Soil Calculator for Raised Beds, Planters and Borders
Enter your project dimensions
A bed frame hands you its own measurements: four boards, an inside face, and a rim to fill to. That is the easiest measuring anywhere on this site, which is why bed orders still come up short for a reason that has nothing to do with the tape. The depth people enter is the height of the frame, when what the bed actually takes is the height of the frame less the freeboard, plus whatever the blend gives back as it firms down.
Reading a frame, a planter and an in-ground bed
Decision criterion: where does the soil stop?
- A timber or steel frame. Measure the inside faces. A 4 by 10 ft bed built from 2-inch boards is 4 by 10 ft on the outside and rather less inside, and over three beds that difference is most of a wheelbarrow.
- A round or tapered planter. Use the circle shape and the diameter at the soil line, not the rim. A pot that flares outward holds less than its top suggests.
- An in-ground bed or border. Measure the outline you intend to work, and take the depth as the layer you are adding, not the depth of the hole you could dig.
On a bed cut into a slope, the uphill end is shallower than the downhill end. Take a reading at each end and enter the average, or split the bed into two entries under multiple areas if the fall is more than a few inches.
Putting the beds through the form in one pass
Rectangle takes a length and a width in feet. Circle takes a diameter in feet. Multiple areas holds up to five entries, which is how three frames and a border become one delivery rather than four separate figures.
Depth (inches) accepts 0.25 to 24, so a full 2 ft planter fits inside the range and a half-inch top-up does too. The material select is the control that matters most on this page, because the three soils are not the same weight and the ton figure follows whichever one you pick. The optional tick box adds 5 per cent for compaction and spillage, the results appear as cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, and Email my quote sends the set to you.
Depth by what the bed is for
- Refreshing an established bed: 2 to 3 inches of blended soil worked into the top 6 inches of what is there. On heavy Piedmont clay this does more than replacing soil wholesale, because roots cross a gradual blend and stop dead at a clean boundary.
- A new in-ground bed: 6 inches, turned into the native ground below rather than laid on it.
- Filling an empty frame: the inside height less an inch of freeboard, measured rather than assumed.
- A planter over 18 inches deep: two layers, sized separately, with the growing blend in the top 8 to 12 inches.
Three 4 by 10 frames in a Richmond back yard
A hypothetical job. Three frames, each 4 by 10 ft inside the boards, so 40 square feet apiece and 120 square feet entered under multiple areas. The boards stand 12 inches and the fill stops an inch below the rim, so the depth is 11 inches.
Eleven inches is 11/12 of a foot: 120 x 11 / 12 = 110 cubic feet. Divide by 27 and that is 4.07 cubic yards. Garden Soil is published on this site at about 2,000 lb a cubic yard, which is exactly 1 ton, so the ton figure reads 4.07 as well. That one-to-one conversion is a quirk of this material rather than a rule, and it disappears the moment you change the select.
Order 4.5 yards. A compost blend firms down over the first few weeks, and the remainder brings the beds back to level once it has.
A tall planter filled in two materials
The same hypothetical yard has a 3 by 8 ft planter standing 2 ft deep, which is 24 square feet. Filling it with blended soil to the full depth puts good material a long way below anything that roots into it.
Split it. The bottom 10 inches takes Fill Dirt: 24 x 10 / 12 = 20 cubic feet, 0.74 cubic yards, and at about 2,400 lb a yard that is 0.89 tons. The top 14 inches takes garden soil: 24 x 14 / 12 = 28 cubic feet, 1.04 cubic yards, 1.04 tons. Two entries on the form, two materials on the order, one delivery.
One volume, three tonnages
The yardage is set by your measurements and nothing else. The tons move with the material select, because each blend is published at its own weight: garden soil at about 2,000 lb a cubic yard, screened topsoil at about 2,200, and fill dirt at about 2,400. Run the same 4.07 yards through each and the order reads 4.07, 4.48 or 4.88 tons.
Plan and order in yards, since that is how bulk soil is sold and what tells you whether the frames are full. The ton figure is there to tell you what is landing on the drive. Read cubic feet when the job is small enough to wheelbarrow in one trip.
Bed, border or grade: sorting the job before the yardage
- Garden soil is the blend with compost in it, for raised frames, planters and planting beds. That is this calculator.
- Screened topsoil is the growing layer for lawns and finish grading, and the topsoil calculator converts it at 2,200 lb a yard.
- Fill dirt is structural subsoil for holes, grade changes and the lower part of a deep planter, sized on the dirt calculator.
If something has to grow in it, it is one of the first two. If it is holding weight or making up a level, it is the third. When the yardage is settled, open the product page, choose your quantity and date, and delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, with how delivery is arranged covering the access at the far end. Bark for the finished beds is a separate order on its own tool.
Common questions
How close does the figure come to what the beds actually take?
The volume is exact arithmetic, and a framed bed is the most predictable job on the site because the container is fixed. What moves is settlement: a compost blend firms down noticeably in the first weeks, so hold a little back rather than ordering to the exact decimal and finding the beds an inch low in a month.
Which product page do I want once the yardage is on screen?
Garden soil for anything you are planting into, and fill dirt for the lower part of a deep planter. They convert at different weights, so if you changed your mind about the material after calculating, run the figure again before ordering rather than carrying the old tonnage across.
Where is the best place to have a soil load dropped?
Somewhere firm, close to the beds, and on a tarp. Bulk soil marks a drive and washes into a gutter in the first storm, and a tarp under the pile lets you drag the last of it out rather than shovel it. The truck needs clear access and room to raise its bed, so choose that spot before you order.
Why does the page give me a ton figure at all when beds are measured in yards?
Because both figures earn their place. Soil is sold by the cubic yard, so the yard figure is what the order is written in and what answers whether the frames are full. The ton figure tells you what is landing on the drive, converted at the published weight for the soil you selected. Beds filled with the lightest blend happen to read the same in both units, which is a coincidence of that material and not a conversion you can reuse.
Do I enter the loose depth or the depth after the soil has been watered in?
Enter the finished depth you want, which in a frame is the inside height less about an inch of freeboard. Blended soil placed loose sits higher than it will settle, so fill slightly proud, water it thoroughly, and top it up once rather than trying to build the settlement into the depth box.
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