Bed Area Calculations

Well, it turns out gardening is also math! Who knew?

Below are some formulas for calculating the area of a planting bed. Once you have the square footage of the bed, you can multiply that number by the recommended number of bulbs per square foot in the chart below. Planting densities are also provided for each item on this website.

If you have any questions about calculating square footage or how many bulbs to plant per square foot, don't hesitate to give us a call.

Rectangle and Square

A rectangle is a parallelogram with four right angles.
The area of a rectangle is found by multiplying the length (L) by the width (W).

Circle

A circle is a closed curve of which every point on the edge of the curve is equidistant from a fixed point within the curve. The area of a circle is the radius squared (R²) multiplied by pi (~3.14). The radius is equal to one-half the diameter of the circle.

Triangle

A triangle is a polygon with three sides. The area of a triangle is one-half the base (B) multiplied by the height (H).

Oval

An oval has an elliptical, or egg-like, shape. The area of an oval is the length (L) multiplied by the width (W), multiplied by 0.8.

Irregular Shapes

To find the area of a large irregular shape, divide it into a series of smaller units equally spaced along a measured line. This method will calculate the area to within 5 percent.

1. Determine the length line. This is the longest axis of the shape, here shown as A to B.
2. Mark width lines along the A-B line. The width lines divide the A-B line into several segments of equal width. To ensure accuracy, use as many width lines as possible. The more irregular the shape, the more width lines you will need.
3. Measure the width at each width line. In this example, there are 5 width lines: C, D, E, F and G.
4. Calculate the area by adding all the width lines and multiplying by the distance between each line: (C+D+E+F+G) x Segment Width.

The distance between points A and B is 60 feet
C = 10 feet
D = 15 feet
E = 20 feet
F = 25 feet
G = 15 feet

Example

1. Determine the length line. Here A to B is 60 ft.
2. Divide the length line by a convenient number. In this example, the length line is divided by 6 to make 10 ft. segments.
3. Measure the width at each width line. In this example, there are 5 width lines - C, D, E, F and G. Their measurements are listed above right.
4. Calculate the area by adding all the width lines and multiplying by the distance between each line: (C+D+E+F+G) x Segment Width

Area is: (10+15+25+20+15) x 10 = 850 sq. ft.

Planting Chart: Number of bulbs per square foot