Garden Planner
Lay out your vegetable beds square by square. Pick a crop, click or drag across a raised bed and the planner works out how many plants fit at the right spacing, flags poor companion pairs that sit side by side, and prints a plan to take outside.
Last updated:
Plant counts
Companion check
Print & save
Saved automatically in this browser. Grid squares are 1 × 1 ft (square-foot gardening).
How to use the Garden Planner
- Set up your beds: change the sample bed sizes or add a new bed with its width and length in feet.
- Pick a plant from the list (search helps) and click a square, drag across several squares, or drag the plant from the list onto the bed.
- Rearrange with the Move tool, or remove plants with Erase. Undo reverts the last change.
- Check companions: plants with a poor neighbor get a red outline and the reason appears under Companion check.
- Print the plan or copy the plant list to know how many seeds or transplants to buy.
Square-foot spacing chart
Square-foot gardening divides a bed into 1 × 1 ft squares and plants each square with a set number of plants instead of using long rows. Spacing in inches is 12 ÷ √(plants per square).
| Plants per square | Spacing | Crops |
|---|---|---|
| 1 per 9 sq ft (3 × 3 ft) | 36 in | Zucchini, summer squash |
| 1 per 4 sq ft (2 × 2 ft) | 24 in | Melons and winter squash grown up a trellis |
| 1 | 12 in | Tomato (staked), pepper, eggplant, potato, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, corn, okra, dill |
| 2 | trellis row | Cucumber on a trellis |
| 4 | 6 in | Leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, celery, basil, parsley, strawberry, marigold |
| 8 | 2 rows of 4 | Peas, pole beans (on a trellis) |
| 9 | 4 in | Spinach, beet, turnip, onion, garlic, leek, bush beans, cilantro |
| 16 | 3 in | Carrot, radish |
These are common square-foot gardening values for rich, loose raised-bed soil. Variety matters: compact or patio types can go closer, very large heirlooms may need more room, so check the seed packet.
Companion planting at a glance
| Crop | Traditional good neighbors | Keep apart from |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato | Basil, marigold, parsley, carrot | Potato (shared blight), cabbage family, corn (shared earworm), mature dill, fennel |
| Beans and peas | Corn, squash (Three Sisters) | Onion, garlic, leek |
| Carrot | Onion, leek, lettuce, tomato | Dill |
| Cabbage family | Dill, onion, nasturtium | Tomato, strawberry |
| Cucumber | Dill, nasturtium, radish | Potato |
| Potato | Beans, corn | Tomato, cucumber, squash, melon |
| Fennel | None; grow it on its own | Most crops |
Garden layout tips
- Tall crops on the north side (in the Northern Hemisphere) so tomatoes, corn and trellised crops don't shade shorter plants.
- Plant corn in blocks of at least 4 × 4 plants rather than one long row; it is wind-pollinated and fills its ears better in a block.
- Rotate plant families each year (nightshades, cabbage family, legumes, roots) to reduce soil-borne disease.
- Succession sow fast crops such as radishes and lettuce every 2 to 3 weeks in the same square for a steady harvest.
- Need plant counts for in-ground rows instead of squares? Try the Plant Spacing Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How many plants fit in one square foot?
This planner uses the common square-foot gardening spacing: large plants such as tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cabbage take 1 per square foot; lettuce, chard, basil and strawberries 4; spinach, beets, onions, garlic and bush beans 9; peas and pole beans 8 in two rows; carrots and radishes 16. Sprawling crops need more room: zucchini about 3 × 3 ft per plant and trellised melons or winter squash about 2 × 2 ft.
How is the spacing in inches worked out?
For n evenly spaced plants in a 12 in square, spacing is 12 ÷ √n inches: 4 per square means 6 in apart, 9 per square 4 in, and 16 per square 3 in. Seed packets list row spacing for traditional rows, which is wider because it includes a walking path between rows.
What does the companion check look at?
Every pair of different plants whose squares touch, including diagonally, is compared with a list of traditional companion and poor-companion pairs, such as beans with onions or garlic, tomatoes with potatoes or cabbage-family crops, and fennel with almost anything. Poor pairs get a red outline. Plants further apart in the bed are not flagged.
Is companion planting scientifically proven?
Only partly. A few effects are well supported, such as shared diseases (tomatoes and potatoes both get late blight) and trap or beneficial-insect plants, but many classic pairings come from gardener experience rather than controlled trials. Treat the warnings as a helpful rule of thumb, not a hard rule.
What size should a raised bed be?
A width of 3 to 4 ft lets you reach the middle from both sides without stepping on the soil, and 8 ft is a common length because lumber comes in 8 ft boards. Leave paths of at least 18 to 24 in between beds, or about 36 in if you need a wheelbarrow.
Can I plan a bed in meters?
The grid always uses 1 ft squares, the standard unit of square-foot gardening, but each bed also shows its area in square meters. A 1 ft square is 30.5 cm, so a 1.2 × 2.4 m bed is about 4 × 8 ft.
Where is my garden plan saved?
In your browser's local storage on this device. Nothing is uploaded. Print the plan or copy the plant list if you want a copy elsewhere.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.