A 4 × 8 ft bed of salad and roots
- Inputs
- Bed
- 8 × 4 ft inside, blocks (equal spacing both ways)
- Crops, in list order
- Head lettuce 8 at 12 in, bulb onion 24 at 6 in, carrot 48 at 3 in, beet 16 at 6 in
- Trellis
- None
Method. Each crop gets a strip that runs the full 8 ft length. The planner counts how many plants fit along 96 in at that crop’s spacing, then adds whole rows until the quantity is met.
Result
| Crop | Wanted | Placed | Unmet | Strip from back edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head lettuce | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 in–12 in |
| Bulb onion | 24 | 24 | 0 | 12 in–24 in |
| Carrot | 48 | 48 | 0 | 24 in–30 in |
| Beet | 16 | 16 | 0 | 30 in–36 in |
All 96 plants fit. The four strips use the back 36 in of the bed and leave a 12 in strip along the front unallocated (8 ft²). There are also 24 vacant places inside the strips: the onion strip has room for 32 but only 24 were requested, and the carrot strip has room for 64 with 48 requested.
What to do with it
The planner’s “What to do next” section reports what the spare space could hold without moving anything: 8 more head lettuce, or 40 more bulb onion, or 144 more carrot, or 32 more beet. Each figure is an alternative, not a total. Whether to use that space now, later in the season or not at all is a gardening decision the planner cannot make; it does not model timing.
Peas along a trellis on a 3 × 10 ft bed
- Inputs
- Bed
- 10 × 3 ft inside, blocks
- Crops, in list order
- Garden pea 30 at 6 in, bush bean 20 at 6 in, radish 64 at 3 in
- Trellis
- Garden pea, along the back long edge
Method. The trellis crop is moved to the first strip and limited to one row, so it can use the full length but never a second row. The other crops follow in list order.
Result
| Crop | Wanted | Placed | Unmet | Strip from back edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden peatrellis row | 30 | 20 | 10 | 0 in–6 in |
| Bush bean | 20 | 20 | 0 | 6 in–12 in |
| Radish | 64 | 64 | 0 | 12 in–18 in |
104 of 114 plants placed; 10 peas are unmet. One row along a 120 in length has 20 places at 6 in. The beans and radishes fit, and 18 in is left unallocated.
What to do with it
A wider bed would not help: the planner reports that extra width alone cannot place them all, because the trellis crop is limited to one row. It would take an inside length of 180 in (15 ft) to fit 30 peas in a single trellis row. On this bed, the realistic choices are to plan 20 trellised peas, or add a second pea block without the trellis mark so it gets its own strip. The pea preset uses block spacing; check the support needs of your variety.
The same crops, two spacing methods
- Inputs
- Bed
- 8 × 4 ft inside
- Crops, in list order
- Pepper 4, bush bean 16, head lettuce 6
- Compared
- Equal-distance block presets against traditional-row presets
Method. The quantities and bed stay the same. Only the spacing method changes, which reloads each crop’s preset from a different source: block presets from Colorado State University Extension, row presets from University of Georgia Extension.
Result
| Crop | Block preset | Placed | Row preset | Placed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pepper | 18 × 18 in | 4 | 24 × 30 in | 4 |
| Bush bean | 6 × 6 in | 16 | 4 × 36 in | 0 |
| Head lettuce | 12 × 12 in | 6 | 12 × 30 in | 0 |
Blocks place all 26; rows place 4. In row mode the pepper row alone takes a 30 in strip, and the bean row distance of 36 in does not fit in the 18 in that remains, so neither beans nor lettuce get a strip.
What to do with it
Neither answer is wrong: they describe different ways of growing. Row distances belong to long rows with space between them; block spacing assumes you reach the bed from its edges. Choose the method that matches how you will actually plant, and use the row presets only if you are laying out rows. The planner reports that the row version would need a bed 96 in (8 ft) wide. Read more about choosing a method.
Soil for three top-ups and one new bed
- Inputs
- Beds
- Three existing 8 × 4 ft beds, each needing a 2 in top-up; one new 6 × 3 ft bed filled 10 in deep
- Bags
- 1.5 ft³, no allowance
Method. Each entry is length × width × added depth × number of identical beds. The entries are added together and the total is divided by the bag volume, rounding up once.
Result
| Entry | Volume | Bags if bought separately |
|---|---|---|
| 3 × top-up, 8 × 4 ft × 2 in | 16 ft³ (5.333 each) | 4 each, 12 total |
| New bed, 6 × 3 ft × 10 in | 15 ft³ | 10 |
| Combined order | 31 ft³ · 1.148 yd³ · 0.878 m³ | 21 (22 if bought bed by bed) |
31 ft³, or 21 bags of 1.5 ft³. Each top-up needs 5.333 ft³, which is 3.56 bags, so buying for each bed separately means rounding up three times. Pooling the same material into one order rounds up once and saves 1 bag. With a 10% purchasing allowance the order becomes 34.1 ft³ and 23 bags.
What to do with it
Combine beds only when they take the same material; if the new bed gets a different mix, calculate it as its own order. The result also lists other bag sizes: 31 bags of 1 ft³, 21 bags of 1.5 ft³, 16 bags of 2 ft³, 11 bags of 3 ft³. Check the volume printed on the bag, not its weight.
About these examples
They are illustrative scenarios chosen to show how the tools behave, not records of real gardens or user submissions. All figures were produced by the same calculation code as the tools, using the cited presets without edits. Your own variety, spacing and bed may give different numbers; open an example and change it to see how.