Square-foot garden planner
Draw your raised beds, pick a crop and tap squares to plant them. The planner counts how many plants each square holds and adds up every crop, ready to print.
Seed tray
Pick a crop to see its spacing.
Keyboard: Tab into a bed, move with the arrow keys, press Enter or Space to plant the chosen crop and Delete to empty a square.
Square-foot garden plan
Bed 1: Bed 1 4 × 4 ft
Bed 1 (4 × 4 ft)
0 of 16 squares planted, 16 free.
No squares planted yet. Pick a crop on the left, then tap squares in a bed, or load the example bed.
How the square-foot method works
Mel Bartholomew's square-foot gardening divides a raised bed into one-foot squares and plants each square according to the size of the crop: one extra-large plant such as a tomato, pepper or cabbage; four large ones such as kale or potatoes; nine medium ones such as bush beans, beets or spinach; or sixteen small ones such as carrots, onions and radishes. The classic bed is 4 × 4 ft, and no bed should be wider than 4 ft (3 ft is easier) so you can reach the middle without stepping on the soil.
How we set each crop's count
Where Washington State University Extension's summary of Bartholomew names a crop, we use its class. For the rest we take the crop's spacing from Colorado State University's block-planting table or Virginia Cooperative Extension and round it to the nearest class: 3 in apart gives 16 per square, 4 in gives 9, 6 in gives 4 and up to 18 in gives 1. Sprawling squash and melons need a block of squares per plant. Change any count with the menu under the seed tray; seed packets sometimes suggest otherwise.
Sources
- Custer H. Square Foot Gardening: Simple, Versatile and Fun! Washington State University Extension, Skagit County Master Gardeners, 2016, summarising Bartholomew M. All New Square Foot Gardening, 2nd ed. Cool Springs Press, 2013. wpcdn.web.wsu.edu (PDF)
- Whiting D, O’Meara C, Wilson C. Vegetable Planting Guide. Colorado State University Extension, GardenNotes #720, 2018, reviewed 2024. extension.colostate.edu
- Jadrnicek S, Hessler A. Virginia’s Home Garden Vegetable Planting Guide: Recommended Planting Dates and Amounts to Plant. Virginia Cooperative Extension 426-331, 2025 (Table 5). pubs.ext.vt.edu
Questions
Is my plan saved?
Yes, in this browser's local storage, so it is there when you come back on the same device. Use Print or Download CSV to keep a copy elsewhere.
Can I plan in metric?
The grid is in feet, as in Bartholomew's method. A 30 cm square is close enough to use the same counts.
Why do squash show 1/9?
A zucchini or winter squash spaced 36 in apart needs a 3 × 3 block, so each square holds a ninth of a plant. Paint all nine squares and the total shows one plant.