A landscape material project can start with a simple question:
How much material do I need?
But getting to the answer may involve more than measuring one landscape bed.
A project can have several areas, different shapes, different materials, difficult areas to measure, different depths, and other materials needed to complete the project. If you plan to pick up the bulk material yourself, you may also need to consider how much it could weigh.
You can find individual formulas, calculators, charts, and other resources to answer many of these questions. The harder part can be putting all of those pieces together for one project.
That is what the Mulch & Stuff Landscape Material Project Planner was developed to help with.
Why We Built the Landscape Material Project Planner
Many of the ideas behind the Planner came from questions customers repeatedly ask us at Mulch & Stuff.
How do I measure this area? What if my landscape area is an odd shape? How do I figure out the material area around my pool? How deep should the material be? How many cubic yards do I need? How much might the material weigh? What else might I need for the project?
During development, we also looked extensively at existing landscape material calculators, formulas, and planning approaches. Many are useful for answering individual questions. Our goal was to bring the planning process together so you would not have to figure out which separate calculation or resource to use at every step.
We developed the Planner as a tool for people in our area who may purchase their landscape materials from Mulch & Stuff. It can help you work through what your project requires before ordering materials or visiting our landscape material yard in Ormond Beach.
The Planner guides you through the project in a logical order. What it asks or presents next can depend on the information you have already provided, so you can work through what applies to your project rather than being presented with every possible question at once.
You can also go back and change earlier information or decisions as your project develops, then continue with the revised plan. You do not have to finish the entire project at once. The Planner can preserve your project information in your browser for up to 30 days, so you can leave and return later to continue working on it.
If you want to start over, the Planner's Start Over option clears everything from your current project and returns the Planner to its original starting point so you can begin again.
Behind this straightforward experience is considerable mathematics, precision, and logic. You provide the measurements and make the decisions that apply to your project. The Planner uses that information to guide you through the project and perform the calculations that are needed. Complicated calculations and measurement situations can be handled behind the scenes without requiring you to understand or perform the mathematics yourself.
The Landscape Material Project Planner is our newest way to help you plan a landscape material project, but it is not the first calculator we have developed to help answer questions that come up when buying landscape materials. One of our existing calculators, already on our home page, shows how receiving less than a full cubic yard of material in another supplier's bucket or scoop can affect how much material you have to buy and what you actually spend.
When you are looking at a particular material on one of our product pages, the calculator on that page uses the length, width, and depth you provide to calculate the cubic yards needed. It can also help calculate related project materials, such as edging, landscape fabric, staples, and bags.
Both of these existing calculators work well when you already know the total length, total width, and depth of the area you are calculating. The Landscape Material Project Planner goes further by letting you work through a project in separate areas or smaller parts and bringing the results together in one project plan. It can calculate the primary material in cubic yards or bags and provide more detailed calculations for related project materials, including landscape fabric or weed barrier, staples, edging, corner connectors, and straight connectors.
Once you know the requirements for the material you need from either a product-page calculator or your completed project in the Landscape Material Project Planner, you can use our Price & Quantity Comparison Calculator on the home page to take the comparison a step further. Whether you are calculating one material or your project includes several different materials, you can enter the quantity needed for each material to see how another supplier's smaller bucket or scoop could affect how much you would have to buy and what you would actually spend.
The Landscape Material Project Planner brings the different parts of project planning together in one place. The following steps show how the Planner helps you work through a landscape material project, from identifying the individual areas through reviewing the completed material list.
Step 1: Identify Every Area in the Project
Start by deciding which areas are part of the project.
One project might include several separate landscape areas, each with its own measurements, material, and depth where applicable. The Planner keeps those individual areas together as one project.
Step 2: Measure Each Area
Different areas may require different ways of measuring them.
The Planner can work with straightforward measurements, square footage you already know, and round areas. It can also guide you through measurements for material around a round feature such as a pool.
You provide the measurements for the area, and the Planner handles the geometry needed to determine its size.
Step 3: Break Difficult Areas Into Smaller Parts
Some landscape areas do not fit one easy shape.
The Planner's Smaller Parts option lets you divide a difficult or irregular area into manageable parts and measure them separately. The Planner brings those parts together when determining the material requirements for that area.
For more help with this approach, see How to Measure Irregular Landscape Areas.
Step 4: Decide What Material Goes in Each Area
Once an area has been measured, identify the material you plan to use there.
That choice becomes important when the Planner calculates both the amount of material needed and its estimated weight. The same volume of two different materials can have very different estimated weights.
Estimated weight also helps with transportation planning. If you plan to pick up the material yourself, it can help you understand what the load may require from your truck or trailer. If the material will be delivered, its quantity and estimated weight can affect the equipment used for the delivery.
Actual landscape-material weight can vary, so if you plan to transport the material yourself, verify the carrying capacity of the specific truck, trailer, or other vehicle you intend to use.
For more about planning for a delivery vehicle, see Can a Fully Loaded Delivery Vehicle Drive on Your Driveway?
Volume tells you how much material you need. Estimated weight helps you understand what it may take to move it.
Step 5: Determine the Appropriate Depth
Before calculating how much material you need, determine the appropriate depth for each area.
For help with that decision, see How Deep Should Mulch or Decorative Rock Be?.
Step 6: Calculate How Much Material Is Needed
The Planner uses the measurements and depth for each area to calculate how much of the selected material is needed.
Depending on how the material is being purchased, the Planner can calculate the quantity in cubic yards or bags.
Step 7: Consider the Other Materials the Project May Need
Depending on the project, you may also need landscape fabric or weed barrier, staples, edging, corner connectors, or straight connectors.
The Planner can calculate how much of these materials your project requires based on the information you provide. Not every project needs all of them, so the Planner includes the calculations that apply to your project.
You are not simply calculating how much mulch, rock, soil, or sand you need. You are planning the materials for the project.
Step 8: Review the Complete Project
After you have worked through the individual areas, the Project Material List brings the material requirements for the entire project together in one place.
The completed Project Material List can be copied for use elsewhere. You can also use the Print option to print the list or save a copy, depending on the options available on your device.
Planning the Project From Start to Finish
A landscape material project can involve several areas and more decisions than simply figuring out how many cubic yards or bags to buy. The Landscape Material Project Planner helps you work through those decisions and calculations, then brings the results together in one organized project plan.
You make the decisions about your project. The Planner helps you work through the details.
