Landscaping and farming math starts with ground: how big the lawn, bed or field is, and how much material it takes to cover it. This calculator for landscapers and farmers keeps the measurement, the rate and the price on separate lines, so you can change the bed depth on site or the seed rate after a soil test and read the new order straight away.
Choose Open in Notes Calculator under any example to open it in the web app with the same numbers, then replace them with yours.
Lawn and bed areas, and mulch to order
Walk the site and note each area as length times width. Feet times feet gives square feet, and a bed area times a depth in inches gives a volume you can convert to cubic yards, the unit most suppliers sell mulch and topsoil by.
| Note | Result |
|---|---|
| Front lawn: 40 ft x 25 ft | 1,000 ft² |
| bed = 20 ft x 4 ft | 80 ft² |
| mulch = bed * 2 in to ft³ | 13.33 ft³ |
| mulch to yd³ | 0.49 yd³ |
| Bags of 2 ft³: mulch / 2 ft³ rounded up | 7 |
For irregular lots, split the shape into rectangles and triangles first; the area calculator guide shows how.
Field area and seed by the acre
Farm records mix acres and hectares, and seed rates come per acre. Convert the field once, then multiply the rate by the number of acres and convert the order to kilograms if the supplier works in metric.
| Note | Result |
|---|---|
| 64 acres to hectares | 25.90 ha |
| field size = 64 | 64 |
| seed rate = 35 lb | 35 lb |
| seed = field size * seed rate | 2,240 lb |
| seed to kg | 1,016.05 kg |
Cost per acre and break-even price
Add up the inputs for a field, divide by its size, and divide again by the expected yield to see the price per bushel you need just to cover them.
| Note | Result |
|---|---|
| field size = 80 | 80 |
| seed = 9,000 USD | $9,000 |
| fertilizer = 7,500 USD | $7,500 |
| fuel = 4,500 USD | $4,500 |
| cost per acre = (seed + fertilizer + fuel) / field size | $262.50 |
| yield = 180 | 180 |
| Break-even per bushel: cost per acre / yield | $1.46 |
A planting and mowing quote
Price plants and delivery as one-off costs and mowing as visits times a visit rate, then total the quote for the season.
| Note | Result |
|---|---|
| plants = 380 USD | $380 |
| delivery = 65 USD | $65 |
| visits = 12 | 12 |
| visit rate = 55 USD | $55 |
| Season quote: plants + delivery + visits * visit rate | $1,105 |
If a quote needs a margin rather than a markup, the profit margin guide explains the difference. For the full list of area and volume units, see the unit converter guide.
Start free at app.notescalculator.com, or see what Lifetime adds if you want a note per property synced to your phone in the field.