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-   -   how much soil for raised beds? (http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=22003)

aimeruni March 27, 2012 07:13 PM

how much soil for raised beds?
 
NOTE: Soil being used is soil mix, that I'll be making (this is NOT top soil, potting mix/soil, and/or soil less mix... e. g. Miracle Gro etc.)

I need to know how many gallons of soil per raised bed. Found how much soil to use w/sizes of raised beds I'll be using; unfortunately it's in cubic feet and/or square feet; this tells me nothing.

My raised beds will be 4' x 4' and 4' x 8' w/a 12" depth; don't know how many raised beds in total will be used. Just need to know how many gallons to use per individual beds w/sizes given.

kurt March 27, 2012 07:41 PM

There is a post on this same page about 6 down that fills in all the replys to a similar question.

augiedog55 March 27, 2012 07:48 PM

if i did my math right i'm thinking 120 gal. small bed and 240 gal. in the large bed. I might be wrong

kurt March 27, 2012 08:03 PM

Most of your soils come in cubic measurements.1 ft.divided by 12(inch)=.083.So width x length x height gives you the cubic foot.Divide by 27(3x3x3=1 cubic yard).4x4x1-16cubic foot and so on.

janezee March 27, 2012 09:01 PM

1 cu. ft.=7.48 gal.

kurt March 27, 2012 09:57 PM

7.48 is for liquid,6.4 would be for dry.These would be in USA conversions not metrics as for Canada.

Petronius_II March 27, 2012 10:43 PM

6.428 dry gallons/cubic foot is correct.

The question then becomes, what kind of container is Aimeruni using to measure the soil? If it's designed to measure liquid gallons, you need to use the liquid gallon calculation of 7.48 US liquid gallons/cubic foot.

If dry gallons, 103 small bed, 206 large bed. If US liquid gallons, 120 small, 240 large.

I suppose if purchased soil listed in "gallons" is involved in the calculations, one might need to take some pains to find out which type of gallon is being used by the packager.

There's also the Imperial gallon used in the UK and sometimes Canada, and is a bit larger than the dry gallon! I doubt that's involved in this case, though.

Worth1 March 27, 2012 11:05 PM

I know this aint gonna help but you will have 16 cubic feet(119.688 gallons) in the 4X4 beds and 32 cubic feet (239.376) gallons in the 4X8 beds.
1 cubic foot equals 7.4805 US gallons.
27 cubic feet in a yard.
A yard is 3'X3'X3'.
I buy all of my soil and aggregates by the yard.:)

Worth

habitat_gardener March 28, 2012 03:09 AM

And just to complicate matters: even in a raised bed, I like to pile up the good stuff if I have it. So if I've harvested lots of compost, I add it to my beds.

I got a new garden plot and I'd like to transfer lots of compost as well as some of my plunge-your-arm-up-to-the-elbow soil to it. But I'll see how much hauling my back can stand. I'm hoping to add at least a cubic yard.


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