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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, after the garlic is harvested. Thankfully, there are plenty of options you can plant in a new raised bed garden after garlic is pulled, including bush beans, kale, Swiss chard, carrots, and more.
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
- How deep should a raised bed garden be?
- The best soil for a raised bed garden
- Planting a raised bed
- Learn raised bed basics at Savvy Gardening School
Hi I’m finding your site very helpful. This is my first time planting vegetables. I plan to get some tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and maybe rutabagas.
My first 2 questions are where is the best place to place the garden container in my yard. I get very blistering hot sun in the back. Sun raising and sits there. Do I plant on the west side that is still very bright but the house will block some of the morning sun. (Zone8)
And how often do I water my garden?
I plan to get compose and vegetable soil. What else do I need?
Hi Kandy, I find the more sun the better, but I’m in a lower growing zone. I feel like for zone 8, you would maybe be better off planting on the west side of the house. Compost and vegetable soil really is all you need to fill your raised bed. You will want to water whenever the soil is dry. Water deeply and allow the soil to dry out between watering. If it feels damp the next morning, wait until the next day. If it rains, I’m also off the hook for a day or two. This article on watering tomatoes is helpful for frequency and amount. https://savvygardening.com/how-often-do-you-water-tomato-plants/
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 🙂
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.