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Organic Backyard Gardening

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Garden Charts, Calculators and Planting Guides

Every lookup tool on this site in one place: the charts I keep on the wall of the seed room, the calculators I built because I got tired of doing the math by hand, and a page for each crop that answers “how many per square foot” without the rest of the article. Bookmark this page.

Type a number, get an answer

Calculators and lookups

57 cropsSeed Starting CalendarEnter your last frost date and get the week to start each crop indoors, transplant it, or sow it outside.Soil, compost, Mel’s MixRaised Bed Soil CalculatorBed length, width and depth in. Cubic feet and bags out.Jones ruleMaple Sap to Syrup CalculatorGallons of sap and its sugar content in, finished syrup out.On Plan My GardenFrost Date Lookup by ZIPLast spring frost, first fall frost, season length and USDA zone for your ZIP code.

The two I get asked for most

Charts

71 cropsSquare Foot Gardening ChartPlants per square foot for every common vegetable, herb and fruit, with the spacing behind each number.Print it (PDF, 1 page)
30 cropsSeed Germination Temperature ChartMinimum, optimum and maximum soil temperature for each seed, and days to sprout at each temperature.Print it (PDF, 2 pages)

One page per crop

Plants per square foot, by crop

The number, the pattern in the square, counts for a 4×4 and 4×8 bed, planting steps, germination temperatures, when to plant relative to your frost date, and the seed I use.

9Beans9Beets1Broccoli16Carrots2Cucumbers4Garlic16Green onions1Kale4Lettuce4Onions9Peas1Peppers2Potatoes9Spinach1Strawberries1Tomatoes¼Zucchini

The number is plants per square foot. ¼ means one plant per four squares. Tomatoes are 1 per square pruned to a single stem.

For the wall of the seed room

Printable charts

PDF, 1 pageSquare Foot Gardening Chart71 crops, three columns.PDF, 1 pageVegetable Spacing Quick Reference17 crops with the per-square method and 4×4 / 4×8 bed totals.PDF, 2 pagesSeed Germination Temperature ChartSoil temperature ranges, then days to emerge at each temperature.PDF, 1 pageSeed Starting Calendar, weeks version57 crops, with a blank to write in your frost date.

Weekend projects

Build and set-up guides

Put it all together

Plan the whole bed at once

The charts tell you how many of each plant fit in a square. The calendar tells you when to start them. Doing both for a full bed, for your frost date, used to take me an evening with graph paper. Plan My Garden does it in a few minutes: your ZIP code, your bed size, your crops, and it lays out the squares and gives you the dates.

Plan my bed on Plan My Garden

Most crop pages link to the variety I grow from Wood Prairie Family Farm, an organic seed farm in Maine. Code PMG5 takes 5% off. Buying through those links supports this site at no cost to you.