Teresa below is a link to calculate mulch quantity -- 27 cu ft(3x3x3) to 1 cu yd. So take answer in cu yd times 27 and divide by 2 to get number of bags (i.e. 1 cu yd = 13.5 bags).

Paul

Here is a link that might be useful: Mulch Calculator

Perfect! Thanks Paul!

Teresa, your very welcome.

Paul

I just came in from measuring the beds and used the calculator link you sent. Holy Cow! I need 80 bags of mulch.

You might not be confused but you have thrown me for a loop! My head is spinning! LOL

Be aware that a lot of the mulch bags I see now are actually 2.0 cf or 2.5 cf. Be sure you are getting an actual 3.0 cf bag.

Alexa

Thanks Alexa for the tip. They told me they are 2 cu ft. The "3" comes in as far as how deep I want it. I'm just amazed at how much I need. What the hell was I thinking putting in all of these beds? lol

Of course once the beds are weeded and the thistle killed, and then I put the mulch down and put Preen on the top, hopefully my yard will be more in control. It is totally a mess right now.

LOL! I am getting bulk deliveries of mulch. I ordered 5 yards and happily started spreading. Unfortunately, it only covered about 2/3 of my beds, so I will be getting another 3 yards this week. I had NO IDEA I would need 8 yards of mulch to cover what I have dug up and that doesn;t even include the new conifer bed that I haven;t started yet!

A

according to the calculator that Paul linked here, I will need almost 16 cubic yards at 2" deep and 23 cubic yards at 3" deep.

As I said..... WTH was I thinking?

whoa... Teresa... the numbers are not adding up. There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard... so if you need 80 bags, that is 160 cubic feet... which is just about 6 cubic yards.

80 bags will cover 640 square feet at 3 inches deep, or 960 square feet at 2 inches deep.

23 cubic yards of mulch would cover almost 2500 square feet, 3 inches deep. 23 cubic yards is 310.5 bags at 2 cu. feet per bag.

I once got one of the big dump trucks full of wood chips, back in the Dutch Elm days when they'd bring them in for free... that whole big truckload was 13 cubic yards. It took me two years to haul it all around the place.

The regular smallish dumptrucks they bring with soil are usually in the 3-5 cubic yard range.

As Ken says, the calculation is really pretty simple... One 2 cubic foot bag covers 8 square feet at 3 inches deep, and it covers 12 square feet at 2 inches deep.

We usually split the difference and figure one bag will cover 10 square feet. We were roughing out how much it would take to cover everything we'd like and we got up to around 200 bags before the reality of our checkbooks set in. We'll probably limit ourselves to about $200 which will get us about 10 bags of the cheaper cyprus mulch for the pathways and 45 bags of the pine bark nuggets for the hosta beds.

why is your head spinning..

let me try again ... in terms you might understand.. lol ...

think of a shoe box... 12w by 12L ... by 12 high ... one cubic foot ...

if you were to slice four 3 inch slabs off the cube ... you would get 4 slices of 3 inches ... or a part of your garden 4 foot by one foot ... by 3 inches deep

IF the bag has 2 cubic feet.. or two shoe boxes ... then you double your coverage to 8 by 1 feet by 3 inches ...

ken

Ken - I think the white wine spritzers I had yesterday while raking is what had my head spinning. lol

Idiothe - I have almost 2600 square feet of beds to mulch. As I said earlier - what the heck was I thinking when I planted that much? I may have to go with the cheaper cypress mulch for the bottom of the hill and red cedar for the most visible beds.

It will be worth the investment if it can help keep the thistle back.

ONLY 80?
I did 145 last year and I've added a couple beds since then! I got 80 at home Depot a couple weeks ago when it was buy one get one.
I figured last year that was 11 yards of mulch. Delivery fees are too high around here, so I find it cheaper to get it by the bag at Home Depot, at $2 or under. It's usually $2 on Memorial Weekend.

Clearly I need way more than I figured. What kind of mulch do you use Melissa? I like the look of the mulch in your pictures.

I think I need an alternative plan. All Western Red Cedar will be way too much. I'm thinking of layers of newspaper and cypress in the vegetable bed and the bed at the bottom of the hill. Red Cedar on the more visible beds. Gees. What have I gotten myself into?

Teresa.... In last year's photos, I used Cypress from Menards. In year's past, Home Depot. This year, Home Depot. Be aware, they are different colors from each other and do not mix well.

My first year, I used a tinted cedar mulch and was encouraged by the GW forum members to look for a natural color mulch.

I will admit that after 2 neighbors installed the dark brown color of mulch, I'm quite tempted to switch.

Why should I use dark colored mulch? Especially when wet, the sun must create a lot of heat in that mulch. I want to think that a light color will reflect more heat and keep the plants cooler, and that's what you want.

I usually buy 4 2-cft bags at Home Depot, because that and other items is what the trunk of my car is sized for. I like to buy bags because I need less storage space that way, and can pace myself in my garden work. Note that 3 cft bags would be 50% heavier to drag out of the trunk. This year our HD had no mulch sales yet.

Berndynz.... you should sign up for HD's ads online. There WAS a sale a few weeks ago. Buy one get one.... in my area, anyway.

I have a fairly deep shade environment, so heating up the soil isn't an issue for me. I think hostas look fantastic against the dark colored mulch. My dark colored heuchera would get lost, as would the cimicifuga I'd like to put in.

Another thing I like about it is that if you dig, the dirt won't show up against the mulch.

I'm not saying I'm going to switch... but it's tempting.

Melissa,
Thanks, possibly HD would have advertised that sale in their Garden Club Emails, but I do not like to join clubs, so I did not know. In respect to dark mulchs I must have thought about small conifers which are planted in full sun, and since they have small roots yet, less heat is best.
Bernd

For anyone still working through this: the rule of thumb is that one 2 cu ft bag covers roughly 8 sq ft at 3 inches deep (about 12 sq ft at 2 inches). For bulk orders, the formula is bed area in sq ft × depth in inches ÷ 324 = cubic yards needed. If you want to skip the manual math, there's a free mulch calculator that works it out from your own bed measurements here: https://buildercalc.online/mulch-calculator/ — handy when comparing bag vs. bulk delivery prices.

A 2 cu ft bag at 3 in deep covers 8 sq ft. Here is the working: one cubic foot spread 3 in deep covers 4 sq ft (12 ÷ 3 = 4), so a 2 cu ft bag covers 8 sq ft. A useful shortcut at the same depth: one cubic yard (27 cu ft) covers 108 sq ft.

So measure your beds in square feet and divide by 8 — that is your bag count at 3 in. As an example, 800 sq ft of beds ÷ 8 = 100 bags, which is 200 cu ft ÷ 27 ≈ 7.4 cu yd. At that volume, bulk delivery is almost always cheaper than bags, so your fundraiser's free delivery sounds ideal. One tip: check the bags really are 2 cu ft — many retail bags are 1.5–2 cu ft, which shifts the count noticeably.

You can sanity-check your own measurements with this free mulch calculator: https://yardcalchub.com/mulch-calculator/