You’re excited to grow a vegetable garden. You’ve built your raised bed in a space that gets at least six to eight hours of sunlight a day, and filled it with soil. How do you figure out how much to grow? I thought I would put together a 4×8 raised bed vegetable garden layout to show how much can be planted in a raised bed. I ended up creating a couple because I had fun planting all those virtual veggies!
Deciding what to plant in a small vegetable garden layout
I like to recommend starting with your grocery list. What items show up week after week? For me, that means lettuce and other greens, like spinach, Swiss chard, kale, and baby bok choy, cucumbers, onions, a variety of herbs, peppers (I usually plant at least one hot pepper to make habanero jelly, and a variety of other sweet peppers), the odd root veggie, like beets and carrots. One thing that doesn’t show up often on my grocery list are tomatoes. But that’s not because I don’t like them. They just can’t compare to the ones you grow yourself (or get at the farmers’ market in the summer). So tomatoes are always on my list to plant. And I often grow way more than I need—any extras get frozen for winter meals.
I also recommend planting at least one new-to-you veggie. It’s fun to watch it grow and then give it a taste test at the end of the season. While it’s easy to get carried away and want to grow all the things, you only have room for so much. I always seem to end up with more seedlings and seeds than I have space for. That’s why my raised bed collection and assortment of pots has increased over the years. What to do with any extra seedlings you have? Don’t let them go to waste! Tuck them into a perennial garden or a pot.
Figuring out spacing in a raised bed
Read your seed packets (or plant tags) carefully. They should provide the height and width of mature plants, as well as spacing recommendations. Keep in mind one of the benefits of raised garden beds is you can plant veggies more closely together (this is called intensive planting or gardening), rather than in rows, like a traditional in-ground garden. This also helps keep the weeds down and can reduce the need to water as often. You do want to keep an eye on your garden and thin plants as they grow to maintain air circulation, which helps prevent diseases.
Many gardeners find Mel Bartholomew’s square foot gardening method helpful. In your raised bed, you divide the space into a grid of 1- x 1-foot squares. Then you follow his plan for how many plants or seeds should be added to each square. The density is based on the plant size. So that might mean one tomato or several carrots. It’s a helpful way for beginners to get organized.
Tips for your vegetable garden plan
*Assess which direction the sun comes from and make sure that you don’t plant tall crops in front of shorter ones. I learned this lesson the hard (funny?) way years ago. A packet of Pastel Dreams zinnias seemed like the perfect flowers to plant them along the front of my one raised bed. For some reason I didn’t read how tall they would get. Well the answer is three to four feet tall! Which means they cast a bit of shade on the veggies behind them at certain points throughout the day. I’m very careful about planting shorter varieties now.
*I always plant columnar basil near some of my tomatoes (I included it in my grocery list plan). It grows to be nice and high, doesn’t get lost in the shade of the tomatoes, and makes a LOT of pesto! Of course there are lots of great varieties of basil to discover.
*Choose compact varieties of plants that sprawl. They may have been bred with containers in mind, but they’re also perfect options for raised beds. If you plant, say a winter squash in your raised bed, it could easily take up the entire garden! However, a compact variety won’t be as much of a hog, and if you strategically plant it, it will cascade over the side. You could also plant your squash in front of the peas… once they’re done, the same trellis can be used to train the squash.
*Use tomato cages around bush varieties of cucumbers that will use the structure to climb.
Sneak in some flowers to attract pollinators and combat plant pests. Some of my faves include alyssum, marigolds, and nasturtiums.
Plan for succession planting
A lot of new green thumbs don’t realize that the veggie planting season doesn’t end when you plant your heat lovers, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons. Spaces created in a garden from peas, for example, can be used later in the summer to plant root crops or greens, like Swiss chard and kale, for fall harvests. This is called succession planting.
Also, when you’ve removed, say, your spent pea plants or garlic in the summer, and are getting ready to plant something else, add some compost to the raised bed. This will add some nutrients back into the soil. And now you’re ready to plant more!
I like to plant garlic in one of my raised beds in the fall, but keep in mind you won’t be able to plant in that garlic space until about July.
A 4×8 raised bed vegetable garden layout of my grocery list faves
Okay, let’s get to the layout. There are eight rows in this raised bed. For the rows of onions, greens, and root veggies, the photos don’t represent the exact amount planted. They’re just a placeholder to indicate where they go. Based on my grocery list, I would plant two rows of onions; one row with two tomato plants and a columnar basil; one row with three pepper plants (one hot, one snack, one bell—or all the same); a row of kale, spinach or Swiss chard (from seed); a row with two cucumber plants (patio varieties); and a couple of rows of root veggies (from seed). In the diagram, I included beets and carrots, but you could add turnips or radishes. I also snuck in a couple of herbs a curly parsley and a flat-leaf parsley.
A 4×8 raised bed vegetable garden layout for a family
Here’s another layout idea for a family plot. Sow a double row/band of peas or beans with a trellis on the north end. Then, add two rows of onions, a row with two tomato plants (maybe a cherry variety and an slicing tomato), a row with two pepper plants (one hot and one snack), and one snack cucumber (all three in tomato cages), a row with one winter squash (dwarf to go over the edge) and summer squash (plants or seeds)—I loved Burpee’s Lemon Drop squash—and a double row of carrots (from seed).
More raised bed articles:
- Raised bed designs for gardening
- Planting a raised bed
- Growing in fabric raised beds
- Five tips for growing tomatoes in raised beds
- Niki’s raised bed garden
- Elevated raised bed gardening
Great information and easy to understand
Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful information. As a newbie to gardening (in ground), this was very helpful. Would you say planting flowers in the garden is worth it?
Hi Keisha, I definitely think planting flowers in the garden is worth it. You’ll attract pollinators, which will then pollinate the veggie plants in your garden. 🙂
An excellent article. Thanks!
Thank you for the information. So clear and precise. I am going to follow your plant layout to a tee. Just wondering whether I should plant flowers inside the beds as well? I’m a newbie and I tend want to walk (of not run) before I crawl. Would starting out with two 4×8 beds be too ambitious to begin with?
I plant flowers at the front of a lot of my raised beds – often alyssum or marigolds. I generally recommend starting small. One raised bed is good, but two is nice if you start to run out of room. I usually find myself with more plants than I have space for! Just be mindful of the soil and materials costs for 2 vs 1.
I moved to a new house that has three 4 x 8 raised beds and two 4 x 5 beds already in place. I am excited and a bit overwhelmed. Any additional ideas?
Hi Rebecca, I would say start small – maybe not use all of the raised beds this first year. Or, consider using one to grow fruit – strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc. Or a whole herb garden in one of the smaller ones.
When you say plant the flowers at the front of the bed, what exactly does that mean?
Hi April, I just mean one end of the bed. Reserve a row for flowers. 🙂
Is there a specific benefit of having the flowers in the same garden bed? or is just nearby helpful? Like does the flowers help in the soil in some way, or is it just for the pollinators. I have my raised garden bed planned out, but i have some old patio plater pots available so i was just going to plant them wtih flowers and put them beside the raised bed at the end. is that still helpful?
Wonderful information! Thank you. How deep would you recommend the beds be? (Sorry if I missed it)
Thank you
Hello, I generally recommend 10 to 12 inches high, but they can be made even higher if you have trouble bending down or kneeling. 🙂
Great information! My husband built three 8’x4’ raised beds for us. Veggie gardening isn’t new to us just the raised bed part. In your diagrams, which is N? Our beds lay East/West. I want to be sure to not plant the taller plants on the long Southern length of our beds. We are thinking along the same lines of veggies in your example diagram.
Thank-you!
Hi Susan, I put the shorter veggies at the front… north is behind the peas!
Thank you for this great info! One thing I wonder about with such a mixed bed, and then adding succession planting in there too, is do I need to worry about crop rotation and planting the same vegetables in the same spot next year?
Hi Becky, I would definitely make sure you amend your soil between plantings and at the end of the season (or beginning of the next season). Keep an eye out for pests and plant diseases as they can overwinter in the soil. That would be a cause for crop rotation.
Can you please tell me how deep your beds are, especially for planting carrots? Thank you.
Hi Angela, I usually recommend about 10 to 12 inches high.
Thank you for detailing all these great planting ideas! How do you water your beds? If you use irrigation lines, do you plant around these?
Hi Laura, Believe it or not, I cart around watering cans. I don’t have an irrigation system, but yes, you would plant around the lines. 🙂
I love the visuals…thanks! I just got your book Gardening Your Front Yard. If you saw my front yard, you’d know why!
Thanks, Valerie! Best of luck with your front yard garden plans. 🙂
Question, do the raised beds have bottoms or is it just the garden dirt?
Thanks for the advice. Just finished watching a show on pbs about your gardening.
Hi Kathryn, they are bottomless, it’s just dirt underneath. 🙂
I just bought a 3 tiered garden bed, 4×4 on bottom tier, 3×4 on middle tier, then 2×4 on top. Leaves approx 1×4 of space for bottom and middle tier, and about 2×4 on the top. Which vegetables would be best for each tier? Was thinking of carrots, onions, strawberries, peppers, kale, cucumbers. Thank you for any help
Keeping in mind the strawberries are perennial, I would maybe plant those in the top, so they can cascade over the sides. Maybe the cucumbers in the second tier, so they can also cascade, peppers in the front, and then the carrots, onions, and kale, in the spaces that are left on the bottom two…
I’m in north idaho and planting my first raised garden beds. This might be impossible to answer but how often should I water in the dry months? Is it like everyday or just a couple times a week? It will all be done with a hose
Hi Harriet, I find I’m typically watering every day in the dry months. Unless I get a nice big rainfall. But you can also tell by feel. If you put your finger in the soil and it’s totally dry, you know you should water.
Is it ok to have a weed barrier underneath?
Great information! 🙂
I have a raised bed that I’ll be using for the first time. If I were to transfer planters in the bed (instead of sowing seeds), how many planters do I need for each vegetable? For example, from the picture I can tell, I need to plant two tomatoes (with one basil in between). Does it mean, I’m planting 22 onions in the first two rows?
Thank you! ❤️
Thanks, Jan. Yes to the tomatoes and basil. For onions, it can be trickier depending on size – green onion vs a big red onion, for example. The plant tags should provide spacing information so you know how much distance you should measure between each plant. 🙂
Raised beds are the bomb! As a nurse, I advocate raised beds and containers. Raised beds and containers can mean less bending and stooping, particularly for those of us with back and joint issues.
We are just now building our raised veg. beds. (ours are 26 inches tall). My question is– I want to attach a watering system to each bed and I’m not sure if I want the sprinkler heads to be just above the soil or way above the bed to water everything. My bed set up has 5ft tall post at the corners and in the middle so putting water up high will be easy. Which will be best for my plants?
Hi Karen,
Watering low, around the base of the plant is preferable, as watering from up high can cause the water to splash in the soil, spreading potential disease to the leaves.
This is very helpful, especially the grocery store idea. 🙂 My husband just recently built me an elevated planter box (about 2 feet tall 8x4ish). My biggest concern: deer & nighttime critters. Deer regularly hang out on our property (without any vegetables). Where exactly on your diagram would you plant the deer deterrent flowers (around entire perimeter)? Would lavender and/or other herbs around the ends work to deter them as well? We have also purchased wire mesh to go around the sides, however still concerned. thank you!
Hi Jen, I’m not sure the plants would act as a deterrent, the deer just wouldn’t eat them and maybe not find the veggies on the other side. But I think you may want to rely on wire mesh that they can’t leap over.
I used to work at a local hardware store/garden center. The garden experts there always suggested Morganite to deter deer from coming into a space.
Hi Tara,
I am confused as the soil we will need for our 4X8 bed. Our local store offers a reasonable professional potting mix soil. Would that work?
Hi Liz, I would look for a bag that says vegetable garden soil rather than potting mix for such a big raised bed. Potting mix is a more lightweight mix that’s formulated for containers.
Hi!
I want to follow your first small plan. My bed lies east -west. What direction should I plant at the top/ bottom, onions/carrots ?
Hi Keani, I would watch where the shadows fall throughout the day – from your house, trees, fence, etc. Plant the onions and carrots on the side that gets the least amount of shade throughout the day.
Thanks so much Tara!
Hello Tara!
I am interested in planting my first 4×8 Bed, and was interested in the family plot that you laid out… I was curious, is late May still okay for that sort of layout for Growing zone 7A? I was unsure if carrots were an option during the summer, or if maybe I should swap out and do a couple of cabbages there instead? Thank you for the wonderful guide for us noobies!
Hi Isaac, You’re not too late. You can still plant all the heat lovers, as well as the carrots. Happy planting!
I am using 2 pallets as my 1st ever “raised” bed. I’ve removed several of the wood pieces so there are 6 equal “holes” in each pallet. I have the pallets side by side with 2 tomato cages between them. I layed landscaping fabric down first, then the pallets and then newspaper. I plan to cover the newspaper with soil and then plant. My question is, will that be deep enough for my vegetables to grow well? I have peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, spinach and onions.
Hi Jennifer, how many inches do the plants have to grow?
My family and I just built our first raised garden bed off the ground. However I’m a tad concerned as I used MCA (Micronized Copper Azole) treated wood, but from what I’ve read newer treated wood is harmless and doesn’t leech in to the wood like the older pressure treated. After spending all day building my garden box, I’m curious if I should at some point replace, at the very least the sides (majority of dirt touches), to make it safer. Thoughts?
Hi Jeff,
I’ve found a couple of articles that might help put your mind at ease as far as the risk. Furthermore, one thing you could do is line the sides (not the bottom) of your raised bed with plastic, to minimize any leaching that might occur from wood to soil.
https://www.finegardening.com/article/are-pressure-treated-woods-safe-in-garden-beds
https://ask.extension.org/questions/409600
Hi Tara!
Thank you so much for the information and diagrams. All so helpful! Attempting my first veggie garden and just got my first 6ft long x 3ft wide x 10” depth raised bed. I think I bought way more plants than I need so I may need a second raised bed! My question is, is it too much of I plant the all the plants listed below in my bed?
Husky cherry tomato (determinate)
1 2qt tomato
3 20 oz bell peppers
1 Eggplant
1 full grown Jalapeño
2 celery & 1 carrot (grown from roots)
I also read it’s good to stagger them? I plan on putting the full grown jalapeño, tomatoes and eggplant on the back row. All except for the bell peppers are growing fruits and veggies!
Thank you so much for your guidance!
Hi Charmaine,
I think all these plants will fit just fine. You could have a row of peppers, a row with the tomato, jalapeño and eggplant, a row of celery and a row of carrots. You can stagger them a bit so that you have room for cages or stakes.
Hi Tara.
I was thinking of starting a raised bed for next spring..it is 9/5 now. I have a lot of container plants that are finished and I was thinking of dumping the soil into the bed and just working in some other things and letting it sit over winter till next spring? Can I use my leftover container garden soil for this? Would adding things like lime, pulvarized leonardite, glacier rock dust and/or espoma plant toner be good??? I have all theses things just aren’t really sure how to use them properly.
Hi Michelle,
I have used the soil from pots to fill up my raised beds, but keep in mind, at the end of the summer, they’ll likely be quite sapped of nutrients. You’ll also want to amend the soil with compost. You can also add in chopped leaves if they fall in your yard to break down over the winter. As far as the other additives you mentioned, I would read the package to determine if your soil’s conditions warrant their use!
Thank you, Tara for your response.
Hi! I’m planning to do an 4X8 raised tomato garden. I’ll like to grow both determinate and indeterminate varieties (more indeterminate). How many plants can I fit? It’s just two of us but we LOVE tomatoes!
I had a friend plant 8 this year and her plants were all huge – it was a jungle! I would say probably 6, and then you can interplant with plants, like basil. But it also depends how you stake them. Here are some tips: https://savvygardening.com/tomato-growing-secrets/ https://savvygardening.com/how-far-apart-to-plant-tomatoes/
Great info!
Are the beds directly on dirt or do you put a liner to keep weeds off? And if not how do you manage weeds from invading the garden
Thanks
The beds are directly in the soil. Some people will put landscape fabric down (I have for one of my beds), but I’ve found it can affect drainage. You could put cardboard at the base of the raised bed to cover (and hopefully smother) weeds and put the soil overtop. Bindweed is an exception as it will find its way out no matter what!
When should a raised vegetable garden be started?
Hi Laura, That depends on a few factors, including where you live and what you’re growing. Cool-weather crops, like root veggies and brassicas can be planted sooner in the spring, whereas with heat lovers, like tomatoes and cucumbers, you want to make sure all threat of frost has passed. I would look up your growing zone and frost-free dates. And then your seed packets will tell you when to plant. If you’re buying seedlings from a local garden centre, they’ll be able to help you, as well.
Thank you for the great information! My husband and I live in Germany and we’re planting out first raised beds this summer. I’ve been fretting over what to plant where and these layouts really help! 🙂
Thanks for all the information you are providing. I find it very useful. I always add marigolds to deter critters but did not think about having them to attract pollinators mainly because I have lots of flowers in the garden. Also thanks to your advice I will add new soil to the bed prior to planting the veggies I have grown indoor from seeds.
I have not have good luck in finding delicious flavorful tomatoes seed (not cherry tomatoes) to grow tomatoes even though I have tried several type. Would you be able to recommend some? Thank you.
Hi Daen,
If you’re putting in a weed barrier, I would make sure your raised bed is deep enough to accommodate the roots of what you’re planting, and that it will drain well in that location.
My hubby just made me two raised garden beds (about waist high) since I have bad knees and back! I’m so excited to get back to gardening. They are 4×7 so they are easy to reach. When he made them, he put a tin liner on the bottom (in lieu of landscape fabric) with holes for irrigation as well as netting on top of it. We then put some compost and then added raised bed soil on that. Does this sound right? Also, is it okay to plant squash in with tomatoes, snap peas, peppers and onions? I was just concerned because they spread a lot! Thanks very much!!! I LOVE YOUR WEBSITE SITE!! 🙂
Hi Polly, They sound great! I haven’t put tin in the bottom before, but with holes, you should be all set for drainage. compost and raised bed soil are a good mix! I always add compost to the vegetable soil I use. I would make sure you have a trellis for the peas, so they can grow upwards. And if your beds are waist high, maybe plant the squash closer to the edge, so it can trail over a bit, and not into the whole garden. I would plant the onions closer to the tomatoes and peppers.
Great information. I am a newbie and was just wondering. Do you grow the tomatoes up? Wouldn’t they shade the onions? The whole time I was thinking planting the tomatoes in the back with some sort of trellises behind them
Thank you so much.
I cage the tomatoes. Depending on the angle of the sun, the tomatoes could shade out the onions. You can move plants around accordingly, based on the light conditions of your garden.
Tara, I have two 4×8 raised beds and am confused on how to do succession and rotation planting. I usually plant peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, turnips, kale, rutabagas, zucchini and carrots. Any suggestions?
Hi Mary! For succession planting, you can plant veggies in the spaces created after you pull out other plants. So if your peas come out of the garden in July, for example, you can plant root veggies in that space. For rotation planting, with two raised beds, try to move things around a bit every couple of years and be sure to amend your soil. Maybe swap crops from one bed to another.
Thanks for the information! I’m planting my first garden this year and below is a list of what we would like to plant! How would you suggest planting? We want to use a raised garden bed!
Garlic
Onions
Sweet peppers
Bell pepper
Lettuce
Spinach
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Carrots
Basil
Parsley
Oregano
Hi Kaylin,
Keeping in mind that you would plant garlic in the fall, and the direction of the sun, I would plant the herbs at the front of the bed and then plant carrots and lettuce behind. Plant the peppers and tomatoes together in rows, spaced accordingly. I would put onions behind. You may want to put the cucumbers to one side so they can trail off the side as they spread. Or, trellis them!
Thank you for this! So helpful for us beginners! Can you recommend the type/variety of plant we should buy if I follow the family plot model. Also what ratio do you use with compost and vegetable garden soil?
THANK YOU!!!
Hi Steph, The varieties you grow are up to you… pay attention to seed packets or plant tags so you can see the mature size of the plant you’re growing. I top-dress my raised beds with about 3 or 4 inches of compost each spring.