about 1.3 to 1.4 tons per yd³ |
Choosing the right calculator
- Beds and borders: use the Mulch Calculator for most beds, or a specific one such as cedar, rubber, or pine straw when the material changes the coverage. Around trees, the Mulch Ring Calculator handles the circle math.
- New lawns: start with topsoil, then sod or grass seed, then the Fertilizer Spreader Calculator for the starter feed.
- Hardscape: pair paver base with paver sand, or use the Driveway Gravel Calculator for a layered drive.
- Drainage: the French Drain Rock and Dry Creek Bed calculators account for pipe volume and stone mixes.
- Water: the Sprinkler Run Time, Drip Irrigation, and Rainwater Harvesting tools cover irrigation planning.
- Fences and plants: Fence Picket, Plant Spacing, and Hedge Spacing handle the counting.
Three worked yard projects
Raleigh, North Carolina front beds. Two beds total 420 square feet at 3 inches. 420 x 3 / 324 = 3.9 cubic yards, so order 4 yards bulk. In 2 cubic foot bags that would be 53 bags, which is why bulk usually wins above 2 yards.
Boise, Idaho gravel parking pad (12 ft by 24 ft at 4 in). 288 square feet x 4 / 324 = 3.56 cubic yards. At about 1.4 tons per yard that is roughly 5 tons. Add 10 percent for compaction and edges and order 5.5 tons.
Minneapolis, Minnesota new lawn. 1,800 square feet of topsoil at 4 inches is 1,800 x 4 / 324 = 22.2 cubic yards, about two full dump truck loads. That is the point where a staged delivery and a skid steer rental start to pay for themselves.
Mistakes that cost a second delivery
- Measuring an irregular bed as one big rectangle instead of splitting it into rectangles, circles, and triangles.
- Forgetting compaction. Gravel and base materials lose 10 to 20 percent of their loose depth when compacted.
- Ordering by the ton without checking the yard’s actual density for that product.
- Digging for edging or drains without calling 811 first. It is free and required in every state.
Quick answers
Is it cheaper to buy mulch in bags or bulk? Bulk is usually cheaper above about 2 cubic yards once you include the 13.5 bags each yard replaces, though delivery fees narrow the gap for small jobs.
How much does a pickup truck hold? A typical half-ton pickup bed holds about 2 cubic yards of mulch by volume, but only about half a cubic yard of gravel or wet topsoil by weight before you hit the payload rating.
How much fertilizer for 1,000 square feet? Most lawns get about 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet per feeding. For a 24-0-6 product that is 1 / 0.24, or about 4.2 pounds of product. The Nitrogen Fertilizer Calculator works it out for any bag.
Official references
Watering guidance and smart irrigation controllers are covered by the EPA WaterSense program. Plant selection by region starts with the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, and soil testing is offered through your state’s land-grant university extension service, listed by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.