HOW TO SPACE PLANTS IN A SQUARE FOOT GARDEN

Extra Large	Large	Medium	Small
1 Plant 12 in apart Broccoli Cabbage Pepper	4 Plants 6 in apart Leaf Lettuce Swiss Chard Marigolds	9 Plants 4 in apart Bush Beans Spinach Beets	16 Plants 3 in apart Carrots Radishes Onions

Once you have your square foot grid in place, this is the easiest way to learn the perfect spacing for all your plants.  All plants, vegetables, flowers, or herbs, will fit either 1 – 4 – 9 – or 16 plants per square foot depending on how big they get.

Look in the Square Foot Gardening book for the correct spacing of all the vegetables or just figure it out from the seed packet directions.

    1 per square foot: plants that are thinned or planted 12 inches apart.

  4 per square foot: plants that are thinned or planted 6 inches apart.

  9 per square foot: plants that are thinned or planted 4 inches apart.

16 per square foot: plants that are thinned or planted 3 inches apart.

IT’S ALL THAT SIMPLE

You can practice getting the correct spacing with your fingers, then try it outside in the garden.   Just watch the Introductory Video to see the zip zap finger method followed by the bing-bing, bing-bing movement.   It’s fun and a great way to get the whole family excited about gardening.

Make Your Own Set of Mel’s Planting Guides

Some people cut out planting guides from 12” x 12” squares of cardboard.   See our “What’s New” – “Teaching Aids” page for details of construction.   For use indoors or in teaching, make a set with the holes marked with a magic marker.   For actual use outdoors, cut or drill the holes out with a 1 inch diameter hole saw.   Then lay the cards down between the grids, poke the holes, and place a pinch of seeds into each hole.   Then pick up the planting guide so they don’t get wet.   That way your set of guides will last for many seasons.   Some people also like to write on each guide which flowers, vegetables, or herbs use that particular spacing