Earlier this spring, we installed a new raised garden bed at our house, bringing in additional soil and compost to get a nutrient-rich garden. While I’ve learned a thing or two about gardening over the past few growing seasons, I still have trouble figuring out how much soil I need to fill a raised bed or even a container. Cubic feet. Cubic yards. It all makes my two-dimensional head spin a little bit!
Here’s what I did. I measured my new garden bed at approximately 150 square feet, considered adding about 6 inches of soil, so calculated that as 75 cubic feet. To translate to yards, I divided by 3 (as there are 3 feet in a yard) and got 25 cubic yards.
That is SO wrong.
Some of you might be laughing, wondering how this simple math could be hard for anyone. My husband certainly makes fun of me for my lack of third-dimension visualization, but I know I’m not the only one. Here, let’s try your knowledge — and no peeking ahead.
Do you have your answer?
OK, now you can look below and see if you were right.
We actually rounded up to 1/5 (.2) from .185 to make the amount more usable, so if you got that, you’re still right. But if you didn’t get anywhere close on the first try, don’t feel too bad. Maybe they just said it to make me feel better, but the landscaping company around the corner from our house told me that people get it wrong all the time, often doing what I originally did and WAY overestimating the amount of soil needed in cubic yards. Thankfully, they stopped me before I bought 25 cubic yards of compost, which may well have covered our entire yard.
So that you (and I) don’t ever make that mistake again, see below for a lesson on how to calculate cubic feet and cubic yards. We’ll use a standard size for a basic raised bed garden: 4 x 8 x 1 feet.