Draw your beds. Get the yards.
Most people don’t know their square footage, and pacing it out in the rain is nobody’s idea of a Saturday. Trace the beds on a satellite photo of your own address instead, set the depth, and the volume works itself out.
The satellite tool isn’t available right now. Use the calculator to work it out from a length and width instead.
How the number is worked out
Area comes from the shape you draw, measured on the earth’s surface rather than on a flat picture. Volume is that area times your depth: a bed of 430 sq ft at 3 inches deep is 430 × 0.25 ÷ 27, or just under 4 cubic yards. We round up, because a partial load still sends a whole truck.
Three inches is the usual depth for mulch on an established bed. Go to four if you’re covering bare soil for the first time, and two if you’re topping up something that still has last year’s layer underneath.