Plants Per Square Foot
Square-foot gardening plant counts for any bed size.
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Garden Planner Grid
Lay out a square-foot garden on an interactive grid: set your bed size, click to plant each crop, and watch plants-per-crop and total seedlings tally as you plan.
Garden Planner Grid
Chlorova · updated for 2026
Garden Planner Grid
Plant into squares
8 ft across × 4 ft deep = 32 squares. Click to plant, click again with Erase to clear.
Planting plan
- Bed area
- 32 sq ft
- Squares planted
- 0 / 32
- Bed used
- 0%
Nothing planted yet — pick a crop above and click the squares.
Total: 0 plants / seedlings to start across 0 crops.
Plant densities shown are the standard square-foot-gardening figures for each crop and describe intensive, well-amended bed growing; a full-sun, fertile bed and consistent watering are assumed. Realistic yields vary with variety, climate and skill, and some crops (potato, corn, winter squash, large pumpkin) are poor fits for the one-foot-square method and are intentionally omitted. Treat the count as a starting layout, not a guarantee, and thin seedlings to the recommended spacing once they sprout.
A square-foot garden turns a raised bed into a grid of one-foot squares you can actually plan, plant and count. This interactive planner hands you that grid on screen: set your bed dimensions, choose a crop, then click the squares to lay out exactly what grows where. It tallies plants per crop and total seedlings as you paint, so a rough paper sketch becomes a real planting order before you spend a dollar on seed. No guesswork and no overcrowded bed, just a plan you can walk outside and plant.
Planning Your Bed Step by Step
- Set the bed width and length in feet to build your grid.
- Pick a crop from the palette along the top of the board.
- Click any square to plant that crop into it.
- Choose Erase and click a square to clear it back to empty.
- Use Fill all to cover the whole bed with one crop.
- Watch squares planted and total seedlings update as you go.
- Aim to fill every square, since intensive beds leave no gaps.
- Note the per-crop plant tally to build your seed order.
How the Grid Turns Into a Plant Count
Each square on the board is one square foot of bed, so the width times length gives the total squares and the total growing area at once. When you paint a crop into a square, the planner multiplies that square by the crop's standard planting density, the number of that plant the square can hold, and adds it to the running tally.
Those densities come from square-foot gardening practice rather than arithmetic: a foot of rich, close-planted bed carries one tomato but sixteen carrots or nine lettuce heads. The board simply counts how many squares hold each crop, then multiplies and sums them into total plants and seedlings, so the layout you drag out on screen becomes the exact seed order you take to the checkout.
Worked Example: A Four-by-Eight Herb and Salad Bed
- Set width to 4 and length to 8, giving thirty-two squares.
- Select Lettuce from the palette and paint eight squares along one end.
- At four lettuce per square that is thirty-two lettuce plants.
- Select Radish and fill eight more squares along the opposite edge.
- Sixteen radishes per square now adds one hundred twenty-eight.
- Choose Spinach for six squares at nine each, so fifty-four.
- Fill the remaining ten squares with a mix of herbs.
- The header reads thirty-two squares planted, one hundred percent of the bed.
- The footer sums every crop into the total seedlings to start.
- You leave with a count per crop, not a vague guess.
Standard Square-Foot Densities
The plants-per-square figures the planner assigns to each crop, matching close intensive-planting guidance for a fertile, well-watered raised bed, where density always follows a plant's mature footprint rather than the size of the seed you sow into it.
| Crop | Plants per square |
|---|---|
| Tomato, pepper, eggplant | 1 |
| Cucumber | 2 |
| Lettuce, herbs | 4 |
| Kale | 6 |
| Peas | 8 |
| Spinach, beet, garlic | 9 |
| Bush bean | 9 |
| Carrot, radish, onion | 16 |
| Broccoli, cabbage | 1 |
| Leek, green onion | 16 |
Key Terms
- Square-foot gardening
- An intensive method dividing a raised bed into one-foot squares, each planted at a fixed density.
- Planting density
- How many of one crop fit a single square foot, set by the plant's mature size.
- Bed area
- Width times length in feet, equal to the count of plantable squares.
- Succession
- Replanting a square with a quick crop as soon as the first is harvested.
- Seedling
- A young plant started from seed, counted here as the plants you must grow or buy.
Bed-Planning Habits That Pay Off
- Put the tallest or vining crops on the north edge of the grid so they shade the bed's edge rather than smother low plants across the middle.
- Group plants by water need within the grid, because a bed that mixes thirsty lettuce with drought-tolerant herbs forces you to either overwater one or underwater the other.
- Reserve whole squares for perennials like asparagus or mint and mentally ring them off, since mint in particular will invade neighboring squares if planted loose.
- Fast radishes and leaf greens can be painted between slow tomatoes, then harvested before the larger plants need the full square, doubling the bed's output in one season.
- Sketch the grid before you buy seed and again after harvest, so next year's plan starts from what actually filled the bed rather than what you imagined would.
Common Mistakes and Fixes
- Planting large vining crops like squash in a single square and expecting the bed to contain them.
- Ignoring the grid's spacing and sowing a whole packet, then fighting crowded, stunted plants.
- Leaving gaps unplanted, which wastes the intensive footprint the method exists to maximize.
- Forgetting that a square's density assumes rich amended soil, then crowded-pruning a poor bed.
- Mixing heavy and light feeders with different water needs in the same square row.
- Not thinning seedlings to the true per-square count once everything germinates at once.
When to Use This and When Not To
Use this grid to design a square-foot raised bed, plan an herb-and-salad patch, or turn a seed packet list into exact seedling counts before buying. It models intensive one-foot-square spacing, so it is the wrong tool for row cropping, full-size vine patches or field acreage; for those use the row-seeding and plants-per-acre calculators, and let this board handle the backyard bed where the square-foot method actually shines.
Garden Planner Grid: Frequently Asked Questions
What size bed should I start with?
A four-by-eight-foot bed is the classic first square-foot garden: thirty-two squares is enough to learn on but small enough to reach across without stepping into the soil. The planner caps the board so a realistic bed stays responsive on screen, and you can resize width and length freely within that range.
Why are some crops one plant per square?
Because density follows a plant's mature footprint, not the seed's size. A tomato or pepper needs the whole square for its roots and canopy, while a carrot you harvest young fits sixteen. The planner stores the correct figure per crop so your count matches how big each plant actually gets.
Can I plan more than one crop per square?
The grid assigns one crop per square to keep the tally honest, but you can interplant in the real bed by sowing a quick radish or lettuce between a slower crop. Plan the square for the crop that will occupy it at maturity, then treat the fast filler as a bonus harvest before the main plant takes over.
Does this give me a shopping list?
It gives you a planting count, which is the basis for one: the per-crop tallies and total seedlings tell you how many plants to start, buy as transplants, or how many feet of seed to sow. Pair the number with the seed-starting and spacing calculators to turn the plan into dates and packet quantities.
What about crops the grid leaves out?
Staple row crops such as sweet corn, potato and full-size pumpkin are deliberately omitted because they are poor fits for one-foot squares and do better in rows or hills. Grow those beside the grid rather than inside it, and reserve the squares for the close-planted crops the method is built around.
Sources & Further Reading
- Square Foot Gardening — Mel Bartholomew (Storey Publishing). Origin of the one-foot-square planting-density method this planner models.
- Intensive Vegetable Planting Spacing — University of Massachusetts Extension. Plants-per-square-foot figures used for each crop's density.
- Raised Bed and Small-Space Vegetable Production — Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Guidance on bed layout, companion placement and succession in intensive beds.
Chlorova Gardening Team
Builds, checks and documents every tool we publish
Chlorova editorial review
Checked against extension-service publications
Formula verified against published references · Updated
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