Square Foot Garden Planner
Tap squares to plant them. The planner shows each square's spacing, counts your seeds and dates every sowing from your last frost.
This is an example 4 × 4 bed: tall tomatoes and pole beans on the north side, salad and roots up front. Pick a plant and tap a square to change it, or clear the bed and start your own.
North
| Plant | Squares | Plants / seeds | When |
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Your plan is saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Lay out a raised bed one square foot at a time. Pick a plant, tap or drag across the grid, and the planner counts how many plants or seeds you need for each square and when to put them in, based on your last frost date. Free, no account, and it prints on one page.
How to use the square foot garden planner
- Set your bed size. A classic square foot bed is 4 × 4 ft: small enough to reach the middle from either side. 4 × 8 ft is the next most common size.
- Enter your last frost date. Look it up from your local extension office or a frost date tool for your ZIP code. The "When" column then shows real dates instead of weeks.
- Paint the squares. Choose a plant, then tap squares or drag across them. Use the eraser to clear a square.
- Print it. The printout keeps only the grid and the shopping list, so you can take it to the garden centre.
How many plants per square foot
Square foot gardening uses four spacings. Big plants such as tomatoes, peppers and broccoli get a whole square. Medium plants like lettuce and basil go 4 to a square, 6 inches apart. Beets, spinach and bush beans go 9 to a square, and small roots like carrots and radishes go 16 to a square, 3 inches apart. Zucchini and winter squash need more room than one square, so the planner counts one plant per 4 squares. The full list is in the square foot gardening spacing chart.
Planning tips
- Tall plants on the north side. Put tomatoes, pole beans, peas and trellised cucumbers along the north edge so they don't shade the rest of the bed (south edge if you garden in the southern hemisphere).
- Mix early and late crops. Peas, spinach and radishes are done by early summer. Plan to replant those squares with beans or a second round of lettuce.
- Plant less of each, more often. Two squares of lettuce sown two weeks apart gives a steady supply instead of 8 heads ready on the same day.
- Leave a square for herbs. Basil next to tomatoes and parsley near the edge are easy to pick.
FAQ
What soil mix goes in a square foot garden?
The original method uses equal parts compost, peat moss (or coconut coir) and coarse vermiculite, about 6 inches deep. Most people now use a good raised bed mix with plenty of compost, which works too.
How do I find my last frost date?
Your state's cooperative extension service publishes average frost dates by area, and many seed companies have ZIP code lookups. Use the average date, then watch the forecast: a late frost can still come a week or two after it.
Can I plan more than one bed?
Plan one bed, print it, then change the size and plan the next. Or set the length to 8 and treat the two halves as two 4 × 4 beds.
Are the dates right for my area?
They follow common extension-service guidance relative to the last frost. Cool climates with short springs, and hot southern climates, often shift by a couple of weeks, so treat them as a starting point.