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Today's Gardens Project Planner

Garden project planning

Work out what your garden project needs

Measure the space, set the assumptions yourself, and get a quantity you can take to a supplier. Every figure here is a planning estimate built from your own measurements and your own material assumptions, both shown alongside the answer.

Start with a measurement See all calculators
A garden lawn area being set out: a string line between wooden pegs across freshly dug soil, rolls of turf, a tape measure and a hand-drawn plan on graph paper.
Illustrative photograph. Measurements shown are not a worked example.

How this works

1

Measure

Measure the space in as many pieces as it takes. Rectangles, circles, triangles and areas you already know can be added together, and beds or paths subtracted.

2

Set the assumptions

Depth, waste, bag size, roll size and density are yours. Nothing is assumed on your behalf, because those numbers change the answer and they differ between suppliers.

3

Estimate and print

Every result shows the figures alongside the assumptions that produced them, and prints as a record you can take to a supplier.

Calculators

Topsoil calculatorCubic metres, litres, bags and bulk bags for a bulk topsoil order.What it needs: area · depth · bag or bulk bag sizeSoil calculatorLitres and cubic metres to fill beds, borders, raised beds and planters.What it needs: one row per bed · depth per bed · bag sizeTurf calculatorRoll count from your measured lawn, your waste allowance and your roll size.What it needs: area · waste % · roll sizeCompost calculatorLitres by depth, or kilograms by rate — two modes that never convert.What it needs: area · depth or kg/m² · pack sizeBark & mulch calculatorLitres and bags of bark, wood chip or other biodegradable mulch.What it needs: area · depth · bag sizeGarden area calculatorA reusable worksheet: add and subtract up to twenty sections, then copy the total.What it needs: one row per shape · metres or feetLawn levelling calculatorFill or top-dressing volume for a whole lawn, for individual dips, or both cut and fill.What it needs: area or spot list · fill depth

Planners

These three answer a decision rather than a quantity. Each shows the rule that fired and the answers that drove it, so you can disagree with it on the evidence.

Scarifier vs aeratorWhich operation your symptoms point to, and the rule that decided it.What it needs: thatch level · wear · drainageLawn care plannerWhether this month and these conditions suit the work, plus the method for each job.What it needs: month · growth · ground stateGround preparation plannerAn ordered plan for your site conditions, including how to cultivate and what was left out.What it needs: current surface · weeds · access

What these tools will not tell you

Every number here is a planning estimate produced from your measurements and your own material assumptions. That is a genuinely useful thing and also a limited one, so it is worth being plain about the limits.

  • They do not know your ground. Settlement, compaction, moisture and what is buried below the surface all change what a job actually needs.
  • They do not know your supplier. Bag sizes, bulk bag volumes, roll dimensions, densities and minimum loads vary, which is why you enter them rather than accept ours.
  • They do not judge whether work is a good idea. The planners tell you what your answers point to and what they left out; the decision stays yours.
  • They do not assess drainage falls, retaining structures, buried services or ground stability, and no output here should be read as a judgement about any of those.

If you want to check the arithmetic, the calculation methodology writes out every formula, bound and rounding rule. The source register lists the published guidance behind the practical advice, and about this planner explains what this site is and is not.