🛏️ Raised Bed Planner
Design raised garden beds with optimal plant layouts and spacing. Plan vegetable gardens using square foot gardening or traditional row spacing methods.
Your Result:
Raised Bed Layout Example
Tomato
Tomato
How to Use This Raised Bed Planner
How to Use the Raised Bed Planner
Design your perfect raised bed garden layout with our visual planning tool. Whether you're using square foot gardening or traditional row planting, this tool helps you maximize your growing space and create productive vegetable gardens.
- Select Bed Dimensions: Choose your raised bed width (3-6 feet) and length (4-12 feet). Standard 4×8 foot beds are most popular as they're easy to reach across and provide ample growing space.
- Choose Planting Method: Select between square foot gardening (intensive planting in 1-foot squares) or traditional row spacing. Square foot gardening maximizes yield in small spaces.
- Select Your Plants: Pick from common vegetables, herbs, and companion plants. Each plant shows its spacing requirements (e.g., 1 tomato per square foot, 4 lettuce per square foot).
- Customize Display Options: Enable companion planting suggestions to see which plants grow well together, and toggle plant labels for easy identification.
- Generate Your Layout: Click "Generate Layout" to see your visual raised bed plan with proper plant spacing and arrangement.
- Save or Share: Download your garden plan as an image or copy the plant list for your shopping list.
The tool automatically calculates optimal plant placement, ensures proper spacing, and can suggest companion planting combinations for healthier, more productive gardens. Use it to plan seasonal rotations, estimate harvest yields, and create beautiful, functional raised bed gardens.
How It Works
How the Raised Bed Planner Works
Our raised bed planning tool uses proven gardening principles to create optimal plant layouts:
- Grid System: Divides your bed into planting squares or rows based on dimensions
- Spacing Algorithms: Applies research-based plant spacing for maximum yield
- Visual Representation: Creates color-coded layouts showing plant placement
- Companion Logic: Identifies beneficial plant pairings and incompatible combinations
- Quantity Calculation: Determines how many of each plant fits in available space
- Interactive Canvas: Generates downloadable garden plans using HTML5 Canvas
The planner follows square foot gardening principles developed by Mel Bartholomew, which divides beds into 1-foot squares for easy planning and maximum productivity. For traditional row planting, it calculates standard row spacing based on USDA recommendations for home gardens.
When You Might Need This
- • Plan a 4×8 foot raised bed with optimal vegetable spacing using square foot gardening method
- • Design herb garden layouts for 3×6 foot raised beds with companion planting suggestions
- • Calculate how many tomato plants fit in your raised bed with proper spacing requirements
- • Create intensive vegetable garden plans maximizing yield in small raised bed spaces
- • Visualize plant arrangements for spring and summer crop rotations in raised beds
- • Plan raised bed layouts mixing vegetables and herbs with compatible growing requirements
- • Design succession planting schedules to maximize harvest from limited raised bed space
- • Calculate plant quantities needed for filling raised beds of various dimensions
- • Plan themed raised beds like salsa gardens or salad gardens with proper plant spacing
- • Create beginner-friendly raised bed layouts with easy-to-grow vegetables and clear spacing
Frequently Asked Questions
What is square foot gardening and how does it work in raised beds?
Square foot gardening divides your raised bed into 1-foot squares, with each square containing a specific number of plants based on their size. For example, you can plant 1 tomato, 4 lettuce plants, 9 onions, or 16 carrots per square foot. This intensive planting method maximizes yield in small spaces, reduces weeding, and makes garden planning simple and organized. It's particularly effective in raised beds because the improved soil quality supports closer plant spacing.
How do I determine the right spacing between different vegetables?
Plant spacing depends on the mature size of each vegetable. Large plants like tomatoes and peppers need 12-18 inches (1 per square foot), medium plants like lettuce and spinach need 6 inches (4 per square foot), and small plants like carrots and radishes need 3 inches (16 per square foot). The tool automatically calculates proper spacing based on your selected planting method, whether using square foot gardening or traditional rows. Consider also that vining plants like cucumbers may need vertical support to save space.
What vegetables grow well together in raised beds?
Companion planting in raised beds pairs vegetables that benefit each other. Classic combinations include tomatoes with basil (basil repels pests), carrots with onions (onions deter carrot flies), and the "Three Sisters" - corn, beans, and squash. Avoid planting members of the same family together (like tomatoes and peppers) as they share pests and diseases. The tool highlights compatible plant pairings to help you create harmonious raised bed gardens that naturally reduce pest problems and improve growth.
What size raised bed is best for beginners?
A 4×8 foot raised bed is ideal for beginners - it's large enough to grow a variety of vegetables but small enough to manage easily. The 4-foot width allows you to reach the center from either side without stepping on the soil, preventing compaction. An 8-foot length provides 32 square feet of growing space, enough for a family's salad greens, herbs, and several tomato plants. Start with one bed and expand as you gain experience and confidence in your gardening skills.
How many plants can I fit in my raised bed?
The number of plants depends on your bed size and the vegetables you choose. In a standard 4×8 foot bed (32 square feet) using square foot gardening, you could plant approximately: 32 large plants (tomatoes, peppers, broccoli), 128 medium plants (lettuce, spinach, chard), or 512 small plants (carrots, radishes, onions). Most gardeners use a mix - for example: 6 tomato plants, 8 pepper plants, 16 lettuce plants, and 64 carrot plants would fill the bed nicely with variety for continuous harvests.