Garden Bed Planner
Dividing the bed's area by the space each plant needs gives a number that is always too high, because plants come in whole rows and rows come in whole plants. A courgette needs sixty centimetres in every direction whatever shape the bed is, so a narrow bed wastes far more than a square one of the same area. This works in rows and plants, which is how a bed actually fills up.
What this generator does
Divides the bed's length into a band per crop, then works out how many whole rows fit each band and how many plants fit across each row — reporting the total and how much of the bed's length is left unused.
How to use this tool
- Set the bed's width and length in centimetres, and how many crops to grow.
- Read the rows and plants per row for each — both are whole numbers.
- Look at the leftover length; a few centimetres more often buys a whole extra row.
- Compare a closely spaced crop with a widely spaced one in the same bed.
Understanding the controls
- Bed width
- Between 60 and 400 cm. This determines how many plants fit across a row, so a wider bed helps closely spaced crops most.
- Bed length
- How far the bed runs, up to 8 metres. It is divided evenly between the crops you choose.
- How many crops
- Between 1 and 6. More crops means a narrower band for each, which can leave a crop with no room for even one row.
- Seed
- Any word reproduces exactly the same crops and layout.
Common use cases
- Working out what will actually fit before buying seedlings
- Planning a raised bed or allotment plot
- Teaching why area division overestimates capacity
- Comparing how much a bed holds at different spacings
- Setting the same plan twice from a seed
How this generator works
Everything is floored to whole plants and whole rows, because half a row is not a thing. The check confirms a row genuinely fits the bed's width, that the crop bands together do not exceed its length, and that the allocated and leftover lengths add back up to the bed — so a plan can never quietly claim more space than there is.
Randomness and fairness
Which crops appear is random; the fitting arithmetic is exact. A seed reproduces the same plan exactly and is therefore explicitly not cryptographically secure. Without a seed the browser's cryptographically secure generator is used.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Limitations and good to know
- One band per crop across the bed. Intercropping and successional sowing both fit more in and are not modelled.
- Spacings are typical figures; seed packets vary and vigorous varieties want more.
- Rectangular beds only, with no allowance for paths or reach.
- Vertical growing — beans up canes, squash trained upward — changes the numbers considerably.
- Nothing about the plan is kept — note the seed to rebuild the same one.
Privacy and your data
The layout is computed in your browser. Nothing about the bed or your seed is transmitted or kept.
Related generators
- Crop Rotation PlannerA multi-year plan where no plant family returns to a bed until every other has had a turn, checked bed by bed.
- Planting Calendar GeneratorSowing, planting-out and harvest dates worked back from your own frost dates, with anything that will not ripen in time flagged.
- Compost Ratio CalculatorBlends compost materials to a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and says whether the heap will actually heat up.
- Strip Packing GeneratorRectangles packed into a fixed-width strip with no overlaps, measured against the height no packing could beat.