A gardener in work gloves holds a tape measure in centimeters
(Image credit: SoberP)

How many square feet of garden do I have? This becomes an important question as you begin measuring chemicals to spread on areas of the outdoors, whether fertilizing, killing weeds, or applying lime and/or fungicide. Most are measured by square feet. 

When planning a vegetable garden or flower beds throughout the landscape, proper placement of seeds is critical. Therefore, you’ll need to know how much space is available. It is important to have this information before seeds or transplants are ordered. It’s the same with groundcovers, flowers, and even grass seed. Using the method detailed below you can get a good idea of the size of your gardens and flower beds in order to plant them properly, make them look their best, and offer optimum production.

Learn How Much Food to Grow by Measuring Garden Size 

It is also important when determining how much food you should grow per person in your household. Experts recommend growing 200 square feet (19 sq. m.) per person for a fresh eating garden, with some left for preservation. 

How to Calculate Garden Area and Size 

There are many ways to measure the size of your garden beds on the property. This is one of the simplest ways, and there are lots of tools to help. Use this method simply by finding your property on Google Earth and pulling it up. 

When measuring garden beds on your property, remember the AREA is space inside of a shape. Categorize your garden beds into shapes if that makes it simpler. When you are multiplying two numbers to find the area, these must be the same type of measurement.

Often you must convert one of the units of measurement to another. For example, to convert inches to feet, simply divide by 12 because there are 12 inches in a foot. Conversely, changing feet to inches is accomplished by multiplying by 12.

Finding the area of a rectangle is done much the same way, just multiply the length by the width (A = L x W).

Again, remember to make sure the numbers are the same unit, for example since both the length and width are already in feet, the answer will be calculated into square feet.

When working with an irregular shape, decrease the size and make them smaller and of a more normal shape before adding the areas together.

To find the area of a circle use the formula A = π x r2. Pi (or π) = 3.14 and r is the radius of the circle, the measurement from the middle point to the edge or half of the diameter.

Learning how to measure a garden comes in handy if you’ll be planting and especially when you wish to have a healthy harvest. Proper planting results in crops that produce to the ultimate. While learning all you can about growing a garden, make sure to get the measuring and planting right. This will put you ahead on harvesting your crops.

Becca Badgett
Writer

Becca Badgett was a regular contributor to Gardening Know How for ten years. Co-author of the book How to Grow an EMERGENCY Garden, Becca specializes in succulent and cactus gardening.