Plant Spacing Calculator
How many plants fit in your garden bed? Enter the bed size and your plant spacing — or pick a crop preset — and see the exact count for a classic square grid and a space-saving staggered layout, with a visual preview of the planting pattern.
Bed size
Layout
Plants that fit
30
Square layout
32
Staggered layout
30
Bed area 32 sq ft — at this bed size staggering doesn't add a row, so square is just as good
Planting preview
Square grid vs triangular spacing — the math
In a square grid, plants sit in straight rows with the same distance in both directions. The count is simply how many columns fit along the length times how many rows fit across the width. With spacing s, each plant effectively claims an s × s square of soil.
In a triangular (staggered) layout, every other row shifts sideways by half the spacing. Because a plant in one row now nests between two plants in the next, the rows can move closer together: the row pitch becomes s × 0.866 (that is √3 ⁄ 2). Every plant still keeps the full distance s to all of its nearest neighbors — this is hexagonal packing, the densest possible arrangement of circles, and in a large bed it fits up to about 15% more plants.
Worked example: an 8 × 8 ft bed (96 × 96 in) at 12-inch spacing. Square grid: 8 columns × 8 rows = 64 plants. Staggered: the row pitch drops to 12 × 0.866 ≈ 10.4 in, so 9 rows fit — alternating 8 and 7 plants per row — for 68 plants, four more from the same bed. The advantage grows with bed size; in small beds the offset rows sometimes cannot squeeze in an extra row, and the square grid ties.
Square-foot gardening quick reference
Square-foot gardening turns spacing into a per-square rule: divide the bed into 1×1 ft squares and plant a fixed number per square. It is the same square-grid math in a friendlier package:
| Plant spacing | Plants per sq ft | Typical crops |
|---|---|---|
| 12 in | 1 | Broccoli, cabbage, corn, strawberries |
| 6 in | 4 | Lettuce heads, bush beans, spinach |
| 4 in | 9 | Beets, onions, turnips |
| 3 in | 16 | Carrots, radishes, scallions |
A note on thinning seedlings
Direct-sown crops like carrots, beets and lettuce are usually seeded much closer than their final spacing, then thinned once seedlings have their first true leaves. Snip the extras at soil level with scissors instead of pulling — pulling disturbs the roots of the keepers. Thin to the spacing you used in the calculator; the final spacing, not the sowing density, determines how many mature plants your bed supports.
Plan the rest of the garden
Once the planting plan is set, the mulch calculator tells you how many cubic yards you need to cover the paths and beds, the square footage calculator handles odd-shaped garden areas, and the grass seed calculator covers the lawn around the beds.