Soil Calculator

Multiply the area of your bed by the depth you want, in matching units, to get a volume, then divide by 27 to convert cubic feet into cubic yards, since that is how soil is priced and delivered. This calculator runs that step directly for a rectangle, circle, ring, triangle or trapezoid, or a straight area entry if you already know the square footage, and adds up multiple beds if you have more than one. Pick a soil type first, since the depth field fills in with a sensible default for that type, then read the volume, weight and bag count off the results.

The same calculation as soil: area times depth gives a volume, divided by 27 for cubic yards. If you are filling a hole or a low spot rather than planting into it, choose fill dirt from the type list above, since it is priced and weighted differently from garden soil and has no fixed recommended depth of its own, that is set by how deep the spot actually is.

This calculator will not give you one fixed price, deliberately, since cost swings by soil type, region and supplier in a way that cannot be stated as a single reliable figure. What it does instead is pre fill a starting price per bag and per cubic yard for whichever type you pick, both fully editable, so you can drop in your own supplier's price and get an exact total rather than a market guess.

It depends heavily on the type and how wet it is. For fill dirt, which is essentially native soil, a Wisconsin Department of Transportation research report published in December 2023 measured the loose, in place dry weight of natural soil samples across the state at roughly 1,800 to 2,700 pounds per cubic yard, or about 0.9 to 1.35 tons. Garden soil and compost blends are lighter, aerated retail products, typically 1,000 to 1,500 pounds per cubic yard. The calculator above shows a weight range in pounds, kilograms and tons for whichever type you pick, and the actual figure climbs after rain.

27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, the same conversion that applies to any material sold by the yard. It is the number behind every bag count on this page: divide 27 by your bag size in cubic feet, then round up, to see how many bags one cubic yard takes.

27 bags at a 1 cubic foot bag, or 14 bags at 2 cubic feet, rounding up so you never come up half a bag short. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet by definition, so the bag count is that figure divided by the bag size.

It depends on the dirt's density, which is exactly why this is quoted as a range rather than a fixed conversion. For fill dirt at roughly 1,800 to 2,700 pounds per cubic yard, one ton, 2,000 pounds, works out to somewhere between about 0.74 and 1.1 cubic yards. Enter your area and depth in the calculator above and the tons figure is worked out directly from the actual volume, rather than relying on an average that may not match the specific soil you are buying.

Measure the area of the low spot and how deep it needs to be filled, then use the Know the area entry if the spot is an odd shape you have already measured, or one of the regular shapes if it is close to a rectangle, circle or triangle. Choose fill dirt as the type, since it is the plain, unamended option meant for this job rather than for planting, and there is no single recommended depth for it the way there is for garden soil, since the hole itself sets how deep you fill.

Garden soil is a blended, amended product meant to grow plants in, worked into the top 4 to 8 inches of a new bed. Fill dirt is plain excavated soil with no amendments, meant only to fill volume, not to plant into, which is why it typically costs roughly half as much per cubic yard as garden soil in the default prices this calculator starts from. Using fill dirt under a planting bed and topping it with a few inches of garden soil is a common and much cheaper way to fill a deep bed than buying garden soil all the way down.

Roughly 4 to 8 inches worked into the top of a new bed, per general university extension gardening guidance, enough to give plant roots a loosened, amended layer to establish in. A compost enriched blend is applied thinner, 2 to 4 inches, since it is tilled into soil that is already there rather than built up as an entirely new layer.

Less than plain garden soil, by design. A compost enriched mix is applied at 2 to 4 inches and worked into the existing soil rather than piled on top of it, since a richer, denser blend piled as deep as plain garden soil can compact and hold too much moisture. The calculator above sets this depth automatically when you pick the compost blend from the type list.

Enter your own price in the calculator above for an exact figure, since cost varies by type, region and supplier. As a starting point, fill dirt is the cheapest option, garden soil sits in the middle, and a compost enriched blend costs the most per yard, reflecting the added organic material.

Bulk, past about 3 cubic yards. That threshold is already dozens of bags, and soil is heavy enough that carrying that many bags is a bigger factor than it is for a lighter material like mulch. Below that threshold, bags are usually more practical even where bulk works out slightly cheaper per yard, since there is no minimum delivery to arrange for a small job.

Break it into simple shapes and add them as separate areas rather than forcing one measurement over an odd outline. An L shaped bed is two rectangles; a bed that wraps around a tree is a ring; a curved border close enough to a triangle or trapezoid can use those shapes directly. The calculator above totals as many areas as you add, so there is no need to average an irregular shape into a single guessed rectangle.

Add each bed as its own area in the calculator above rather than running the tool separately for each one and adding the results by hand. Every area can be a different shape and size; the soil type and depth apply across all of them, and the results total the volume, weight and bag count for the whole project in one pass.

About 25.7 quarts in a cubic foot, an exact unit conversion rather than a material specific one, since a quart is a fixed fraction of a cubic foot regardless of what fills it. This calculator is built around cubic yards and cubic feet for garden beds and bulk fill rather than the smaller quart based measurements used for potting containers, since those are two different kinds of project with two different natural units.

The material and its job, not the underlying math, since all three run the same area times depth formula. Soil, as covered here, is a general blend for beds and borders or plain fill dirt for holes and low spots. Topsoil is specifically the layer used for grading, filling low spots at scale, or topdressing a lawn, and is covered on its own page with a much wider depth range since a lawn topdressing pass is a fraction of an inch while a fill job can be a foot deep. Mulch sits on top of soil at a shallow 2 to 4 inches as a decorative and moisture retaining layer, not something you plant into.

This calculator covers general garden beds and borders dug into the existing ground. A raised bed is a boxed, contained volume with its own depth requirements set by the box height rather than by a recommended planting depth, and BunnyCorner has a dedicated Raised Bed Soil Calculator for that specific job, since a raised bed's soil needs are shaped by the box, not the ground.

Yes. Every measurement field accepts metric or imperial units and converts automatically, and the headline result switches between cubic yards and cubic meters depending on which system is selected, with liters and cubic feet shown alongside either way. The weight range also converts, in kilograms alongside pounds and tons. The depth and density figures behind the numbers are the same sourced guidance regardless of which units you use, only the displayed units change.

A workable structure that drains without drying out, and enough organic matter to feed what is planted in it, which is exactly what a garden soil or compost enriched blend is formulated to provide compared to plain fill dirt or unamended native ground. This calculator will not diagnose your existing soil, but it will size the amended layer once you know what you are adding, whether that is a full garden soil bed or a compost topdressing worked into what is already there.