If you have a raised garden bed like we do, you probably map out on a grid everything you’re going to plant before you plant it. Maybe you draw it out on a piece of paper like we did last year. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a simple low-tech method that works.
But if you’re a beginner and you want to get fancy and let a computer do all the calculations for you, check out this free online Garden Planner. It’s provided by a retail outfit that sells stuff you can build yourself for much less cost, but they offer all kinds of sensible advice for growing veggies in a raised garden bed, and they have this nifty little online garden mapping tool.
Simply enter the dimensions of your garden bed and then drag and drop any of the 47 
veggies in the illustrated menu into one of the 1-foot squares on the map. (It takes less time to learn than it does to read that last sentence. It’s easy.) One of the more useful features is that it calculates how much of the chosen vegetable you can grow in each square foot. For instance, if you drag and drop leeks into one of the squares, 6 leeks will appear in the square. (I just found out I can grow 9 parsnips in 1 square foot. Nice.) Then once you’ve mapped out all your veggies, click the big “Generate My Detailed Plan & Planting Guide” button and you get something like this (a randomly selected sample map):
Then underneath the grid is a list of everything you’ve selected for your garden with detailed information about each crop. For instance, the first item listed under the above sample map is thyme. The following information is provided:
Thyme
— Plant: Start with a small potted plant in mid-spring. Hardiness varies depending on variety. Tender or hardy perennial.
— Spacing: two plants per sq. ft.
— Days to harvest: Leaves from first year plants can be picked sparingly by midsummer.
— Hint: Good drainage is essential for success. Work in plenty of compost, but no fertilizer is needed.
A link to a Vegetable Encyclopaedia is also provided for each item on the list.
The site also has a Soil Calculator so you know how much soil to get to fill your garden beds.
The only problem with the mapping tool is that you can’t enter a width greater than 4 feet (which isn’t much help with our 8 x 8 raised garden bed), though the length can go up to 12 feet. I don’t get that. My other complaint is that if you want to save the map when you’re done, you have to provide your email address, where upon I assume you’ll get your map sent to you probably along with all kinds of junk mail from gardeners.com. There’s an option to print the map, though, so when you’re done, you can just print the grid with all the detailed information on each crop. So that’s not too bad.
Altogether, it makes for a useful online resource, at least for novice gardeners. I’m not sure I would make full use of it; most of the information I can probably get from the back of my seed packages. But at this point in my vegetable gardening life (I’ve only got one good year under my belt so far), it might come in handy once in a while.
Related post: Our 2010 Garden Map.
That is cool. We’ll be using it this year.
I agree the old paper & pencil method works just fine for the most part. Although, for me when it comes to figuring out intercropping and succession planting I prefer to let the computer do the calculations. It seems like most of the online garden planners don’t really address more advanced techniques like intercropping, succession planting, biointensive planting, and truly growing the most food they can on less land.
Those who are really serious about food production in their garden, or who want to start a small farm or CSA, I’d suggest checking out the Fantastic Farm & Garden Calculator: http://www.landshareco.org It doesn’t have the cute drag & drop veggies like the one above, but it is a great tool for serious growers. Plus is has versions for beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and versions for gardeners and farmers.
Jim