How to Measure The Proper Amount of Mulch Needed for Your Property

Mulch is an excellent addition to the landscape but getting it to the garden, in the proper quantities, can sometimes be a hassle. It is usually ordered or bought only one time in the spring and because of this, it is important to order enough to finish the job.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• measuring wheel or tape
• calculator

1. Every year, when springtime finally rolls around, everyone gets the fever to clean their gardens, add flowers for color and mulch to complete the look. This process is always a great idea and also an excellent way to enhance the look of any curb appeal.
   
   Mulch has many functions that assist the landscape during the season. It not only helps suppress weed growth, but also holds moisture keeping plants cooler in the summer. It helps cover up all of natures minor imperfections in and around the garden and simply makes the landscape look clean, beautiful and amazing in the spring.
2. Mulch is an excellent addition to the landscape but getting it to the garden, in the proper quantities, can sometimes be a hassle. It is usually ordered or bought only one time in the spring and because of this, it is important that you order enough to be able to finish the job.
   
   Order too much and it’s wasted and sits around taking up space. Order too little and you waste time making trips back and forth to the store picking up those heavy bags more than you would like.
3. Here is a simple way to guarantee that you order what you need when you need it. Simply measure total bed space to mulch, length times width to get square footage. Then divide by 17 and get amount needed to spread 2” deep.
   
   Example 100 X 10=1000 sq. ft/17=59 bags of mulch
   9- 3 cubic ft. bags = 1 yard 59/9=6.54 yards order 7 yards
   
   If you order bulk, make sure you have the pile dumped as close to the beds as possible or you will make a lot of trips back and forth. If you use bagged mulch, make sure the bags are dry or the material will be extremely heavy and hard to move around.
   
   Good luck.
   
   All the best,
   
   Todd Wessel
   
   Visit www.landscapeproblemsolver for more free tips and advice

Tips & Warnings

• remove excess mulch over 2" before adding new mulch
• have bulk mulch pile dumped close to beds
• remove excess mulch or plants will start growing roots up into the mulch instead of down in the soil