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The Ungifted Gardener - Useful Data

This page is a collection of stuff that I have found useful and that you may also find useful - then again, you may not.

  1. Soil Volumes
  2. Volume Calculator
  3. Temperature Conversion
  4. Temperature Calculator
  5. Weights and Areas
  6. Weight per Area Calculator

Soil Volumes

When I built my intial raised beds I had no idea how much soil was going to be required. To make matters worse, in Canada, volumes are sometimes specified in cubic feet, sometimes in litres (very occasionally both) but bulk topsoil is always sold in cubic yards. This stuff may help.

  1. Cubic Yards to Cubic Feet: 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet.

  2. Cubic Feet to Litres: 1 cubic foot = 28.3 litres (1 cubic yard = 764 litres).

  3. Volume in Raised Bed: Cubic feet in a 10 foot x 4 foot x 6 inch bed = 10 x 4 x 0.5 = 20 cubic feet (0.75 cubic yards or 566 litres). 10 feet x 4 feet x 15" = 10 x 4 x (15/12 = 1.25) = 50 cubic feet (1.8 cubic yards). Multiply as appropriate for multi-height beds.

  4. Rule of Thumb: 6 heaped (approx 6 - 8" high) shovel fulls of topsoil = 1 cubic foot.

Volume Calculator

Enter the length in feet, the width in feet and the depth in inches, then click Imperial to calculate cubic feet, cubic yards, litres and cubic meters. Alternatively, enter length in meters, width in meters and depth in centimeters and click Metric to calculate cubic feet, cubic yards, litres and cubic meters. Up to two decimal places are allowed. Thus, if your width is 3'4" enter 3.33. All results show two decimal places, whether they need it or not. If you enter non-numeric values you will get equally stupid results (NaN = Not a Number).

Length (ft) Width (ft) Depth (in) 

Length (m) Width (m) Depth (cm) 

Results

 Cubic Feet  Cubic Yards  Litres  Cubic Metres

Temperature Conversion

Annoying when you find one thing given in °F and other in °C (or vice versa). I always vaguely remember the formula, but never exactly. Here they are:

Farenheight to Celsius

Temperature in °F -32 x 5/9 = Temperature in °C

Example: 27°F - 32 = 28 x 5/9 = 15.5°C

Example: 60°F - 32 = -5 x 5/9 = -2.7°C

'ish method: Replace x 5/9 by divide(/) by 2. In the above example 27°F = -2.5°C'ish. Error gets progressively worse as temperatures get higher. Thus, 100°F gives 34°C'ish (real result is 37.7°C). Some people use - 30 instead of -32 to give a slightly better result. But if you need/want a good result always use the real formula (and your smartphones calculator) or this calculator.

Celsius to Farenheight

Temperature in °C x 9/5 + 32 = Temperature in °F

Example: 27°C x 9/5 = 48.6 + 32 = 80.6°F

Example: -8°C x 9/5 = -14.4 + 32 = 17.6°F

'ish method: Replace x 9/5 by multiply(x) by 2. In the above examples -8°C = 16°F'ish. Error gets progressively worse as temperatures get higher. Thus, 35°C gives 102°F'ish (real result is 95°C). Some people use + 30 instead of + 32 to give a slightly better result. But if you need/want a good result always use the real formula (and your smartphones calculator) or this calculator.

Temperature Calculator

Simply place the desired temperature in the relevant box (1 or 2 decimal places are allowed) and click the required conversion button (all results show two decimal places whether they need it or not). If you put in non-numeric values you will get equally stupid results (NaN = Not a Number).

°C  °F 

Weights and Areas

Many publications of interest to Gardeners (even ones with tiny plots like me) are written for market gardeners and large scale producers. So you will frequently see 'add this at 60 lbs/Acre' or 'seed at 150 lbs/Acre' or even 'apply at 3 tons/acre'. For the metric world this will typically be expressed as kilos/hectare or tonnes/hectare. What does this mean for us little guys. This stuff might help (or use the weight calculator):

  1. Acre: One acre is 43,560 square feet, 4,840 square yards or 4,046.86 square meters.

  2. Hectare: One hectare is 107,639 square feet, 11,959.88 square yards, 10,000 square meters or 2.47 acres.

  3. US Ton: One ton is 2,000 pounds (lbs) or 907.185 kilograms (kgs).

  4. Imperial Ton: One ton is 2,240 pounds (lbs)or 1,016.05 kilograms (kgs).

  5. Tonne: One tonne is 2,204.62 pounds (lbs)or 1,000 kilograms (kgs).

  6. Hundredweight (cwt): One hundredweight (cwt) is 112 is pounds (lbs)or 50.8 kilograms (kgs).

  7. Bushel: The weight of a bushel depends on the crop that is being weighed. University of Missouri Reference.

Weight per Area Calculator

Optionally enter the dimensions (length and width) of your target area (in either feet or meters, 1 or two decimal places are allowed) it will give you the required weight in Lbs (Ounces if less than 1 lb) or Kg (Grams if less than 0.4 Kg) for this area. If you leave these blank the last two lines of the results will be left blank. Enter the Quantity (obtained from the report, paper, back of the box, whatever) as Pounds/Acre (lbs/A), Tons/Acre (T/A - assumes US Tons), Kilograms/Hectare (K/H) or Tonnes/Hectare (T/H), click the corresponding Calc button and it will give you the weight in Kilograms per square meter (K/M²) and Pounds per square feet (Lbs/Ft²), where the weight is less than 1 lb quantities are converted into Ounces (Ozs) and Grams. If you enter non-numeric values the calculator will give you equally stupid results (NaN = Not a Number).

Note: The calculator will do a simple metric/imperial conversion. So if you want to convert from K/H or T/H to Lbs/A set the Length to 435.6 feet and width to 100 feet (or any two numbers that multiply to 43,560). To convert from Lbs/A ot T/A to Kgs/H simply set Length to 100 meters and width to 100 meters (or any two numbers that add to 10,000). Simply read off the desired result.

(Optional) Target Area

 Length (ft)  Width (ft)

 Length (m)  Width (m)

Quantity

 Pounds/Acre 

 Tons/Acre 

 Kilograms/Hectare 

 Tonnes/Hectare 

Results

 Lbs/Ft²  Kgs/M² 

 Target Ft²  Lbs for Target

 Target M²  Kgs for Target



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Page modified: January 20 2022

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