Mulch how much to use

Getting stuck with too little mulch — or worse, too much! This article introduces mulch calculator formulas you can use to purchase the perfect amount of mulch for your garden each and every time. There are many different types of landscape mulch, from shredded bark and pine chips to compost and pine straw.

Just do your best to divide it into a series of imaginary rectangles and circles put together to make that shape. Then calculate the square footage of each of those pieces and add them together. For tree and shrub beds, I suggest 3 to 4 inches of mulch when it comes to mulching these plants, more is never better since thick layers and restrict oxygen flow to the root zone.

For vegetable and flower gardens, 1 to 3 inches is best. Here in the US, bagged mulch is sold in bags that are measured in cubic feet, but mulch sold by the truckload is measured in cubic yards. Use this mulch calculator formula to figure out how much mulch you need when buying in bulk.

Multiply the square footage of the bed by the number of inches of mulch you want on top of it 2. Divide that number by For example, if your bed is 50 feet long by 10 feet wide, the square footage is square feet.

Use this mulch calculator formula to figure out how much mulch you need when buying by the bag. Using the above example, I think it would be a bit ridiculous to purchase 42 bags of mulch, simply for the amount of plastic bags headed to the landfill.

In some other situations, buying bags may be cheaper. The only way to find out is to compare the two options.

For your own garden, do the calculations both using bags and using bulk and price them out before you spend a single cent on mulch this spring.

When used right, this mulch calculator system keeps you from blowing your entire gardening budget on mulch…. However, the amount of mulch used may affect the outcome. The question of how much mulch to use should also be considered in the context of the type of mulch selected. Remember that each type of mulch has unique properties, which will interact with the plants. Once you select the type of mulch, you will also need to figure out how much to use. A mulch calculator is a handy tool for figuring out how much mulch to use.

It provides blank fields where you can enter the length and width of the land in feet as well as the depth of the mulch, expressed in inches. One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet 3 x 3 x 3. This amount works out to around 38 bags of mulch with two cubic feet each. Certainly, smaller landscaping projects will require much less, but the calculator works the same. Some academic studies cite the value of mulch in growing crops. The yield influence can be as high as 30 percent , for example.

In the past, mulching used to be done using everyday materials. As degradable mulches, such as straw or bark dust, decompose, they improve the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients. Other mulches, such as gravel, don't break down, but need to be replaced less often than degradable mulches. Regardless of which type of mulch you choose, though, you'll first need to determine how much mulch you need. 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 deeply 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. To allow for oxygen movement to and from your garden soil, don't exceed a 2- to 3-inch depth for fine mulches; for coarser mulches, such as bark chips, lay a maximum of 6 inches.

Multiply your total area in feet by how deep you want your mulch in inches.