Hit 100 bags of mulch for my backyard project and lost count

I was out back spreading mulch around my patio border in Raleigh and after bag 30 I just started stacking empties out of curiosity. By the time I finished grading the whole slope I had 102 bags piled up by the fence. That's like 3 pickup truck loads from the garden center across town. No wonder my lower back is screaming today. Has anyone else miscalculated a bulk order this badly or am I the only dummy who thought 20 bags would do it?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thea3d ago

The real trick is that bagged mulch has a lot of air in it, so 100 bags from the store might only be 80 bags worth of actual material once it settles and you work it in. I usually go by cubic feet instead of bag count, and then add about 25% because the bags are never packed the same from one load to the next. Your back is probably yelling at you because you did the work of 130 bags of actual compacted mulch, not 100.

hall.joel2d ago

Yeah thats a brutal lesson to learn. I did a similar thing last year with my garden beds and @the_thea's take on cubic feet is dead on. I bought 60 bags of soil mix and somehow ended up driving back to the store twice for 30 more. The bags just trick you into thinking you have way more than you do.

cole_baker3d ago

A buddy of mine in Durham bought 50 bags of soil for a raised bed garden and ended up using close to 90 before he was done. He had to borrow his neighbor's truck for three separate trips to the hardware store that week. Said it taught him to always double his first estimate.