Free Tool · Texas Hill Country

How many plants does your bed need?

Enter your bed size and spacing — get the plant count, the grass-to-forb mix, and a Hill Country native palette to order. Free, instant, tuned for San Antonio & the Hill Country.

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The math is one division: plant count = bed area ÷ spacing. At medium spacing — about 2.5 ft² per plant — a 200 ft² bed needs roughly 80 plants. Tighten the spacing to 1.5 ft² and it closes in the first year; open it to 4 ft² and it fills in by Year 3.

Then the palette splits that count into grasses and forbs by planting type, so you order the right mix instead of a wall of one flower. Grasses hold the structure; forbs carry the color.

§ 1 · How it works

Three inputs, a real plant order.

Step 1
Planting area
The bed size in square feet — length × width, or pace it off and round.
Step 2
Palette type
Meadow, mass perennial, xeric, shade, or matrix — this sets the grass-to-forb mix.
Step 3
Spacing density
Dense (1.5 ft²) fills Year 1, medium (2.5 ft²) Year 2, sparse (4 ft²) Year 3.
Step 4
Read your order
Total plant count, the grass/forb split, and a Hill Country native palette to buy.
§ 2 · The Hill Country palette

Plants that take caliche.

Thin soil over limestone, hard summers, and watering restrictions narrow the list fast. The calculator's palettes are caliche-tested performers — Little Bluestem and Sideoats Grama for grass structure, Blackfoot Daisy, Gregg's Mistflower, and Mealy Blue Sage for color, Turk's Cap and Inland Sea Oats for shade.

Get the mix right and the bed reads finished without a wall of one species. Grasses carry the structure through winter; forbs pulse color through the dry months. We never list a plant we wouldn't put in our own beds.

Service
Native Landscape Design
We design the bed, source the plants, and place each one on the slope.
Service
Xeriscape Design
Low-water beds built for the Hill Country's long dry spells.
Instrument
Read Your Land
A real reading of your property's soil, light, and slope — free.
§ 3 · FAQ

Common questions.

How many native plants do I need per square foot?
Divide your bed area by your spacing. At dense spacing (1.5 ft² per plant) the bed fills in Year 1; at medium (2.5 ft²) by Year 2; at sparse (4 ft²) by Year 3. A 200 ft² bed at medium spacing needs about 80 plants.
How far apart should I space native plants?
It's a trade between cost and how fast the bed closes. Tight spacing (~15 in on center, ~1.5 ft²) gives full coverage the first year and crowds out weeds. Wider spacing (24–30 in, ~2.5–4 ft²) costs less and fills over two to three years. Grasses take the wider end; mass perennial beds take the tighter end.
What are the best native plants for San Antonio and the Hill Country?
Caliche-tested performers: Little Bluestem and Sideoats Grama for structure; Blackfoot Daisy, Gregg's Mistflower, Salvia greggii, and Mealy Blue Sage for color; Turk's Cap and Inland Sea Oats for shade. The calculator returns a full palette for each type — meadow, mass, xeric, shade, or matrix.
Should I buy 1-gallon or 4-inch native plants?
4-inch plugs cost less and let you plant more for the money, but they need more water the first summer and look sparse out of the gate. 1-gallon plants establish faster and read finished sooner — the counts here assume 1-gallon. For big meadow and matrix plantings, plugs at tight spacing are often the better value.
Start here

Count the plants.

Free, instant, no signup. Then book a Site Read and we'll lay out the real bed on your soil.

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