River Rock Calculator for Garden Beds
River rock on a bed goes 2–3 inches deep, and a ton covers roughly 120 square feet at 2 inches or 80 at 3 — it is sold by the ton more often than the yard.
Work out what you need
Measure the area, set the depth, and this converts it to tons, what it weighs on the truck, how many bags that replaces, and roughly what it should cost delivered.
Weight is quoted as a band because moisture moves it more than grade does — river rock after heavy rain runs to about 105% of its dry weight. The delivered range starts from a published $40–200 per cubic yard and is scaled by how your region's material prices compare with the national average, so treat it as a sanity check and not a quote.
Get a real price from yards near youNot a garden bed? The landscape rock guide covers every other job.
Why 2–3 inches for a garden bed
River rock is the one material here people price in tons rather than yards, and a ton is roughly three-quarters of a cubic yard of rounded stone.
What goes wrong
It never locks together, so it walks underfoot and spreads. Without edging, and on any slope at all, it ends up at the bottom of the slope.
Deeper than about two inches it walks underfoot and spreads. It needs edging, and on any slope it ends up at the bottom of the slope.
River Rock by the numbers
| Weight per cubic yard | 2,400–2,700 lb dry |
|---|---|
| Tons per cubic yard | about 1.3 |
| Bags in a cubic yard | 54 × 0.5 cu ft bags |
| Half-ton pickup, one trip | about 0.25 cubic yards |
| Usually priced by the | ton |
| Typical delivered price | $40–200 per cubic yard |
Tumbled and rounded, so it never locks together. Yards sell it by the ton more often than the yard, and a ton is roughly 0.75 yards.