Can I Put Mulch in the Plant Schedule?
Issue
You want to put mulch in your Plant Schedule, or you simply want to calculate the amounts of mulching materials used in your drawing.
Important note: We don't recommend putting mulches in the Plant Schedule.
First of all, mulch is not a plant. Therefore, its quantity should be expressed as a volume (e.g., cubic yards or meters) rather than area (e.g., in square feet or meters).
Further, in addition to mulch and stone, you have landscape edging, which should be tallied by linear foot. And that's not to mention items such as boulders and so on. All of these items are wildly different from plants and should therefore not be reflected in the Plant Schedule.
Adding to the complications, trying to show both planting and hardscape items such as mulch on the same plan is extremely confusing. So in addition to not meshing well with plants, these items just read better on a plan where you can show distinctly where the edging is, where the mulch goes, and so on.
Then, on an entirely separate plan, you can show the planting, without trying to decipher which is a mulch hatch and which is a groundcover.
Solution
Rather than attempting to use our planting features to place site and hardscape items, you should use Reference Notes (RefNotes). We recommend using Area/Volume RefNotes for mulches. With Area/Volume RefNotes, you can add mulching materials to your project and place them in your drawing as hatched areas.
When adding a mulching material as a RefNote, make sure to enter a Depth.
When you place the mulch in your drawing as a hatched area, the depth of material will be calculated along with the area of the mulched area.
You can also add a per-unit cost for a material you add to your project as a RefNote.
When you're ready to calculate the total amount of the mulching material that will be used in the design, you'll generate a Reference Notes Schedule.
The mulch will be listed in the schedule, where it will be calculated in cubic yards or cubic meters.
Contact
- Land F/X
Our software tailors AutoCAD® to the needs of landscape architects, irrigation designers, and other professionals. We automate your most tedious tasks and ensure accuracy, giving you more time to design.