Enter your bed size and plant spacing to see exactly how many plants fit — square grid or staggered triangular, which squeezes in about 15% more.
Why spacing math beats guessing
Every seed packet and nursery tag gives a spacing — and almost nobody converts it into a shopping count before standing in the garden centre. Enter the bed’s dimensions and the spacing, pick a pattern, and this calculator returns the plant count, with the triangular option shown because staggered rows genuinely fit more plants in the same soil.
How to use it
- Enter the bed length and width in feet.
- Enter the spacing from the tag or packet, in inches.
- Choose square or triangular — and buy that many plants.
The patterns
A worked example
A 10 × 4 ft bed at 12-inch spacing fits 55 plants on a square grid — 11 per row, 5 rows. Switch to staggered triangular rows and the row gap compresses to about 10.4 inches, fitting roughly six rows and ≈63 plants: the same bed, ~15% more harvest, which is exactly why market gardeners plant offset. Tighter isn’t automatically better though — the tag’s spacing already accounts for the mature plant’s size and airflow.