Formula for how much dirt?
 

I want to create a raised flower bed. Is there a way to figure out
how much dirt I will need?

I want the flower bed to be relatively circular, about six feet
in diameter, and about six inches deep.

Is there some way to get this dirt without buying a bunch of bags
of dirt? In other words, if I go to a nursery or somewhere else,
is there someone who will deliver the amount of dirt I want?

Thanks in advance.
--
8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~
"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

http://www.suzanne-eckhardt.com/
http://www.intergnat.com/malebashing/
http://www.intergnat.com/pussygames/

Suzie-Q wrote:
I want to create a raised flower bed. Is there a way to figure out
how much dirt I will need?

I want the flower bed to be relatively circular, about six feet
in diameter, and about six inches deep.

Is there some way to get this dirt without buying a bunch of bags
of dirt? In other words, if I go to a nursery or somewhere else,
is there someone who will deliver the amount of dirt I want?

Thanks in advance.


The volume of a cylinder is: (Pi x radius-squared ) x depth

3.14 x 3 x 3 x 0.5 = a little over 14 cubic feet

So if you're buying 2 cubic foot bags of soil, you'll need 7 bags.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Care for your landscape with Black and Decker cordless tools
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blac...ker/index.html

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:44:48 +0000, Suzie-Q wrote:

I want to create a raised flower bed. Is there a way to figure out how
much dirt I will need?

I want the flower bed to be relatively circular, about six feet in
diameter, and about six inches deep.

Is there some way to get this dirt without buying a bunch of bags of dirt?
In other words, if I go to a nursery or somewhere else, is there someone
who will deliver the amount of dirt I want?

Thanks in advance.

A yard will cover 108 square feet at 3" deep. A cubic yard is 27 cubic
feet. If you were buying bags of dirt and the bags were 2 cubic feet, then
you would need 14 bags.

Most soil suppliers will deliver for a fee and sell in cubic yards. With
all things in life though, they won't bring you a cubic yard though, it
will be under a bit over over a bit. They just dump it in the truck and go.

You can borrow/rent a full size truck and it will carry a yard.

Good luck to you.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com

Timothy wrote:
On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:44:48 +0000, Suzie-Q wrote:

I want to create a raised flower bed. Is there a way to figure out
how much dirt I will need?

I want the flower bed to be relatively circular, about six feet in
diameter, and about six inches deep.

Is there some way to get this dirt without buying a bunch of bags
of dirt? In other words, if I go to a nursery or somewhere else,
is there someone who will deliver the amount of dirt I want?

Thanks in advance.

A yard will cover 108 square feet at 3" deep. A cubic yard is 27
cubic feet. If you were buying bags of dirt and the bags were 2
cubic feet, then you would need 14 bags.

Most soil suppliers will deliver for a fee and sell in cubic yards.
With all things in life though, they won't bring you a cubic yard
though, it will be under a bit over over a bit. They just dump it
in the truck and go.

You can borrow/rent a full size truck and it will carry a yard.

Good luck to you.

A formula:

_L' x W' x D"_= cubic yard (s)
324

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

Travis wrote:

A formula:

_L' x W' x D"_= cubic yard (s)
324


Feet times feet times inches equals cubic yards? Ummm. No.

Yards times yards times yards equals cubic yards (when you're dealing with
square corners). More accurately, square yards times height in yards equals
cubic yards. Or square feet times height in feet divided by 27 equals cubic
yards.

One key to computing area or volume is to have each measurement in the same
unit. All feet. All yards. All inches. And then what you get is that unit
squared (for area) or cubed (for volume). Mixing unit times gives you a
worthless result. A number no better than a random number.

Also, the original poster had a circular bed. The area of a circle is not
length times width. It's Pi times square radius. Multiply that by the height
in the same unit as the radius to get volume. Again, the measurements must
be in the same unit. If the radius is measured in feet, then the height must
be in feet, too.

If we were dealing with a triangular area, expand it so that it's a 4-sided
area, with one edge going from corner to corner. Now use the same formula as
for a 4-sided area, but divide by two.

To convert from cubic feet to cubic yards, you need to remember that a cubic
yard is 3-feet by 3-feet by 3-feet. Or put another way, three layers of
3-feet by 3-feet, or 3 layers of 9 cubes, thus 27 cubic feet in a cubic
yard.

But whatever formula is used, each measurement must be in the same unit. All
feet. All yards. Or all inches. No mixing.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Care for your landscape with Black and Decker cordless tools
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blac...ker/index.html

Warren wrote:
Travis wrote:

A formula:

_L' x W' x D"_= cubic yard (s)
324


Feet times feet times inches equals cubic yards? Ummm. No.

I formatted that incorrectly.

_L'xW'xD"_= cubic yard/s
324

The formula I gave was not as an answer to the OP but just as a general
formula.

From:
http://www.tcmastergardener.org/html...in_area_s.html

How much mulch or soil is needed?

To determine how much mulch is needed for a specific area, measure the
area to be covered and use the following formula:

Area to cover (in square feet) x depth of mulch or soil desired (in
inches) x 0.0031 = cubic yards of mulch or soil required

-- or use this alternate method -- Area to cover (in square feet) x
depth of mulch or soil (in inches) / 324 = cubic yards of mulch or soil
required

For example, to cover an area of 100 square feet with 3 inches of mulch:
100 square feet x 3 inches deep x 0.0031 = 0.93 cubic yards needed

Note: If buying mulch in 1 cubic foot bags, multiply the cubic yards
needed by 27 (there are 27 cubic feet in 1 cubic yard) to find the
number of bags needed.


--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

On Fri, 08 Apr 2005 07:44:11 -0700, Timothy
wrote:

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:44:48 +0000, Suzie-Q wrote:

I want to create a raised flower bed. Is there a way to figure out how
much dirt I will need?

I want the flower bed to be relatively circular, about six feet in
diameter, and about six inches deep.

Is there some way to get this dirt without buying a bunch of bags of dirt?
In other words, if I go to a nursery or somewhere else, is there someone
who will deliver the amount of dirt I want?

Thanks in advance.

A yard will cover 108 square feet at 3" deep. A cubic yard is 27 cubic
feet. If you were buying bags of dirt and the bags were 2 cubic feet, then
you would need 14 bags.

Most soil suppliers will deliver for a fee and sell in cubic yards. With
all things in life though, they won't bring you a cubic yard though, it
will be under a bit over over a bit. They just dump it in the truck and go.

You can borrow/rent a full size truck and it will carry a yard.

Good luck to you.

The formula to determine the volume of a cylinder is:
Pi * (Radius squared) * height = 3.14 * (3 * 3) * .5 = 14.14 cubic
feet.

That's a little more then half a cubic yard. Don't know that they
sell half yards, but I've never tried. If that's all I needed, I'd
probably just buy 5 3 cubic foot bags, but if you can pick it up
yourself it may be cheaper to buy by the yard. I'm sure you can
probably put the rest to use somewhere. The soil will also compact
and settle somewhat, especially after the first heavy rain, so you may
need a little more then the original estimate.

Swyck