Skip to main content
How to use SFG (Square Foot Gardening) mode

How to use SFG mode to plan your square foot garden

Updated over 6 months ago

What is Square Foot Gardening?

Square Foot Gardening is an intensive gardening technique that relies on a deep, free-draining and fertile growing medium (known as Mel's Mix) to grow plants at much closer spacings than normal. Beds are divided up into square foot blocks, and each square has a different vegetable sown in it with between 1 and 16 plants per square.

The idea is that while individual plants will produce less than those grown at their normal row spacings, having so many plants close together should result in a similar yield for the same space while suppressing weeds. Mixing up plant families may also help to confuse some pests.

Further details on the SFG method are available from https://squarefootgardening.org

Garden Planner SFG

When using SFG mode, plants are added in blocks 1ft x 1ft in size. The number of plants to be grown in that square is shown in the upper left corner of the block.

Please note that when in SFG mode, you can't drag out rows. To quickly add multiple blocks of the same plant, hold down the Ctrl (PC) or Cmd (Mac) key on your keyboard when adding a plant. This will keep the plant selected, so you can click multiple times to place more of the same plant.

To drag out rows again, click on the SFG Mode toggle (shown below) to turn it off. This does not affect plants already on your plan.

How to turn SFG mode on or off

To turn SFG mode on or off, click on the SFG toggle at the top right of the Drawing Tools pane.

Garden Planner SFG mode

'Snap to Grid' (which automatically 'snaps' items to the nearest gridline to make it easier to position plants with pinpoint accuracy) is turned on by default when in SFG mode. You can turn it off if you wish by clicking on Snap to Grid below the SFG Mode toggle.

How to show only plants that are suitable for SFG

Turn on SFG mode then tap on Show More.

Garden Planner SFG mode

Select Only Show SFG Plants. Larger plants will now be hidden, so you can choose from only plants that are suitable for Square Foot Gardening until you de-select Only Show SFG plants or turn SFG mode off.

Garden Planner SFG plants

Any questions? Chat to us!

Click on the Live Chat icon in the Garden Planner if you need help or have questions for our gardening experts.

Garden Planner - Live chat
Did this answer your question?