Calculating my square foot garden and cubic feet of soil

As you recall in my previous post, I showed you the layout for my new veggie garden.  Now, I need to calculate how many square feet there are in the garden which tells me how much I can plant.  {Or it tells me how much I SHOULD plant, but I'll start extra seedlings and find space SOMEWHERE to grow them.}  That's how gardeners are you know.  Big dreams!



http://www.squidoo.com/potager-garden

 Here's the diagram layout again as a reminder of how it will look:

In summary, I will have the following beds:

4 beds that are 4x4 {16 sq. feet x 4 = 64 sq. feet}
8 beds that are 2x2 {4 sq. feet by 8= 32 sq. feet}
4 galvanized washtubs that are approximately 3x3 {9 sq. feet x 3=27 sq. feet}

Altogether that gives me 123 sq. feet of planting room.  It's not much but I'm okay with a smaller area if the chickens can't get into it and do any damage!  It also means that I need that much weed cloth to staple to the bottom of each bed.  123 square feet = 41 yards, so when I buy the weed cloth I need to get at least 41 yards.  I'll get more than that because I would also like to lay down weed cloth under the pathways and then find a truck load of tree trimmings that will deliver for free to keep weeds to a minimum.  I built a path out of tree trimmings 2 years ago and it worked out beautifully, so I would like to do it again.

To calculate square footage multiply the length by the width and voila!  Yep, I'm a math genius!

Next up, I'll show you how to calculate cubic feet which is what you need to know so that I can buy {or find} enough materials to fill each of my new beds.