See your garden bed as a real grid of 1-foot squares — with the exact number of plants in every square — or work out how many plants you need for a hedge row of any length. Pick a mode below; results update as you type.
Each square = 1 × 1 ft
🌱 Total — 0 plants
The square foot gardening rule: divide 12 inches by the plant's seed-packet spacing to get plants per row, then square it. These are the standard values — the same ones used in the EdenVatika bed designer.
1 per square
12″ spacing — pepper, kale, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, potato
4 per square
6″ spacing — lettuce, basil, beans, onion, garlic, strawberry, corn
9 per square
4″ spacing — spinach, beets, arugula, chives, parsnip
16 per square
3″ spacing — carrots, radishes, spring onions
| Plant | Per square foot | Spacing | In a 4×8 bed |
|---|
Bed length and width in feet or metres — or switch to hedge mode and enter the length of the row.
Choose from 55 crops, herbs and flowers (or 14 hedge species). Each carries its proven plants-per-square or spacing value.
See your bed drawn square by square with the plant count in each one, the total, and how it compares to traditional rows.
Most vegetables fit 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants per square foot, depending on their mature size: plants needing 12-inch spacing get 1 per square, 6-inch spacing gets 4, 4-inch spacing gets 9, and 3-inch spacing gets 16. Very large plants invert the rule — a zucchini takes 2 square feet and an indeterminate tomato a full 2 × 2 ft block.
This is square foot gardening: divide the bed into a grid of 1 × 1 ft squares and plant each square at the density the crop can actually support, instead of the wide, tractor-era row spacing printed on seed packets. In a raised bed you never walk on, row paths are pure wasted space — equal spacing in all directions typically fits 2–5× more plants in the same footprint.
The formula:
Plants per square = (12 ÷ spacing in inches)²
Total plants = bed squares × plants per square
A crop needing 3-inch spacing fits 12 ÷ 3 = 4 plants per row inside a square, so 4² = 16 per square foot.
Worked example: a 4 × 8 ft raised bed has 32 squares. Planted with lettuce at 4 per square, that's 32 × 4 = 128 lettuce plants — versus about 48 in traditional rows. With carrots at 16 per square, the same bed holds 512.
Plant small-leaved formal hedges like boxwood, privet and hawthorn 30 cm (12 in) apart; beech and hornbeam 45 cm (18 in); yew, holly and cherry laurel 60 cm (24 in); and large conifers like Leyland cypress and Thuja Green Giant 90–150 cm (3–5 ft).
Hedge spacing is a different problem from bed spacing — you're planting a line, not an area. Too far apart and the hedge takes years longer to close, with permanent thin patches at the base; too close and the plants compete, drop lower leaves, and cost more than they should.
The formula:
Single row = (hedge length ÷ spacing) + 1
Double staggered ≈ single row × 2
The +1 is the fence-post rule — a 3 m run at 30 cm spacing needs 11 plants, not 10. At 30 cm that works out to roughly 3 plants per metre single row, 5–6 per metre double staggered.
For a dense hedge fast — especially native mixed hedging or a stock-proof boundary — plant a double staggered row: two rows 30–45 cm apart, with the second row's plants offset opposite the gaps in the first. The hedge calculator above gives an exact count for both patterns.
Spacing to the seedling, not the mature plant
A zucchini seedling looks lost in 2 square feet — eight weeks later it fills all of it. Always space for the size on the label, not the plant in your hand. Fill the temporary gaps with radishes or lettuce that finish before the big plant needs the room.
Using seed-packet row spacing in a raised bed
Packet spacing includes walking paths for field growing. In a bed you reach into from the sides, those paths waste 40–60% of your soil. Use per-square spacing and put every square foot to work.
Skipping the thinning
Sowing carrots at 16 per square only works if you ruthlessly thin to one seedling per station. Crowded roots fork, twist and stay small. Thinning feels wasteful; not thinning is what actually wastes the bed.
Crowding plants that need airflow
Tomatoes, squash and cucumbers pushed closer than their minimum trap humid air around the leaves — the launch condition for powdery mildew and blight. For these crops the spacing is disease insurance, not a suggestion.
Planting a hedge at equal gaps without the fence-post rule
Dividing a 6 m run by 30 cm gives 20 gaps — but 21 plants. Order by gaps and you arrive one plant short, with a hole at the end of the hedge for the next decade. The calculator counts posts, not gaps.
It depends on the mature size of the plant. The square foot gardening rule of thumb: plants needing 12-inch spacing get 1 per square foot (tomato-family, brassicas), 6-inch spacing gets 4 per square (lettuce, basil, beans, onions), 4-inch spacing gets 9 per square (spinach, beets), and 3-inch spacing gets 16 per square (carrots, radishes). Very large plants like tomatoes and zucchini go the other way — 1 plant per 2 or 4 square feet.
It divides your bed into a grid of 1 × 1 ft squares, then multiplies the number of squares by the plants-per-square value for your crop. A 4 × 8 ft bed has 32 squares — that's 32 lettuce squares × 4 = 128 lettuce plants, or 32 × 16 = 512 carrots. The calculator above draws this grid visually so you can see the exact layout before you plant.
Most formal hedge plants (boxwood, privet, hawthorn) are planted 30 cm (12 in) apart in a single row. Mid-size evergreens like yew, holly and cherry laurel go 60 cm (24 in) apart. Fast, large conifers like Leyland cypress need 90 cm (3 ft), and Thuja Green Giant 150 cm (5 ft). For a thicker hedge faster, plant a double staggered row with rows 30–45 cm apart.
At 30 cm spacing you need roughly 3 plants per metre in a single row, or 5–6 per metre in a double staggered row — the standard for bare-root native hedging like hawthorn and beech. At 60 cm spacing it's about 1.5–2 per metre. Use the hedge row spacing calculator above for an exact count for your hedge length.
Two parallel rows about 30–45 cm apart, with the plants in the second row offset so they sit opposite the gaps in the first row — a zigzag pattern. It roughly doubles the plant count but produces a dense, stock-proof hedge much faster and with fewer gaps at the base. It's the recommended planting pattern for native mixed hedging.
Using square foot spacing in a 4 × 8 ft (32 sq ft) bed: 8 tomatoes (1 per 4 sq ft), 32 peppers or kale, 128 lettuce or bush beans, 288 spinach or beets, or 512 carrots. Mixing crops square-by-square is the real power of the method — the EdenVatika app lets you drag different crops into each square.
Yes — seed packets assume traditional rows with wide walking paths between them. Square foot gardening removes the paths and spaces plants equally in all directions, which typically fits 2–5× more plants in the same bed area. It works best in raised beds with rich, deep soil and consistent watering.
Everything you need to plan and grow a productive garden.
The same square-foot grid you see above is the heart of the EdenVatika bed designer — drag basil, tomatoes and carrots into their own squares, get companion-planting warnings, and carry the plan through the whole season.
Drag-and-drop bed designer
Mix any crops in one bed — every square shows its ×N per-square count automatically
AI Auto Plan
Tell it what you want to eat and it fills the grid with a balanced, companion-friendly layout
Planting records & rotation history
Log what went in each square and see last season's layout when planning the next
Free to start
2 beds included · planting log · task reminders
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