Garden Bed Planning Grid

Who this is for

What goes where, decided on paper first. The top half lists each bed with its size, how much sun it gets and what grew there last year; the grid underneath splits every bed into four sections so a plan can be sketched out before a single packet is opened.

Anyone with more than one bed, border or raised box to fill, allotment holders rotating crops around a plot, and gardeners who would rather not discover in June that two beds got the same thing again.

What this helps you track

• How many beds there are, how big each one is and which way it faces
• What grew in each bed last year, so the rotation you follow can be followed
• What you intend to put in each bed this year, written before the buying starts
• The layout within a bed, split into four sections you can sketch or label
• The beds still undecided, which are the ones left blank

How to use it

1. Write the garden or plot, the year and the date you drew the plan at the top.
2. List each bed in the first table with a name or number you will recognise on the ground, its size, its aspect and the soil or bed type.
3. Fill in what grew there last year from last season's sheet or from memory, then write this year's intention beside it.
4. Use the grid underneath to divide each bed into four sections and write what goes in each — a row, a block, a path, a cloche.
5. Take the printed sheet out to the beds and correct it there; a plan drawn indoors rarely survives the first tape measure.
6. Keep the finished sheet with the year's records so next year's last-year column writes itself.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How is this different from the vegetable planting planner?

The planting planner is about time — what is sown when, and when you expect it to be ready. This sheet is about space: which bed, which end of it, and what was in that ground last year. Most people fill in both and pin them side by side.

Does it tell me what to rotate with what?

No. Rotation groupings differ by country, by what you grow and by whose advice you follow, so the sheet records last year's crop and leaves the decision with you. Write your grouping in the notes column if it helps.

What if my beds are not rectangles?

Use the four grid boxes as quarters, ends, or simply as four named areas — near the path, by the fence, under the tree, the rest. The labels matter more than the geometry.

Can I use it for borders and pots rather than vegetables?

Yes. A border is a bed with a name, and a group of pots can be one row. The columns ask nothing that only applies to vegetables.

Can I fill it in on screen?

Yes. The browser version saves in your own browser, so last year's plan can be copied into this year's sheet rather than retyped.