
DIY Planting Spacer – Keep Your Seedlings Neat!
This easy DIY planting spacer makes planting neat rows of seedlings a cinch!
What You Need For Your Spacer
2 x cupboard handles (our DIY guru Garth made his own!)
1 x 300mm x 300mm x 20mm piece of wood
9 or 16 x wine corks
9 or 16 x 55mm wire nails
Tools
Saw, drill and 4mm drill bit, screwdriver, ruler, pencil, hammer
What To Do To Make Your Spacer
- Measure the wood and cut it to size. Sand the sharp edges.
- On the plank, draw a grid of squares.
If you are doing a nine spacer, do this: From each edge draw a line across the plank 50mm from the edge. Now draw a line down the middle, rotate the board 90° and draw another line, in the middle but perpendicular to the previous one, so that the two lines intersect in the centre of the plank. If you’ve done it right you should have created four equally sized squares.
If you are doing a 16 spacer, do this: From each edge draw a line across the plank 7.5mm from the edge. Measuring from one of these lines, measure 75mm and draw a line, then measure another 75mm and draw another line. Rotate the plank 90° and repeat, drawing lines at 75mm and 150mm. If you’ve done it right you should have created nine equally sized squares.
- Nail a wire nail into each intersection of the lines you drew in the previous step, so that 35mm of the nail still stands proud of the surface.
- Push a cork onto each nail, over the head of the nail.
- Measure the handles, from screw hole to screw hole. Make marks 25mm in from two opposite edges, corresponding to the handle measurements, so that the handle is in the centre of the edge of the plank.
- Drill holes at these points, and countersink the holes to hide the screw heads.
- Screw the handles to the plank.

How To Use It
- In a soft, freshly raked garden bed, hold the spacer by the handles and firmly push the corks into the soil .
- Remove the spacer, leaving behind a neat grid of nine or 16 neat holes.
- Pop seedlings into each hole and fill in the holes. Water and move on.
What space for which plant?
Nine spacer: Spinach, turnips, garlic, onions, parsley, bush beans, beets, bok choy, parsnips, peas. 16 spacer: Chives, spring onions, carrots, radishes