Square Foot Garden Planner – Free Layout Tool (40+ Crops)
🌱 Square Foot Garden Planner
Enter your bed size, pick your crops, and get an instant visual layout — with plants per square, companion planting tips, and the tools that make SFG work.
📐 4×4 Bed Layout — 16 squares
🤝 Companion Planting Notes
🛒 Recommended Tools for Square Foot Gardening
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💡 Growing Tips for Your Layout
📋 Plants Per Square Foot — Reference Chart (35+ Crops)
Based on Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening method. One square = 1 ft × 1 ft.
← swipe to see all columns
| Crop | Season | Plants / Sq Ft | Spacing | Sq Ft Needed | Notes |
|---|
Square Foot Gardening: How It Works & Why It Produces More
Square foot gardening divides a raised bed into one-foot squares, each planted at maximum density. Instead of traditional row spacing (designed for tractors), every inch of soil grows something useful. The result: 5× more yield from the same area with less weeding, less watering, and less effort.
How to Calculate Plants Per Square Foot
Divide 12 inches by the plant’s spacing requirement, then square the result. 6-inch spacing = 2×2 = 4 plants/sq. 4-inch spacing = 3×3 = 9 plants/sq. 3-inch spacing = 4×4 = 16 plants/sq. Large plants like tomatoes need multiple squares — this planner calculates it automatically.
Best Bed Size for Beginners
Start with a 4×4 bed (16 squares). It’s manageable, reachable from all sides without stepping in, and produces enough variety for a small family. Once you understand the system, a 4×8 bed (32 squares) gives you enough space for a serious summer garden with tomatoes, peppers, beans, and greens all at once.
The Mel’s Mix Advantage
SFG works because of the growing medium. Mel’s Mix is one-third coarse vermiculite, one-third peat moss or coco coir, and one-third blended compost from five or more sources. This mix never compacts, drains perfectly, and doesn’t need tilling between seasons. A 4×4 bed needs about 8 cubic feet (6 inches deep).
Crop Rotation in SFG
Because each square is independent, crop rotation is simple: just don’t plant the same family in the same square next season. Move tomatoes, rotate brassicas, rest heavy-feeding squares with a legume. Keep a photo of each season’s layout — it takes 30 seconds and prevents the most common SFG disease problems.
Common Square Foot Garden Questions
Square foot gardening (SFG) is a method developed by Mel Bartholomew that divides a raised bed into one-foot squares and plants each at maximum density. Decades of home gardener results confirm it produces significantly more yield per square foot than conventional row gardening — primarily because nothing is wasted on wide row spacing, and intensive management is easier in small, defined beds. A well-managed 4×4 SFG bed can produce as much usable food as a 10×10 conventional plot.
A 4×4 bed has 16 squares. Depending on what you grow, you could fit 1 tomato plant (which takes 4–9 squares), 4 pepper plants (1 per square), 64 carrots (16 per square across 4 squares), and 36 lettuce plants (4 per square across 9 squares) — all in one bed. The number of individual plants ranges from as few as 4 (all large crops) to 150+ (all small-spacing crops like carrots and radishes).
Maximum 4 feet wide — never more. The reason is simple: you need to reach every square from the path without stepping into the bed. Stepping in compacts the soil, which defeats the purpose of SFG’s loose, never-compacted growing medium. A 4-foot-wide bed lets most adults reach the center from either side. Length is flexible — 4, 6, 8, or 12 feet all work well.
Mel Bartholomew’s Mel’s Mix: one-third coarse vermiculite, one-third peat moss or coconut coir, and one-third blended compost from at least five different sources. Never use garden soil — it compacts in raised beds and smothers roots. This mix is more expensive upfront but lasts for years with only a compost topdress each season. A 4×4 bed at 6 inches deep needs approximately 8 cubic feet of mix.
The best SFG crops give high yield relative to the space they use. Lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, and herbs like basil give the best return per square. Bush beans (9 per square), beets (9 per square), and Swiss chard (4 per square) are excellent medium-density choices. Cherry tomatoes and cucumbers trellised vertically give high grocery value. Crops to avoid in small SFG beds: corn (needs a block for wind pollination), winter squash (sprawls), and watermelon (20+ square feet per plant).