How much mulch do you need after a tree removal in Pakenham?
One cubic metre of mulch covers about 13 square metres at 75mm deep, which is the right depth for our heavy grey clay. A typical 500 square metre block carries 50 to 70 square metres of garden bed, so you need 4 to 6 cubic metres, or 5 to 7 once you allow for settling. Supplied and spread that is roughly $500 to $1,300. The tree we just took out probably made 6 to 10 cubic metres of chip, so on most jobs the honest answer is that you already own it.
Mulch quantity and cost estimator
Slide your total garden bed area across, pick the depth and the material, and the estimator sizes the job and prices it. It is a guide for Pakenham and the Cardinia Shire in 2026: a firm price needs a look at the beds and the access.
Area to cubic metres to trailer loads
This is the conversion the estimator is doing behind the slider, so you can check it or use it at the landscape yard. Cubic metres are the only unit worth ordering in.
| Bed area | At 50mm deep | At 75mm deep (recommended) | At 100mm deep | 75mm in 6x4 trailer loads, heaped |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 m² | 0.5 cubic metres | 0.8 cubic metres | 1.0 cubic metres | About 1 load |
| 25 m² | 1.3 cubic metres | 1.9 cubic metres | 2.5 cubic metres | About 2 loads |
| 40 m² | 2.0 cubic metres | 3.1 cubic metres | 4.0 cubic metres | 2 to 3 loads |
| 60 m² | 3.0 cubic metres | 4.6 cubic metres | 6.0 cubic metres | 3 to 4 loads |
| 100 m² | 5.0 cubic metres | 7.7 cubic metres | 10.0 cubic metres | 6 to 7 loads |
| 200 m² | 10.0 cubic metres | 15.4 cubic metres | 20.0 cubic metres | Order a truck, not a trailer |
A 6 by 4 box trailer holds about 0.7 cubic metres level and 1.2 to 1.5 cubic metres heaped with cage sides. A single axle tipper is 2 to 3 cubic metres. Our chip truck holds 6 to 10.
How to measure your beds properly, with a tape and a phone
Ten minutes with a tape beats any guess, and it is the difference between one delivery and two. Work bed by bed rather than trying to eyeball the whole garden.
- Break every shape into rectangles. Length times width in metres gives square metres. A curved bed becomes two or three rectangles with the bulges and the gaps cancelling each other out, which is close enough for mulch.
- Triangles are half of base times height. Corner beds are almost always triangles.
- Round beds and tree rings: 3.14 times the radius times the radius. A 2 metre wide ring is a 1 metre radius, so 3.1 square metres.
- Pace it first, then tape it. An adult stride is close to 0.75 metres, so pacing gets you the rough number and the tape confirms it. Only tape the beds where being 20 per cent out actually matters.
- Photograph each bed with something for scale. Lay a broom or a 1 metre length of timber across it and take the picture from standing height. If you send us those photos with the quote form we can size the job without another visit.
- Add the areas, then round up to the next 5 square metres. Nobody has ever regretted half a cubic metre too much mulch.
Getting a tree removed? Ask us to leave the chip
The mulch from your own tree is the cheapest garden material you will ever be offered, and it saves us the tipping fee too. Tell us how many cubic metres you want left and where.
Rules of thumb, wastage and the safety allowances to add
- Add 20 per cent for settling. Fresh coarse chip loses roughly 15 to 25 per cent of its depth in the first three months as it compacts and starts breaking down. If you want to still see 75mm next summer, order for 90mm today.
- Add 10 per cent for spillage and uneven ground. Beds are never flat, and what goes into a wheelbarrow is never all what comes out of it.
- Keep 100mm clear of every trunk. Mulch heaped against bark holds moisture on the collar and rots it. The classic mulch volcano around a young tree kills more replacement plantings around Pakenham than drought does.
- Do not exceed 100mm on clay. Fresh coarse chip laid deeper than that forms a mat which sheds light rain instead of letting it soak through, so on our grey clay the soil beneath a 150mm layer can be bone dry in February while the top looks perfect.
- Let a big fresh pile breathe. A 2 metre high stockpile of green chip heats up and can go sour and smelly within a week. Spread it within a few days, or fork it over and keep the pile under about a metre.
- Never dig raw chip into the soil. On the surface it feeds the garden. Turned in, decomposing wood locks up nitrogen in the root zone for a season and everything goes yellow.
- On a hills block, watch the fire load. Deep flammable mulch inside the defendable space around a house on a Pakenham Upper or Nar Nar Goon property is a hazard. Use composted material, coarse gravel or bare mineral earth within a few metres of the walls.
How much chip does your removed tree actually make?
This is the number people get wrong in both directions. As a working rule, loose chip comes out at roughly three to four times the solid volume of the brush that went into the chipper, because chipping introduces air. Trunk wood is different again: it is cut into rounds, not chipped.
- Small tree under 5 metres: typically 1 to 2 cubic metres of chip. Covers 13 to 26 square metres of bed at 75mm.
- Medium tree 5 to 12 metres: typically 3 to 6 cubic metres of chip plus 0.5 to 1.5 cubic metres of trunk rounds. That is most of a suburban garden covered.
- Large tree 12 to 25 metres: typically 6 to 15 cubic metres of chip plus 1.5 to 4 cubic metres of rounds. Far more than a standard block can absorb.
- Stump grindings: a separate material again, and not garden mulch. Grindings are fine, full of soil and they compost fast, so they belong back in the grind hole, not spread through your beds.
The practical consequence is that on a medium or large removal you should decide before the day how many cubic metres you want left and exactly where they go, because once the chipper is running the crew needs an answer immediately. Tell us "four cubic metres against the back fence" and everything else goes on the truck. That conversation is covered in what happens on the day. If you are clearing a whole block rather than one tree, the volumes are an order of magnitude bigger and usually go straight out: see land and block clearing.
The sizing mistake that costs the most around here
Under-ordering by about a third, then buying the shortfall in bags. It happens because people measure the beds, divide by 13 and order that exact figure, forgetting the settling allowance and forgetting that beds are deeper at the edges than they look. You end up 1.5 cubic metres short at four o'clock on a Saturday, and the only fix is bagged mulch at the hardware store, which works out around four to six times the bulk price per cubic metre. A 1.5 cubic metre shortfall bought in 50 litre bags is 30 bags and roughly $300 to $450 for material that would have cost $90 to $140 in bulk.
The second most expensive mistake is ordering by the load. A load means whatever the person quoting decides it means, and we have seen homeowners pay for three loads that turned out to be under 2 cubic metres in total. Ask for the figure in cubic metres on the invoice, and if a supplier will not put it in writing, buy elsewhere. The third mistake is buying premium blended mulch for a bed under a tree that was going to be covered in free arborist chip anyway: on a 60 square metre garden that choice is worth $300 to $600 and makes almost no difference to the plants.
A worked example on a typical Pakenham block
A 512 square metre lot in Pakenham with a 10 metre gum coming out of the back yard. Here is the whole calculation, added up the way we would do it standing in the driveway.
- Front garden bed, 8m by 1.5m: 12 square metres.
- Two side strips, each 12m by 0.8m: 19.2 square metres.
- Back L shaped bed, 6m by 2m plus 3m by 1.5m: 16.5 square metres.
- Two tree rings, 2m across each: 6.3 square metres.
- Total: 54 square metres, rounded up to 55.
At 75mm deep, 55 divided by 13 is 4.2 cubic metres. Add 20 per cent for settling and 10 per cent for spillage and you land on 5.4, so order 5.5 cubic metres. Bought as bulk hardwood chip delivered in a pile for you to spread, that is roughly $200 to $500 all up. Supplied and spread by our crew at 75mm it is roughly $500 to $1,200, which is four to seven hours of barrowing and levelling that you do not do.
Now the part that changes the answer. The 10 metre gum coming out of the back yard will produce around 6 to 8 cubic metres of chip. That covers all 55 square metres with 1 to 3 cubic metres left over, at no material cost, on the same day the crew is already there. You pay only for the spreading, and we save the tipping fee. That is why the first question on this page is not what mulch costs, it is how much your own tree makes. Once the beds are dressed, the follow up care is in tree maintenance and aftercare, and if you are replanting into one of those beds, size the tree first on the replacement tree guide.
When you should not mulch at all
We would rather tell you to skip it than sell you five cubic metres you do not need. Do not mulch a bed that already has 75mm of intact mulch on it, because adding another layer every spring is how beds end up 200mm deep and water repellent. Do not mulch a lawn area you plan to turf after a stump grind, because the grindings and topsoil handle that job. Do not put fresh chip over a vegetable bed you are planting this month. And on a hills block, do not lay deep chip up against the house.
Being straight about what we do: we are arborists, so we chip, deliver and spread mulch as part of tree work, and we will happily drop a load of clean chip. We are not a landscape supply yard, we do not carry a range of decorative bark, and for a full soil and planting rebuild you want a landscaper. If your job is really about the stump rather than the beds, start at stump grinding or the pricing guide, and if you are weighing up the cost of the whole removal, the budget removal tiers show where keeping your own chip and wood saves real money.
Frequently asked questions
How many square metres does a cubic metre of mulch cover?
How much mulch does one removed tree actually produce?
How much mulch fits in a trailer?
How deep should mulch be on Pakenham clay?
How much does mulch cost supplied and spread in Pakenham?
Is fresh arborist chip bad for the garden?
Tell us your bed area and we will size the mulch
Send your measurements or a couple of photos with something for scale, and we will come back with the cubic metres and a fixed price, usually within 1 business day.
Booking a removal across Pakenham or the Cardinia Shire?
Ask for the chip to stay. See tree removal or the full list of areas we cover.