How to Measure Your Lawn Quickly, Easily & Accurately

So today I’m going to show you how to measure your lawn.

‘Why should I measure my lawn?’, I hear your ask.

Well, dear reader, the square meterage of your lawn dictates the amount of turf you buy if you create a new lawn with turf. It dictates the amount of grass seed you buy when sowing a lawn from seed or overseeding an existing lawn. It dictates how much weed killer you buy, moss killer, fertiliser, the size and type of lawn mower you should buy …

Everything!

So the square meterage of your lawn is one of the very first things you should know about it.

I’ve even got a really cool way of measuring your lawn pretty accurately using Google Earth.

So let’s do that now.

Measuring Your Lawn

Lawns come in all different shapes and sizes and some are more difficult to measure than others.

Shapes squares, rectangles, triangles and circles are easy to measure. In fact I’ve created a;

• Turf calculator for working out how much you’ll when turfing a new lawn
• Grass seed calculator to work out how much you’ll need when sowing a new lawn from seed

If your lawn is square, rectangular, circular or triangular, go use one of them as it’ll work out the size of your lawn for you.

However, if your lawn doesn’t have a strict shape, you’ll need a different approach.

Don’t worry though, I’ll show you how to measure your lawn, no matter what shape it is.

But first I need to say this…

Use a Frickin’ TAPE MEASURE!!!

Honest-to-god, the number of people I’ve seen under-order or over-order turf because they measured their lawn by the size of their steps is shocking!

So for god’s sake, use a tape measure!

Also, turf comes in rolls of 1m² so measure the area you want to turf in metres. I know some people like to use feet and inches but c’mon, it if the stuff is supplied by the m² then it makes perfect sense to measure us using metres. It saves and confusion and makes mistakes much less likely.

With all that out of the way, here’s how to measure your lawn manually.

Measuring Square or Rectangular Lawns

Measuring a square or rectangle lawn is dead easy, just multiply the length by the width.

So in this case you multiply 10 (the length) by 5 (the width).

10 x 5 = 50, or 50m²

So that’s 50 rolls of turf.

Measuring Triangular Lawns

To get the square meterage of a triangle lawn, all you need to is multiply the base by the height then divide it by two.

So if the base is 10 metres and the height is 5 metres it would look like this;

10 x 5 = 50 / 2 = 25m²

Or 25 rolls of turf.

Measuring Circular Lawns

Measuring a circular is a tad more complicated than a square lawn but don’t you worry, uncle Daniel is here to show you how.

Take the diameter of the circle (that’s the measurement across the lawn) and divide it by 2. This will give you the radius.

So if the diameter is 10 metres, the radius will be 5 meters.

You with me?

Now, take your radius and multiply it by itself.

Then multiply that number by 3.14.

The equation looks like this;

R x R x 3.14

All you need to do is remove the ‘R’ and replace it with the measurement. So if the radius of your lawn is 5 meters it’d look like this;

5 x 5 x 3.14 = 78.5m²

or 79 rolls of turf.

Measuring an Irregular Shaped Lawn

Irregular or oddly-shaped lawns take a little bit more work to measure and you’ll need some graph paper to do it accuarately.

Here’s how;

1. Assign one large square to one square meter of garden.
2. Measure the length and width of your whole garden and draw the outline.
3. Next, measure any permanent features and draw them on your plan. I’m talking, patios, sheds, paths etc.
4. Now measure the distance between the edges of your permanent features with the edges of your lawn and mark them on your plan.
5. You should now be able to draw the outline of your lawn fairly accurately.
6. Count the full squares of lawn and make a note of the number.
7. Then count the partial squares and take an educated guess of the square meterage of them.
8. Add those numbers together and you’ve got a pretty accurate figure.

In the example above, there are 39 whole squares and I calculated the partial squares to roughly 20m².

So that’s 59m² in total, or 59 rolls of turf.

Using Google Earth to Measure Your Lawn

Another cool way of measuring your lawn is by using Google Earth.

It’s ideal for measuring large areas when a tape measure isn’t really an option but you can measure any lawn fairly accurately.

It’s also a good option if you can’t be bothered to drag your arse off the sofa.

Hey, I’m not judging!

Here’s a quick video to show you how to to do it;

Or if you’d rather follow written instructions;

1. Go to Google Earth
2. Click the ‘Launch Earth’ button
3. Click the magnifying glass icon on the menu and enter your address
4. Zoom into your house and click on the ruler icon on the menu
5. Mark the points of your lawn on the map and Google will tell you the area of your lawn in square metres

And There You Have it

And that, is how to measure your lawn.

Now, if your memory is anything like mine, the next time you need to know how big your lawn is, you’ll have forgotten.

So write it down.

Make a note your phone, write it on a piece of paper and stick it to the side of the fridge, or do what I’ve done…

I’ve got graffitied the measurement on my shed wall!

I’m a vandal, I know…