Yard Project Planner

How to plan a multi-area project

1. Walk the yard with a tape. Measure each area where material will go, and write the numbers down in the order you will enter them: length and width for rectangles, the diameter for circles, base and height for triangles, and the outer and inner diameters for a ring around a tree. Measure to the edging or the lawn, not to the plants.
2. Add one row per area. Give each area a name you will recognise at the supply yard ("front bed", "side path"), pick its shape and type the dimensions. The diagram beside each row shows what you entered, so a swapped length and width is obvious before you buy.
3. Pick the material and depth for each area. The planner starts each material at its usual depth. Change it where the job calls for something else: a shallow top-up of mulch, a thicker base under a driveway. Two areas can share a material at different depths, and the shopping list still adds them up.
4. Check the waste allowance. Each material has its own, set to a sensible default. Raise it for rough ground, curved edges or a material that compacts; lower it for a flat bed you have mulched before.
5. Add prices if you have them. A per-yard or per-ton quote from a supplier and a per-bag price from the store turn the shopping list into a cost comparison. Leave prices blank and you still get the quantities.
6. Print or share the list. The shopping list groups everything by material with the bulk quantity and the bag counts side by side. Print it, or copy the share link and open it on your phone when you order.

Worked example: two beds and a path

A front bed 20 ft long and 4 ft wide and a ring around a tree with a 10 ft outer diameter and a 1 ft trunk both get 3 in of mulch with 5 percent extra; a side path 30 ft by 3 ft gets 3 in of gravel with 10 percent extra. The planner computes:

The mulch adds up to 39.4 cubic feet before waste and 41.4 after, which is 1.53 cubic yards; a supplier will sell that as 2 yards. The path needs 24.8 cubic feet of stone, which weighs about 1.24 tons, so it is a delivery or several trips with bags, not one trip in a pickup.

How depth and waste change the order

Volume is area times depth, so depth is the input that matters most and the one people guess at. Here is the same 200 sq ft bed of mulch at three depths, without any waste allowance:

Going from 2 in to 4 in doubles the order. That is the whole case for measuring depth honestly: if the bed has settled and you want a full 3 in on top of what is there, enter 3 in; if an inch of last year's mulch remains, enter 2 in and save a third of the money.

Waste is a percentage on top of the computed volume, and because every quantity on the shopping list is based on the volume with waste, it moves the yards, the tons and the bag counts together. The same bed at 3 in:

Bag counts are rounded up to whole bags after the waste is applied, which is why a small change in waste sometimes adds no bags and sometimes adds two. Bulk suppliers usually sell in half-yard steps, so round the yards up to the next half when you order.

Bulk or bags: the break-even

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so it takes 13.5 of the 2 cu ft bags to equal one yard of bulk mulch, and 36 of the 0.75 cu ft bags that soil often comes in. Multiply the bag count by the bag price and compare it with the per-yard price plus delivery. Bulk is almost always cheaper per cubic foot, but delivery is a fixed fee, so for a small job the bags win and for a large job the delivery fee is spread over enough yards that bulk wins.

For scale, the typical bulk price on file for hardwood bark mulch is $20 to $80 per cubic yard before delivery (as of June 2026; it varies by region and season). To find your own break-even: bags cost (bags per yard x bag price) per yard, bulk costs (per-yard price) plus a one-time delivery fee. Set the two equal and solve for yards: delivery fee divided by (bag cost per yard minus bulk price per yard). Enter the prices in the planner and the shopping list shows the two totals for your actual quantities, which is quicker than the algebra.

Two things the arithmetic leaves out. Bags are easier: they can be carried through a gate or a house, stored dry, and returned if unopened. Bulk is better material for the money in most places: a bulk yard of mulch or stone is usually sold by the same yard that supplies landscapers, and you can see the pile before you buy.

Delivery and tonnage

Bulk materials are sold two ways. Mulch, soil and compost are sold by the cubic yard. Stone and sand are often sold by the ton, because a loader bucket of wet gravel weighs more than a bucket of dry gravel but fills the same space, and the truck's scale is what the yard trusts. The planner shows both for every material whose density is known, using the densities on the methodology page.

• Order in the unit the supplier uses. If they quote stone by the ton, give them the tons from the shopping list and tell them the depth and area too, so they can sanity-check it.
• Trucks have weight limits before they have volume limits. A truck that can carry ten yards of mulch may be limited to five or six yards of stone. Ask what one load can carry for the material you want, and whether a larger order means two deliveries and two fees.
• Plan where the pile goes. A yard of mulch is a pile about 3 ft high and 6 ft across when it is dumped; ten yards cover a driveway. Put a tarp down, keep the pile off the lawn, and leave the driver a route in and out.
• Round up, not down. Running out means a second delivery fee. The waste allowance is there so that you finish with a few bags' worth left over, which disappears into the next bed.