Project: Planting Templates

In my raised beds I use square foot garden spacing.  This allows me to maximize the amount of veggies I can squeeze into my garden and minimize the space that weeds have to grow.  My problem is that I am lazy about actually measuring the distance between seeds or seedlings, so I guess and my guessing is not always so accurate.  Then I saw a blog post about making planting templates and knew this was something I needed. 

I decided to use vinyl tiles (without the adhesive on the back) so that they would be water proof without any extra steps.  The ones I got were $0.73 each.

I then made the measurements:

• 4 plants per square
• 9 plants per square
• 16 plants per square

Next is the drilling.  You need core drill bits that make circles.  Jeff had a 2" one and a 3 1/2" one, so that's the sizes I used.  I used the 2" core bit for the 16 and 9 plant templates and the 3 1/2" one for the 4 plant template. 

This is what it looks like when Jeff drilled:

 This is what happened when I tried:

Good thing the tiles are cheap!  I learned that it is important to have the tile secure so it doesn't start spinning and a slight rocking motion helps to prevent from breaking the tile.

Attempt two:

Success!

When I had to get a replacement tile I went ahead and got two, just in case.  I ended up using the spare tile making a one plant template.  Here's the complete collection:

I've already tried them out planting radish and spinach and it makes planting easy and fast.  No more guessing for plant spacing!