Square Foot Garden Planner

How the planner works

Choose the bed's width (up to 4 ft) and length (up to 12 ft). Each square on the grid is one square foot. Pick a crop from the list and tap the squares to plant it. Tap a planted square again to clear it, or choose the eraser.

• Plants per crop = squares × plants per square foot for that crop. Carrots at 16 per square fill 2 squares with 32 plants.
• Big crops such as zucchini count whole plants only. If you give a zucchini 4 squares, the planner tells you it needs 5 more for one plant.
• Neighbors. If two squares that share an edge hold crops that companion charts keep apart, such as beans beside onions or tomatoes beside potatoes, the planner flags them. Diagonal squares don't count.

Use the arrow keys to move around the grid and Enter or Space to plant. The top of the grid is north, so put tall and trellised crops there and they won't shade the rest of the bed.

Plants per square foot chart

The commonly published square foot gardening spacing. A few crops vary from chart to chart. Use the seed packet as a check, since a compact variety may fit tighter.

The spacing column is the distance between plants in a grid inside the square. Four per square means a 2 × 2 grid 6 inches apart, nine means 3 × 3 at 4 inches, and sixteen means 4 × 4 at 3 inches.

Example: the sample 4 × 4 ft bed

The planner opens with this plan, row by row from the north edge:

1. North row: tomato, basil, pepper, marigold. The tallest plants go here, so they shade only the path.
2. Second row: two squares of lettuce and two of spinach. That is 8 lettuce plants (2 × 4) and 18 spinach plants (2 × 9).
3. Third row: two squares of carrots, then beets and onions. That is 32 carrots (2 × 16), 9 beets and 9 onions.
4. South row: two squares of bush beans, then radishes and strawberries. That is 18 bean plants, 16 radishes and 4 strawberry plants.
5. Total: 16 squares and 122 plants, including the tomato, the pepper, 2 basil and 4 marigolds.
6. Check the neighbors. The beans are kept away from the onion square, with the radishes in between. Most charts advise against beans beside onions, and the planner would flag them if they touched.

When the radishes come out, about four weeks after sowing, replant that square with more radishes, lettuce or bush beans.

Tips

• Mark the grid. Lay wooden lath or string across the bed every 12 inches. Without a visible grid, the spacing drifts within a week.
• Trellis on the north side. Peas, pole beans and cucumbers grown up a trellis along the north edge use a single row of squares and shade nothing.
• Sow two seeds per spot. Make the holes at the spacing in the chart, drop in two seeds and snip the weaker seedling. Pulling it disturbs the roots of the one you keep.
• Replant as you harvest. A square that empties in June can still grow a fall crop of lettuce, spinach or radishes.
• Never step in the bed. The loose soil is what lets plants grow this close together.