Garden Soil Calculator
The Garden Soil Calculator estimates how much topsoil, compost, or garden soil blend you need to fill a bed at your desired depth, in cubic yards or cubic meters and bags. Bag counts are always rounded up to the nearest whole bag, since you can't buy a partial bag, so the total you see is enough to fill your bed at the depth you specified. Switching to metric doesn't just relabel the units — the calculator converts your entered meters and centimeters to feet and inches internally, runs the same volume math, then converts the result back to liters and cubic meters.
Switch between U.S. Customary and Metric units.
How This Tool Works
Pick your units, then enter your garden bed's length, width, and desired soil depth to see the total volume needed in cubic feet/yards (or liters/cubic meters) and bags.
Formula & Method
Volume = area × depth. Cubic yards = cubic feet ÷ 27. Bags needed = total volume ÷ bag size (cubic feet in U.S. units, liters in metric; default 1.5 cu ft or 40 L).
Example Calculation
A 6×10 ft raised bed filled to 8 inches deep needs 40 cubic feet of soil (60 sq ft area × 8/12 ft depth), which is about 1.48 cubic yards (40 ÷ 27) — that's 27 bags when buying 1.5 cu ft bags (40 ÷ 1.5 = 26.7, rounded up). In metric, a 2×3 m bed filled to 20 cm deep needs about 1.20 cubic meters of soil, or 30 bags of 40 L soil.
Frequently Asked Questions
How deep should raised bed soil be?+
Most vegetable raised beds do best with 10–12 inches (25–30 cm) of quality soil, while shallow-rooted flowers can get by with 6–8 inches (15–20 cm).
Can I calculate soil in liters and cubic meters?+
Yes — switch the unit toggle to Metric and enter your bed in meters with the depth in centimeters and bag size in liters. The result is returned in liters and cubic meters.
Should I mix in compost?+
Many gardeners blend 60–70% topsoil with 30–40% compost for the best structure and nutrients — enter your bed size once and buy that ratio across products.
How many bags of soil fill a raised bed?+
It depends on bed size and depth — use the calculator above with your exact dimensions rather than a rule of thumb, since raised beds vary widely in size.
Does the bag count account for soil settling after watering?+
No — the calculator gives the raw volume needed to fill the bed at your target depth. Soil typically settles 10–20% once watered in, so many gardeners buy slightly extra or plan to top off the bed a few weeks after filling it.
Does it matter if I'm buying topsoil, garden soil blend, or raised bed mix?+
The calculator only computes volume, not soil type. Topsoil, garden soil blends, and raised bed mixes typically come in similar bag sizes (commonly 1–1.5 cu ft or 40 L) — enter whichever bag size is printed on the product you're actually buying.
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<a href="https://everyfix.net/tools/garden-soil-calculator/">Garden Soil Calculator</a> by <a href="https://everyfix.net">EveryFix</a>Related Tools
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