Shade Garden Calculators & Tools
Free, practical calculators for the dark corners of a garden — read your light, pick plants that will actually thrive, water less, establish moss, plan under a canopy, and space a bed correctly.
Light Level & Lux Guide
Turn a light-meter reading and its daily duration into an estimated Daily Light Integral, and see which shade category — partial, full, or deep — a spot falls into.
Shade Plant Selector
Set your USDA hardiness zone, light level, and soil moisture to get a curated shortlist of real shade-garden plants that match all three.
Watering-in-Shade Calculator
Estimate weekly water need for a shaded bed or container, derated for your plant, your shade level, your soil, and recent rainfall.
Moss Coverage Calculator
Work out how many transplant patches — or how much slurry mix — you need to cover a given area of shaded ground.
Canopy Cover Calculator
Estimate what percentage of a bed sits under a tree's canopy, plus the shadow length it casts at a given sun angle.
Plant Spacing Calculator
See how many plants fit a bed at a given spacing, comparing a square grid against the more efficient triangular layout.