Mulch Bag Calculator
How much mulch do you need? Enter your bed size and depth to get cubic yards, bags, and how far it will spread.
Buying mulch by the bag is the default for small beds and quick top-ups — no delivery minimum, no leftover pile. This page works from bag count instead of volume: pick a number of standard 2-cubic-foot bags and see what it covers.
The math underneath is the same engine as the main calculator, just read in reverse: instead of area and depth producing a bag count, these tables start from bags and show the resulting volume and coverage.
Enter a bulk price to estimate cost.
You need
13bags
- Cubic feet
- 25 cu ft
- Cubic yards
- 0.93 cu yd
- Bags (2 cu ft)
- 13 bags
- Weight
- ≈ 0.42 tons
Bulk is sold by the yard — order 1 cu yd to have enough.
Shop what you need
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Bags to cubic feet and yards
A standard bag is 2 cubic feet. Here's what common bag counts add up to.
| Bags | Cubic feet | Cubic yards |
|---|---|---|
| 10 bags | 20 cu ft | 0.74 cu yd |
| 20 bags | 40 cu ft | 1.48 cu yd |
| 30 bags | 60 cu ft | 2.22 cu yd |
| 40 bags | 80 cu ft | 2.96 cu yd |
| 50 bags | 100 cu ft | 3.7 cu yd |
Bags needed for a 100 sq ft bed
A 100 sq ft bed is a useful benchmark — roughly a 10×10 ft area. Here's how many bags it takes at each standard depth.
| Depth | Area | Bags (2 cu ft) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 in | 100 sq ft | 9 bags |
| 3 in | 100 sq ft | 13 bags |
| 4 in | 100 sq ft | 17 bags |
Bottom line: a 100 sq ft bed at the standard 3-inch depth takes about a dozen bags — scale linearly for other sizes.
Coverage per bag
One bag spreads further at a shallow depth and less far as you build it up.
| Depth | Coverage per bag |
|---|---|
| 2 in | 12 sq ft |
| 3 in | 8 sq ft |
| 4 in | 6 sq ft |
How it's calculated
- 1
Measure your beds
Enter length and width in feet. Use a circle for round beds, or type the total area.
- 2
Pick a depth
3 inches suppresses weeds in new beds; 2 inches is a maintenance top-up. Presets are 2, 3, and 4 inches.
- 3
Get yards and bags
We show cubic yards and the number of standard 2-cubic-foot bags. One cubic yard covers about 108 sq ft at 3 inches.
Frequently asked questions
How many bags of mulch are in a yard?
A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so it equals about 13.5 standard 2-cubic-foot bags — round up to 14 bags per yard.
How deep should mulch be?
2–3 inches for most beds. Deeper than 4 inches can suffocate roots and cause 'mulch volcano' damage around trunks.
How much does a yard of mulch cover?
About 108 sq ft at 3 inches deep, or 162 sq ft at 2 inches. The calculator shows coverage for your chosen depth.