How to Calculate How Much Soil You’ll Need for Your Raised Garden Bed
In this article you will discover how to work out the volume of soil,compost or whatever you decide to use to fill your raised garden planter.
If you’re planning to build your own raised garden bed this summer, or if you are going to purchase one then you will need to ensure that you have the correct amount of soil to fill ready for planting..
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They can take some prep work to get them ready and there are some consideations that you need to make.More information on this can be found by reading our article should you line your raised garden bed
So noe you will need to do some calculations to work out how much soil is needed to fill the raised planter bed
Calculating Your Raised Bed’s Volume
The majority of these producrs list the dimensions of the box or the online listing Unfortunately nor manyshow the volume of soil that the unit holds.
That volume is the measuring methid for calculating how much soil you need but if you are looking to build your own, you may have to do a bit of a valculation
The formula is simple: width x length x height = volume. While doing this you might want to also figure out the cubic volume of the dirt itself. Then you can divide the two numbers to get the volume of the soil
V = L x W x H
V stands for soil volume
L stands for your bed’s length
W stands for your bed’s width
H stands for the height of your bed
The free tool below helps you calculate the volume plus much more. This could be your raised bed soil calculator
Find out how much soil you will need with the GiGA calculator
Width x Length x Height = Volume
Once you have these measurements, the easiest way to figure out the volume of your raised bed is by multiplying the three dimensions together. For example, if you have a bed that is 4 feet wide, 8 feet long, and 10 inches high, you’ll multiply 4 x 8 x 10 and get a volume of 320 cubic feet.
Most garden supply stores will sell you soil by the cubic yard or metre. If you know your volume, you can easily convert it to cubic yards/Metres and purchase thw right amount of soil.
Converting to Cubic Yards/Metres
If you don’t already have a cubic foot measurement of your garden bed, you’ll need to measure it initially then go over to Inch Calculator.where they do all the hard wor for you
Estimate a Cubic Yard Equivalent
Measure the length, width and height of your bed. (Unless the boards are very thick, don’t worry about inside/outside measurements.) Convert all measurements to the same unit. For example, if your bed is 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 16.5 inches high, convert the inches to feet so your new measurements are 6 x 3 x 1.4 feet.
Multiply all the measurements together: 6 x 3 x 1.4 = 25.2 cubic feet.
Divide the answer by 27 to get the number of cubic yards. In the example above, your bed would need 0.9 cubic yards of soil.
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Grow-in Time for Commercial Soil
When you buy commercial soil for your raised bed, you’ll want to check the bag for the “grow-in” time, if it’s listed.
The grow-in time is the amount of time you should let your soil sit in the bag before you use it. If you buy soil that doesn’t have a grow-in time listed, you can let it sit in your garden bed for a few weeks before planting.
If you buy soil that has a grow-in time listed, you should wait until that time has passed before putting it in your raised garden bed. For example, if the soil has a grow-in time of 14 days, you should wait 14 days before planting in the soil.
How Much Commercial Soru Do You Need?
If you’ve purchased soil that doesn’t have a grow-in time listed, you can start filling your raised garden bed right away.
If, however, you’ve bought commercial soil, you’ll need to wait until the designated grow-in time has passed before you put it in your garden bed. Once the grow-in time has passed, fill your raised garden bed with the soil. If you’re using a commercial soil brand, be sure that you follow the directions on the bag.
Some bags will advise you to layer the soil in your garden bed, while others will tell you to dump the soil in the bed and then start to spread it out.
The reccomended mix
If you’ll be filling more than one raised bed, you may want to buy your soil in bulk — by the cubic foot or cubic yard. Use the Soil Calculator above to figure out the total amount of soil you’ll need for each bed. For most situations, we recommend these proportions:
- 60 percent topsoil
- 30 percent compost
- 10 percent soilless growing mix.
Conclusion
Raised beds xome in all shapes and sizes so it is omportant to plan and do your dudiligense to make sure you work out correvtly exactly what amount of soil or fill you require.
If you want to know more about the type of soil to use then you can read more from our article the top 5 soil types for raised garfen beds