Jameson Landscaping Services, Inc. offers FAST and AFFORDABLE DELIVERY SERVICES on all groundcover materials.  If you are ready and willing to do the work on your own, the simple calculations below will help you to figure out how much material to order.  

Simple tasks like laying topsoil, installing  mushroom compost in your plantbeds or garden, or even spreading new mulch all require you to know how many CUBIIC YARDS of material you will need.  Once you've calculated the total cubic yards required for your project, the material is just a phone call away.  If manual labor just isn't for you, please keep in mind that Jameson's landscape crews can take the guesswork out of the ordering process and can handle the installation for you.

You will first need to know the area (in square feet).  Begin by drawing your site as accurately as possible - graph paper works well.  For odd or complex shapes, divide the area into combinations of rectangles, triangles, and/or circles.  Then use the following formulas to determine the area of each section.

Area of a Rectangle = length x width

Area of a Circle = 3.1416 x the square of the radius

Area of a Triangle = 1/2 x length of base x length of height

To Calculate the number of cubic yards:

Multiply the Area (in square feet) by the depth (in inches) and divide the total by 324. 

(FYI:  One cubic yard of material laid one inch deep will cover 324 sqft).  Typical mulch applications are recommended at a 2" depth.  Therefore, in MOST cases one cubic yard of mulch will cover approximately 162 sqft.)

Example:  

A 25’ long plant bed in the front of the house is 6.5' wide and = 162.50 square feet.  Another plant bed that is 25' long but only 5' wide runs along the back of the house and = 125 square feet. 

287.5 total sqft X 2 inches deep = 575.       575 divided by 324 =  1.77 cubic yards     

Since the mulch or topoil is not likely going to be spead at EXACTLY 2" throughout, you could safely order 2 cubic yards for the project.