I am Char Barnes, and I have been gardening at the same southwestern Connecticut house for more than twenty years. During that time it has gone from a neglected plot to a picturesque garden with paths and curved beds loaded with flowers. I have planted trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals.
Everything on this site is based on my personal experience and opinion, and I have plenty of both.
The stuff you buy in bags to put in your containers usually has no soil in it. To avoid confusion with the bags and the ground, it’s generally called Potting Medium, or Container Mix or something like that. You can also create your own mix and put your actual soil in it!
So for purposes of this page, I am talking about the material you buy that is used to hold up plants in a container. I apologize for any confusion and I am trying to not call it “soil.”
I apologize for the blandness of this page, but I wanted to make it useful before I made it pretty. I will make sure that this page is always available and useful and I promise to pretty it up!
Most containers hold a lot of mix, and it's very easy to underestimate how much you will need. Enter the width of the container and its height to get a reasonable estimate of how much you need to buy.
The mix is usually sold by volume in either cubic feet or quarts. While it's easy to measure your container in inches, converting those dimensions to volume can be a hassle.
For best results, fill your container so the mix is close to the top, about one or two inches below the rim. Don't be caught short! If the soil isn't close to the rim, your plants will need to grow a few inches just to be visible.
How to Measure:
Width: Measure the inside width of the container about 1 inch below the top of the rim.
Height: Measure from the bottom of the container to the rim inside the container.
Enter these measurements into the calculator to find out how much potting mix you need. The answer will be given in both cubic feet and quarts. Once you have your estimate, go buy the mix and get planting!