← All Calculators

Square-Foot Gardening Calculator — Plants per Square

~30 seconds

Square-foot gardening divides a bed into 1-foot squares. Enter the total number of square feet in your bed and either the plant spacing (inches) or the number of plants per square foot from your reference. The calculator estimates the total plant count.

What this calculator determines

It estimates total plants for a square-foot bed from the bed area and either plant spacing or a plants-per-square-foot value.

Related calculators

Examples

16 sq ft, 4 in spacing

16 sq ft, 4 in apart

Calculation

  1. Plants per sq ft: 144 ÷ 4² = 9
  2. Total: 16 × 9 = 144 plants

144 plants

Assumptions & Conventions

Input method
Spacing mode converts inches to plants per square foot (144 ÷ spacing²); plants-per-square mode uses your reference value directly.
Rounding
Total plants is floored to a whole number; it does not add a buffer.
Plants per square
There is no universal plants-per-square number — use the recommendation for your specific crop.

Frequently asked questions