We have been delivering bulk mulch to all of Long Island for decades and with that experience comes a lot of knowledge about how people use mulch in their landscaping and gardens. One of the most common questions we are asked is “how much mulch do I need?”
Surprisingly, how much mulch you need in your yard varies from location to location across the US. Weather conditions and the change of seasons play a large role in determining how much mulch you need when ordering a bulk mulch delivery.
In dry climates or where the warm weather lasts throughout the year, mulch can dry out and shrink a bit, affecting how much is needed to cover a landscape bed. Here in Long Island, where we have four seasons and get, on average, 39″ of rain per year, the amount of mulch you need needs to be carefully calculated.
As you prepare to order your mulch delivery, we advise our customers to follow these steps to determine how much mulch you need.
- First, get a total coverage area in square feet. You can do this by measuring the length and width of each landscape or garden area and multiplying them together. Then, add together each square footage to get the total square footage of the areas you wish to cover with mulch.
- Next, decide on the desired depth of the mulch. We typically talk about this number in inches and can range anywhere from 2 inches to 8 inches. You would use 2″ to 4″ of mulch depth in well-maintained landscape beds, between plants. If you need to keep weeds and grass from growing, you would then need to put down a thicker layer of mulch; 6 inches to 8 inches of mulch depth should help suppress weeds from growing.
- Now, multiply the total square feet by the desired depth in inches. For example, if you need 756 square feet of coverage at 3 inches of depth, you would multiply 756 * 3 = 2,268.
- Finally, divide the result by 324. We use this number because 1 cubic yard of mulch covers about 324 square feet of area at 1″ of depth. So, 2,268/324 = 7. Round up if you end up with a partial cubic yard.
With our calculations above, we would need 7 cubic yards of mulch delivered to cover 756 square feet of landscaping with 3″ of mulch depth.
Now, if math isn’t your strength, don’t worry. When you call our Long Island mulch delivery professionals, we always ask the right questions to make sure you get the proper amount of mulch delivered. Give us a call today at 631-586-5007 to arrange your mulch delivery.