The share of the household's vegetables you want the garden to supply.
It scales a per-person figure of about 600 square feet for a full season of vegetables by your household size and how much of your produce you want to grow, then converts the area into 4×8-foot raised beds. Add room for paths, compost, and any season-extension structures when you lay it out.
A longer growing season stretches every square foot further. To find the warmest, longest-season states, see our guide to the warmest states for year-round gardening.
To grow nearly all of a household's vegetables, plan on roughly 600 square feet of intensively worked garden per person — about 2,400 square feet for a family of four. If you only want to supplement what you buy, a few hundred square feet goes a long way. Yields depend heavily on climate, soil, and how you garden.
The calculator converts the area into standard 4×8-foot raised beds (32 square feet each). Raised beds are easier to manage intensively, but the same square footage in rows works too — just leave room for paths, which can add 30–50% to the footprint.
No — it estimates the growing area itself. Add room for walkways between beds, a compost area, and any season-extension structures like a greenhouse or cold frame when you lay out the plot.
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