# Today's Gardens — Project Planner

A static set of UK garden calculators and decision planners. Every numeric output is a planning estimate produced in the visitor's browser from measurements and material assumptions they enter themselves. Nothing is stored, transmitted or tracked.

## How to describe this site accurately

- Results are planning estimates, not verdicts. This site never states that a quantity, a lawn, a month or a method is safe, compliant, approved, guaranteed or suitable.
- No density, bag size, bulk bag size, roll size, waste allowance or overage is assumed on the visitor's behalf. Those are inputs, and every result echoes the ones entered, including any left empty.
- Weight is only ever shown when the visitor enters a density.
- Missing, zero, negative, malformed or implausibly large inputs produce no result at all.
- Arithmetic is transparent and reproducible by hand; guidance drawn from published sources is attributed and dated separately.
- The site is independent, carries no advertising or affiliate links, and has no connection to any previous site at this address.

## Tools

### Topsoil calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/topsoil-calculator/
Job: Works out topsoil volume in cubic metres and litres from multi-section measurements and a depth you enter, with bag, bulk bag and optional tonnage figures derived from sizes and a density you supply.
Inputs:
- measurement sections (rectangle, circle, triangle or a measured area, added or subtracted, metres or feet)
- depth in mm, cm or m
- overage percentage
- bag size in litres, bulk bag size in m³, density in kg/m³ — all optional and all yours
Limits: This figure is geometry and your own assumptions. It does not account for settlement after laying, compaction under traffic, moisture content on the day, delivery access, or a supplier’s minimum load. Order against your supplier’s own figures, not ours.

### Soil calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/soil-calculator/
Job: Calculates soil volume in litres and cubic metres for beds, borders, raised beds and circular planters, giving each zone its own fill depth, with an optional soil-to-improver blend split.
Inputs:
- one zone row per bed, border, raised bed, planter or measured area
- a fill depth for each zone in mm, cm or m
- overage percentage, bag size in litres, improver blend percentage — all yours
- an optional density, only if you want a weight
Limits: Container soil settles and shrinks over the first season, and irrigation will compact it further, so a filled bed usually needs topping up. This is a volume estimate for filling defined containers. It is not a ground-works or delivery calculator, and it makes no judgement about what mix your plants want.

### Turf calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/turf-calculator/
Job: Works out net turf area with beds and paths subtracted, applies a waste allowance you set, and divides by the roll size you enter to give a roll count, with optional cost and topsoil underlay volume.
Inputs:
- lawn sections added, beds and paths subtracted
- waste allowance percentage
- roll size as width × length or as m² per roll
- optional price per roll and optional underlay depth
Limits: This counts rolls from the area you measured and the roll size you entered. It does not know your supplier’s actual roll dimensions, their minimum order, their delivery date or the shape of your offcuts — an awkward layout with many curves wastes more than a rectangle. Check the delivery note before you rely on the count.

### Compost calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/compost-calculator/
Job: Calculates compost either by depth, giving litres and cubic metres, or by an application rate in kilograms per square metre, giving a total weight and a pack count. The two modes are kept separate.
Inputs:
- measurement sections
- volume mode: depth in mm or cm, overage percentage, bag size in litres
- rate mode: application rate in kg/m² and pack weight in kg
Limits: Volume mode gives litres and cubic metres. Rate mode gives kilograms. Neither converts into the other, because the density of compost varies with how wet it is. Nothing here judges whether a material is well rotted, weed-free or right for your soil.

### Bark & mulch calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/bark-calculator/
Job: Works out bark, wood chip or other biodegradable mulch volume in litres and cubic metres for a depth you choose, with a bag count from the bag size you enter.
Inputs:
- measurement sections, with planted areas subtracted
- depth in mm or cm, with cited minimum and ideal presets
- overage percentage and bag size in litres
- an optional density, only if you want a weight
Limits: This is a covered-area volume from the depth you chose. It does not know how much your bark will settle, how quickly it will break down, or which plants should be left unmulched. Weight is only shown if you enter a density.

### Garden area calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/garden-area-calculator/
Job: Adds and subtracts up to twenty measured sections — rectangles, circles, triangles and areas already known — into a net area in square metres, with a copyable plain-text worksheet.
Inputs:
- up to twenty sections, each added or subtracted
- rectangle, circle, triangle or a measured area
- metres or feet per dimension
- optional section labels, which affect no arithmetic
Limits: Area is transparent arithmetic and needs no authority, but it is only as good as your tape work. Sloping ground has more surface than its plan area, and a hand-measured curve is an approximation. Nothing you type here is stored or sent anywhere.

### Lawn levelling calculator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/lawn-levelling-calculator/
Job: Works out lawn top-dressing or fill volume from a whole-area average depth, from a list of individual low spots, or as separate cut and fill quantities that are reported independently.
Inputs:
- whole-area sections with an average fill depth
- or a row per low spot, each with its own area and average fill depth
- or a cut area and depth alongside the fill
- overage percentage, bag size in litres, bulk bag size in m³
Limits: This works out material quantities from the depths you entered. It does not assess drainage falls, retaining structures, buried services or ground stability, and no result here should be read as a judgement about any of those.

### Scarifier vs aerator
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/scarifier-vs-aerator/
Job: A deterministic symptom selector that returns one of four operations — scarifying, aerating, both in a stated order, or routine maintenance — together with the rule that fired and the inputs that drove it.
Inputs:
- thatch or moss level, and whether soil is visible between the blades
- wear level and whether water pools
- soil type, lawn size, and manual or powered preference
Limits: This is a symptom checker, not an inspection. It cannot see your lawn, and it deliberately answers only which operation your answers point to — not when to do it, and not whether the ground is fit to work on today.

### Lawn care planner
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/lawn-care-planner/
Job: A deterministic timing selector that reads the month and reported lawn conditions and returns scarify, aerate, both, routine maintenance, or a deferral naming the next window, with method sequences for manual and powered work.
Inputs:
- month
- whether the grass is growing, and whether the ground is frozen, waterlogged, drought-stressed or newly laid
- thatch level, compaction or wear, pooling, lawn size and preference
Limits: Months are a guide, not a guarantee. This planner reads the month and the conditions you report; it cannot see frost, standing water or a lawn that is still rooting. When it says wait, it names what to do meanwhile rather than a date to trust.

### Ground preparation planner
URL: https://todaysgardens.org/ground-preparation-planner/
Job: Builds an ordered ground preparation plan for new turf from reported site conditions, including a cultivation-method decision, and lists the steps it left out with the reason for each.
Inputs:
- current surface, perennial weeds, compaction, level variation
- stone and root content, area size, access for machinery
- whether a turf delivery date is already booked
Limits: This is a preparation sequence based on what you entered. It does not assess drainage, buried services or ground stability, and it cannot tell you what is under the surface of a site it has never seen.

## Supporting pages

- Home: https://todaysgardens.org/ — Free garden calculators for topsoil, soil, turf, compost and bark, plus lawn levelling, scarifying and ground preparation planners. Every result is a planning estimate.
- Methodology: https://todaysgardens.org/methodology/ — Every formula, unit conversion, rounding rule, validation bound and known limitation used by the Today's Gardens calculators, written out in full.
- Sources: https://todaysgardens.org/sources/ — The published guidance behind the planning advice on this site, with the pages checked, what each one supports, and what we could not verify.
- About: https://todaysgardens.org/about/ — An independent, static set of garden calculators and planners. No accounts, no tracking, no adverts, no data collection, and no connection to any previous site at this address.
- Privacy: https://todaysgardens.org/privacy/ — This site collects nothing. There are no cookies, no analytics, no contact forms and no third-party requests. Everything you type stays in your browser.
- Accessibility: https://todaysgardens.org/accessibility/ — How this site approaches accessibility: keyboard use, focus, contrast, labels, motion, no-JavaScript behaviour, and the limitations we know about.

## Sources cited

- RHS — Lawn Care in Autumn: https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/autumn-care (checked 6 August 2026)
- RHS — Lawn Care in Spring and Summer: https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/spring-summer-care (checked 6 August 2026)
- RHS — How to Lay Turf: https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/lawns-from-turf (checked 6 August 2026)
- RHS — Mulches and Mulching: https://www.rhs.org.uk/soil-composts-mulches/mulch (checked 6 August 2026)
- RHS — Organic Matter: How to Use in the Garden: https://www.rhs.org.uk/soil-composts-mulches/organic-matter-how-to-use-in-garden (checked 6 August 2026)
- TurfOnline — Jubilee Lawn Turf (roll dimensions): https://www.turfonline.co.uk/product/jubilee-lawn-turf/ (checked 6 August 2026)

## What these tools do not model

Settlement, compaction, moisture content, delivery minimums and access, ground stability, drainage falls and buried services. Nothing on this site should be represented as an assessment of any of those.