Garden Planning Project

Pre-Algebra · Axiom Academy

One rectangle, three questions — how much room is inside, how much fence goes around, and how many bags cover it. 1. Area: How Much Room Is Inside The area is how much flat space the garden covers — the room you actually plant in. Lay down a grid of 1 ft × 1 ft squares: the plot is 12 squares across and 10 rows down , so each row holds 12 squares and there are 10 rows. Counting them all is just 12 × 10 . 120 square feet of growing space 2. Perimeter: How Much Fence Goes Around To fence the garden you don't care what's inside — you care about the trip around the edge . That distance is the perimeter . Walk the boundary and add each side: 12, then 10, then 12, then 10. Because the opposite sides match, that's the same as two lengths plus two widths . Top and bottom are each the length, 12 ft. Together: 12 + 12 = 24 ft. Left and right are each the width, 10 ft. Together: 10 + 10 = 20 ft. All four sides: 24 + 20 = 44 ft once around. Same answer faster: 2(12 + 10) = 2(22) = 44 ft. Adding all four sides and grouping the matching pairs gives 12 + 10 + 12 + 10 = 2(12 + 10) . The garden needs 44 feet of fencing — exactly the distance the marker traveled around the loop. 3. Covering It: Splitting Area into Equal Groups Mulch keeps the soil moist and the weeds down, so you cover the whole 120 sq ft . Each bag covers 10 sq ft . The question "how many bags?" is really "how many 10s fit into 120?" — and that is exactly what division answers.

This is the written version of the interactive lesson above. See the full Pre-Algebra course.