I make all the areas into squares, or rectagles, triangles and such. Then I walk the distances off (one regular step for me is right @ 3'). Measure all the shapes and draw a sketch, then use a mulch calculator to determine the total. Rule of thumb is this...new installs you get about 100 sq. ft. per cubic yard of mulch, and refreshing beds you can go with about .7 cubic yards for every 100 feet.

This one is the best i found. It has an area calculator for triangels as well.
http://www.gardenplace.com/content/calculator/mulch_calc.html

http://www.glossonsg.com/matl.htm

 

Length X width X (depth of mulch wanted divided by 12) divided by 27 is how many yards of mulch you need

 

Thank you for the help regular joe

 

Thank you packer i will try that

 

Depends on the depth of the mulch but for me normally a yard covers 150 sqft.

I highly recommend buying a measuring wheel...a lot of beds are not square but just approximate.

 

1 yd. @ 3" deep covers just a hair under 100 sq. ft. (10'x10').

 

how many ft are in a yard is it 3?

and also how do you find sq. ft. is it like this 10' by 10'.

do you do this Ex. 10X10=100 and then the 100 is the sq.ft.?

 

Bigmudder, a yard is 27 cubic feet, which means it is 3ftx3ftx3ft. In terms of mulch it is the length x width x depth of mulch / 27. Remember the depth is going to be a fraction though, because the the other measurements are in terms of feet. A 2 inch depth would be 2/12 or 1/6.

 

ok i kinda get it now thanks for your help. i remember going over this in school but its been a while and i got destracted a lot in school cause i didnt want to be there. lol thanks again for the help

 

Go to the top off this page, there is a free tool tab. Go to the mulch and soil calculator. It works awesome.

 

thank you paul that mulch calculator is awesome works great.