How much soil do you need? Enter your bed's size and depth to get cubic feet, cubic yards and bags required.
How to use this tool
Length and width in feet, at the widest points if the bed is irregular — use the average for odd shapes.
Vegetables usually want 6–12 inches of soil, lawns 4–6 inches, and raised beds whatever their wall height is.
The headline figure is cubic feet; cubic yards beside it is what bulk suppliers sell by (1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet).
Bags are rounded up, never down — a half bag short is worse than one spare bag, and soil settles by 10–20% after watering.
Formula & worked example
A 10 ft × 4 ft bed filled 6 inches deep needs 10 × 4 × 6 ÷ 12 = 20 cubic feet, which is 0.74 cubic yards, or 10 bags of 2 cubic feet each.
Limitations — read this before you rely on it
Soil settles and compacts after watering, typically by 10–20%, so buying exactly the calculated volume often leaves the bed low — many gardeners add about 10% extra. For irregular beds, containers or mounds this rectangular calculation is an approximation; measure in sections and add them up for better accuracy.
Frequently asked questions
About 6–12 inches for most vegetables and flowers, 4–6 inches for a new lawn, and the full height of a raised bed. Deeper is better for root crops like carrots.
27. Bulk soil is sold by the cubic yard, bags by the cubic foot — divide cubic feet by 27 to convert.
Yes, roughly 10% extra, or buy one spare bag. Freshly spread soil settles noticeably after the first few waterings.
Approximately: use the diameter as both length and width, then multiply by 0.785 (π ÷ 4) to correct the square into a circle.
Measure only the depth you are adding, not the total bed depth — or subtract the existing soil depth from your target depth first.