🪴 Garden Bed Planner
Drag plants onto your bed · Click to select · Right-click or Del to remove
Drag plants onto the bed to start designing your garden.
How to Use the Garden Bed Planner
1️⃣
Pick your bed size
Choose from six standard raised bed sizes — 2×4, 4×4, 4×8, 4×12, 8×8, or 8×12 feet. Each size shows a to-scale soil grid.
2️⃣
Drag plants from the palette
Search or filter 127 vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Each plant's circle shows its exact spacing footprint — so you can see at a glance how many fit.
3️⃣
Check companion pairings
Click any plant to see which neighbors are beneficial (green ring) and which to avoid (red ring). Overlapping footprints turn red to flag overcrowding.
What is Square-Foot Gardening?
Square-foot gardening divides your raised bed into a grid of 1-foot squares. Each plant is assigned a number of squares based on its spacing requirement: a plant needing 12 inches of space gets one square, one needing 6 inches gets four plants per square, and so on.
This method maximizes yield in small spaces — a 4×8 raised bed (32 square feet) can grow over 100 plants when densely planted with herbs and greens, while still leaving room for larger crops like tomatoes and peppers. The planner above handles all the math automatically.
What is Companion Planting?
Companion planting means growing certain plants next to each other for mutual benefit. Classic examples include the "Three Sisters" (corn, beans, squash), basil near tomatoes to repel aphids, and marigolds planted throughout a bed to deter nematodes and whiteflies.
The planner highlights good companions with a green dashed ring and plants to avoid with a red dashed ring whenever you select a placed plant. This makes it easy to catch bad combinations before you buy seeds.
Browse all companion planting guides →Frequently Asked Questions
How many plants fit in a 4×8 raised bed?
A 4×8 raised bed (32 square feet) can hold anywhere from 8 large plants like tomatoes (24" spacing) to over 500 small plants like radishes (2" spacing). The planner calculates exact counts based on each plant's spacing needs.
Does the planner save my layout?
Yes — your layout is automatically saved to your browser's local storage. It will still be there the next time you visit, as long as you use the same device and browser.
What bed sizes does the planner support?
The planner supports six standard raised bed sizes: 2×4 ft, 4×4 ft, 4×8 ft, 4×12 ft, 8×8 ft, and 8×12 ft. These cover the most common sizes sold at garden centers.
How does spacing work in the planner?
Each plant's circle represents its spacing footprint — the diameter equals the recommended inches between plants. Circles that overlap turn red, signaling the plants are too close together.
Can I use the planner on mobile?
Yes — the planner fully supports touch drag-and-drop. Tap a plant in the palette, drag it over the bed, and release to place it. Tap a placed plant to select it and see companion info.
Supported Plants (127 total)
All plants in the palette come with verified spacing data, category, and companion planting relationships.