Garden Design Tools

Garden Design & Quantity Tools
PEMDAS GARDEN • FIELD WORKBENCH

Plan the bed. Price the inputs.

Ten practical tools for spacing, seed buying, soil volume, crop rotation, compost balance, rainfall capture, and lawn establishment.

TOOL 01

Square foot planner

Pick a crop, then click grid squares to assign them. Counts use intensive square-foot spacing; larger crops show fractional plants per square.

CLICK TO PLANT
Choose a crop and click a square.

Spacing is a planning guide. Good airflow can reduce disease pressure; adjust for cultivar habit, climate, trellising, and your seed packet.

TOOL 02

Plant quantity

Estimate whole plants that fit in a rectangular bed using in-row and between-row spacing.

GRID CAPACITY
TOOL 03

Seed quantity

Convert bed area into row-feet, adjust for labeled germination, then round up to whole packets.

DIRECT-SOWN RATE

Packet counts vary by seller and lot. Use the quantity printed on the packet.

TOOL 04

Compost volume

Calculate cubic feet, cubic yards, and whole bags from bed dimensions and spread depth.

AREA × DEPTH
TOOL 05

Garden area

Measure rectangles, circles, triangles, or an L-shape defined as an outer rectangle minus a rectangular cutout.

SQUARE FEET
TOOL 06

Variety finder

Filter a concise extension-sourced catalog by crop, maturity, container use, and resistance traits.

CURATED STARTING POINT
TOOL 07

Crop rotation planner

Compare last year’s crop family with this year’s plan in four beds. Repeating a botanical family triggers a warning.

2–3 YEAR BREAK
Bed-by-bed review

Choose last year’s crops and this year’s plan.

TOOL 08

Brown / green ratio

Estimate a pile’s carbon-to-nitrogen ratio by material weight using published carbon and nitrogen percentages.

TARGET 25–30:1

Weigh inputs when practical. Moisture varies, so this is a planning estimate rather than a laboratory analysis.

Estimated pile balance

Add materials to calculate.

TOOL 09

Rainwater harvesting

Estimate gross roof runoff and an efficiency-adjusted collectible volume for a storm or rainfall period.

0.623 GAL / FT² / IN

Use the roof’s horizontal footprint, not its sloped surface. Check local rules before using harvested water.

TOOL 10

Lawn seed

Estimate a seed-weight range for new cool-season turf establishment using extension seeding rates.

LB / 1,000 FT²

These rates are for establishing a lawn, not overseeding. For mixtures, follow the product label.

Methods & horticultural sources