The Homestead Plan / Homestead planning software
Garden and self-sufficiency planner
Homestead planning software you pay for once
The Homestead Plan is a garden planner for families who want to grow a real share of their own food. It works out how many plants you need, how much ground and soil they take, what grows well together and when to sow. Urban Root makes it, and it runs in your browser at thehomesteadplan.com.
Try the free self-sufficiency calculator
Four calculators are free. No account, no email, no trial countdown.
What it answers
Start with your household, not a seed catalogue. You set the family size (1 to 12), a goal (fresh eating only, fresh plus some preserving, or full-year self-sufficiency) and how often you eat each crop. The planner turns that into plant counts, growing area, expected yield and a self-sufficiency percentage. The results update as you type. There is no Calculate button.
A worked example
These are the planner's first-load settings: the Family Basics preset (12 crops, among them tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions, bush beans and lettuce), a family of 4, the goal Fresh + some preserving, and the default 300 lb of produce per person per year.
The savings figure is on the paid Cost Savings tab. It uses the default grocery prices (US BLS average retail, retrieved July 2026) and counts only the produce the family would otherwise buy. Surplus is reported apart and is not counted as savings. Change any input and every figure changes with it.
Free calculators and the paid plan
| Tool | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Self-sufficiency calculator | Plants per crop, garden area with about 30 % of the footprint for paths, estimated yield, self-sufficiency % | Free |
| Raised-bed soil calculator | Rectangle, circle and L-shaped beds, 4 mix presets, bag counts and cost, all including a 15 % settling allowance | Free |
| Companion planting checker | 230 sourced pairings across 82 crops, by bed or by single crop | Free |
| Planting date calculator | Start-indoors, transplant, direct-sow and harvest windows for USDA zones 3 to 11, or your own frost dates | Free |
| Growing Plan | A 12-month schedule, bed layouts, succession planting, harvest timeline, yield estimates, preservation guide, savings and first-year tips, downloadable as an HTML report | $39.99 once |
| Crop database | All 82 crops with yields, spacing and preservation notes, searchable and sortable | $39.99 once |
| Cost savings calculator | Grocery value of the harvest, setup costs, break-even and ROI, with every price editable | $39.99 once |
| Preservation planner | Jars, freezer space, dehydrator batches and root cellar space from a fresh-versus-stored split per crop | $39.99 once |
Who it is for
- New homesteaders who want to know how big a garden their family needs before they dig.
- Experienced gardeners who are expanding and want the plant counts and bed soil worked out.
- Growers outside the US. You can type your own frost dates, flip the hemisphere and switch to metric.
- People who stopped paying for a garden app and lost their layouts. A plan you download here stays yours.
How the numbers are made
The crop table carries yields, spacings and days to maturity for 82 crops. The sources are extension services and published references: USDA, Cornell, Minnesota, Maryland, Penn State, Texas A&M, Utah State, LSU, Clemson, UF/IFAS, FAO and Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening. Plant counts use the low end of each yield range so you do not under-plant. Savings use the midpoint so the return is not overstated.
The paid Growing Plan uses an AI model for the written parts: the monthly schedule, bed layouts, succession notes, preservation advice and tips. The app computes the harvest timeline, the yield estimates and the savings total with the same engine as the free tabs, so the model does not supply any of those figures. Yields still depend on your soil, weather, variety and care.
The name
The product is called The Homestead Plan and lives at thehomesteadplan.com. Urban Root is the small company that builds it, along with an aeroponics calculator, a grow-room calculator and Famine Prep, an emergency food storage planner. When you search for this planner, search for The Homestead Plan.
Questions
What is The Homestead Plan?
The Homestead Plan is a web app for planning a home food garden. It works out how many plants a household needs, how much space and soil they take, which crops grow well together and when to plant them. Urban Root makes it. It runs in the browser at thehomesteadplan.com.
Is it a subscription?
No. The four calculators are free with no account. The full plan is a one-time $39.99 payment. You get a licence key that works on up to 3 devices and does not expire.
Does it work outside the United States?
Yes. USDA zones 3 to 11 have frost dates built in. Anywhere else, you type your own last spring frost and first fall frost dates. A hemisphere toggle shifts every date by six months, and the app shows metric or imperial units.
Where do the numbers come from?
Yields, spacings and companion pairings come from extension services and published references, including USDA, Cornell, Penn State, Texas A&M and Square Foot Gardening. Plant counts use the conservative end of each yield range. Savings use the midpoint and count only the produce the household would otherwise buy.
Does the AI invent the numbers in the growing plan?
No. The model writes the schedule, bed layouts, succession notes and tips. The harvest timeline, the yield estimates and the savings figure come from the app's own calculations.
Plan this year's garden from your family's needs.
Open The Homestead PlanRead more: About The Homestead Plan · Planning guides on the blog · Can you feed a family from a backyard garden?