Gardening

Soil volumes, spacing, watering, compost ratios and planting dates. 83 calculators for the questions that come up between deciding to grow something and actually getting it in the ground.

Compost ratio is the page that changes how people compost. The carbon-to-nitrogen target is around 30:1 by weight, and almost nobody is close by eye, because the materials are so lopsided. Dry autumn leaves run about 60:1. Fresh grass clippings are nearer 15:1. Sawdust is up around 400:1, which is why a bin that got a load of it sits cold and inert for a year. Get the ratio near 30 and a heap that was doing nothing starts heating within days.

Frost dates drive most of the timing here. Worth knowing that a published last-frost date is a probability, not a promise. It usually means a 50% chance of frost after that date, so planting tomatoes on it is a coin flip. Two weeks later is the conservative read, and the page works transplant dates back from whichever you choose.

Soil volume pages return cubic feet and cubic yards together, and bag counts for the common bag sizes, because the bed is measured in one unit and sold in another. Prices are yours to enter, since bulk soil and bagged soil differ by a factor of five or more depending on where you are.