Raised bed planner
A 4 by 8 raised bed, ready to fill square by square.
What fits in a 4 by 8 raised bed
A 4 by 8 ft bed is thirty-two one-foot squares. At the counts in Clemson Cooperative Extension's Small-Scale Gardening chart, that is room for a lot more than it looks: sixteen carrots or radishes to a square, nine bush beans or beets, four leaf lettuce or basil, and one tomato, pepper or kale plant.
One way to fill it for fall: eight squares of carrots and four of radishes at sixteen each, four squares of beets at nine, eight squares of leaf lettuce at four, and eight kale plants. That is 128 carrots, 64 radishes, 36 beets, 32 lettuce and 8 kale in one bed, and the planner adds it up as you tap. These are the national counts; where a regional extension chart differs, the planner uses it once you add your ZIP.
Four feet is narrow enough to reach the middle from either side without stepping on the soil, which stays loose for roots. Eight feet is the length of a standard board, which is why the size is so common.
Filling the bed
The bed above is open and ready. Pick a crop from the list, then tap each square it goes in, or turn on Drag to paint and draw across a row. A crop marked Climbs needs a trellis, and its chart count assumes one.
Switch seasons to plan what follows what. Tap a planted square to set how long that crop stays in the ground, and its squares show as taken in the seasons after. When two crops that grow poorly together share an edge, the edge is marked with the source.
More than one bed? Go to Beds, add another, and drag each one to where it sits in your yard. Your plan saves in this browser and in the page's link.
Questions
How many plants fit in one square foot?
It depends on how far apart the crop grows. The square-foot charts from Clemson Cooperative Extension and NC State Extension give one tomato with a cage, four leaf lettuce or basil, nine bush beans or beets, and sixteen carrots or radishes to a square. The planner uses those counts, switches to a regional chart where one differs once you add your ZIP, and shows the chart it took each count from.
Do I need an account to use the planner?
No. The planner runs in your browser and keeps your plan in its own link, so you can come back to it, pin it or send it to someone. When you want dates for where you live, Keep this garden adds your ZIP and carries the plan into Row & Bed.