Plan a raised bed before you dig in. Set the bed size, add crops, and see exactly how much of the bed each one takes — as a color map you can print and carry outside.
Bed map
Planting list
How it’s figured
Each square on the map is one square foot of bed. A crop’s spacing — the inches it wants between plants — decides how many fit in a square: (12 ÷ spacing)². So 6-inch spacing gives 4 plants per square, 12-inch spacing gives 1, and 36-inch spacing needs about 9 squares per plant. The suggested count is how many plants fit across the whole bed: floor(length in inches ÷ spacing) × floor(width in inches ÷ spacing). The squares a planting needs are its plant count ÷ plants-per-square, rounded up. This is a planning estimate from typical spacing ranges, not a guarantee — variety, paths, and your soil all change real results.