Shrub Spacing Calculator

About this calculator

Planting shrubs too close wastes money and leads to overcrowding as they mature; planting them too far apart leaves gaps and lets weeds take hold. The fix is simple geometry: dividing the bed area by the area each shrub’s mature spread will occupy tells you how many plants a bed can hold at a given spacing.

This calculator takes your bed size and desired spacing to estimate the number of shrubs needed to fill it evenly. It’s a routine step for landscape designers and nursery staff quoting a planting job, and for home gardeners planning a hedge or foundation planting who want full coverage at maturity without buying (and later ripping out) more shrubs than the space needs.