With spring fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking about lawn maintenance in Overland Park. One great, fairly easy way to improve the look of your lawn and gardens is to add a clean, fresh layer of mulch. This is something you can do on your own, as homeowners, or you can call the best lawn care company in Overland Park to come help you out. Whichever way you go, new mulch will provide a polished, even look to your lawn and garden. Aside from looking great, mulch can also help cut down on water loss due to evaporation, provide a layer to protect against weed growth, enhance the nutrient concentration of the soil, and even keep pests away.

Now that it’s clear that new mulch is a great investment this spring, the big question becomes: how do I determine the amount of mulch to buy? We can help you with that! Hiring one of the best lawn care companies in Overland Park, like Encore Turf, will make the decision easy. We take care of the hard part and do all the calculations for you! However, we can also help show you how to determine the necessary amount of mulch for your yard in the step-by-step instructions below. With just a few measurements and calculations, you should have a good grasp on the amount of mulch you need to buy.

Step 1: Measure the area you wish to mulch.
For Step 1, you just need a tape measure. Nothing fancy, just the tape measure that’s most likely already hanging out in your garage or toolbox. Identify the areas of your yard you wish to mulch—typically in gardens or flower beds, around trees, walkways, etc. Measure the length and the width of each area. Some areas are odd shaped, so it’s okay to estimate a little.

Step 2: Calculate the square footage of each area.
For this, you will just take the length and width you measured in Step 1 and multiply them together. For example, if you have a flowerbed that is a 10 feet by 15 feet rectangle, you would calculate 10×15, or 150 square feet for that bed. Once you have the area of all your spaces calculated, you will add them all together. This will give you the total area you need to mulch.

Step 3: Determine your desired mulch thickness.
For this step, you need to determine how deep you want the mulch in each area. Most lawn care professions in Overland Park recommend a typical depth is 2-3 inches of mulch. That said, there might be areas where you want to choke out weeds and grass or keep certain bugs away. In these cases, you may wish to add mulch up to 6 or 7 inches deep. However, the rule for lawn maintenance in Overland Park is to never add more than 8 inches of mulch depth. This is because mulch is great for trapping heat, which can make it highly flammable.

Step 4: Calculate the total volume of mulch needed.
By multiplying the total area from Step 2 to the average depth of mulch you want for your yard, you will calculate the total volume of mulch you will need to purchase. You do need to make sure your area and your depth are in the same units (feet or inches). If you want mulch 6 inches deep, you can multiply your area by .5 feet. If you only want mulch 3 inches deep, you can multiply your area by .25 feet.

Now you will have your total volume in feet. Mulch is typically sold by the cubic yard. 1 cubic yard of mulch is equal to 324 cubic feet. To determine how many cubic yards of mulch you will need, just divide your total volume by 324. Now you know how much mulch you need to buy!

Step 5: Redo all your calculations.
While I know it seems trivial, we always recommend going back and double-checking your math. It only takes a minute or two, and it could save you a lot of time, or even money, later on. If your numbers are incorrect, or if you skip a step, you could end up having to go back and buy more mulch, or worse, end up stuck with a ton of mulch you can’t use! For example, if you simply forgot to divide your total cubic footage of mulch by 324, you could end up buying enough mulch for your whole neighborhood!

Step 6: Go buy your mulch!
Your calculations are finally done, and you can go buy your mulch! It can typically be purchased by the bag or even by the truckload. If you would rather not do the work of laying and spreading and hauling the mulch yourself, just give Encore Turf, the best lawn care company in Overland Park, a call! We would be happy to help!
For all our lawn maintenance needs give Encore Turf + Property Enhancements a call at 913.285.2423.