Raised Bed Garden Layout Ideas To Maximize Your Vegetable Harvest

Want to make gardening easy? Raised bed gardens are the way to go. The vegetables you plant in raised beds are easy to tend since, by definition, they live in a bed that is well above the regular soil level. Raised beds are easy to access for weeding and thinning plants since they have walkways on either side. And the soil stays loamy and well-drained since nobody walks on it.

If you are considering installing raised beds, be sure to think about design before you start. Raised bed garden layout is very important. Read on for tips on making raised bed vegetable garden layout plans.

Considerations for Raised Bed Garden Layout

Most people start vegetable gardens with the hope of harvesting homegrown produce that will make its way to the dinner table. The more vegetables a gardener can grow from a planted space, the better. But some ways of planting produce more crops than others.

Check out the video below on mistakes you should try to avoid in your raised veggie garden.

The traditional vegetable garden layout involves long, thin rows of veggies planted a good distance apart – a practice that started in farms when horses or tractors had to pass between rows. If you continue with this tradition, you will have to devote a lot of garden space to the empty space between rows.

Raised bed gardening has advantages that traditional beds do not. First, the soil you are planting in, as well as the crops that start growing in it, are not as low to the ground. That makes it easier to plant and tend. In addition, most beds are no wider than 4 feet (1.3m), which means that you can easily reach each side of the raised bed from the walkway beside it.

Raised beds are more practical in a variety of other ways. For example, you save time and money since you only work and enrich the soil in the raised beds. No compost or fertilizer is wasted on the walkways. And compacted garden soil is a thing of the past since nobody is walking on the soil in the beds.

Raised Bed Garden Layout Tips

Don’t jump into building raised beds without giving adequate time to design your raised bed layout. Sunshine is an essential part of growing vegetables and you’ll want to maximize your plants’ sun exposure by choosing a good location for your vegetable garden. Generally, it’s best to build your raised beds in a north/south orientation, then install taller plants on the north, shorter plants on the south end.

You’ll also want to keep track of trees and structures that will shade out small plants. It is helpful to make a sun map of your landscape as you are designing the garden, including trees, fencing, sheds, dwellings, and any other shade-producing structures. Determine which areas of the garden will get morning shade and which will get afternoon shade. That way you can be sure that the crops you are planting will get the amount of sunshine they require.

Remember to build wide garden paths between the raised beds. While you may be able to squeeze by on foot if the pathway is a foot wide, that’s not the be all and the end all. Make the walkways large enough that a person can walk by pushing a wheelbarrow.

Raised Bed Garden Layout Ideas

What should the beds in your raised bed garden look like? You have a lot of leeway in determining your garden design. The raised beds themselves can be any shape, from a square to a long, lean rectangle to a series of triangles or ovals. The easiest to build are those with square corners. No matter the design, make sure the beds aren't wider than twice the length of your reach. Remember that you can work the crops from both sides.

A few garden bed designs include:

• Keyhole Garden: This design incorporates a compost pile in the center of the circular garden so plants get nutrients continuously as the compost breaks down. A walkway into the center of the bed serves as access to put new compost in the pile and also to maintain the garden and harvest vegetables when they are ready.
• Square-foot Vegetable Garden: Square-foot garden design is fairly straightforward; you divide your raised bed into square-foot increments for planting. This layout allows you to space your vegetables evenly and maximize the space you have in a very efficient way.
• Raised Bed with a Trellis: Adding a trellis to your raised beds will give plants like beans a place to climb and also give nice sturdy support for your tomatoes. Adding vertical growing space will help you maximize output.

There is no maximum length for raised garden beds. The height is also flexible and can vary from 6 inches (15 cm) to knee height. The latter works well for those who prefer to sit down and garden. The beds need not be aligned but can be scattered around the outside of a space or lined up neatly in the middle.

With all this discretion, it may seem difficult to figure out the best layout. It helps to decide what you plant to grow, since different crops will require different amounts of space. For example, if you are growing squash, they are best planted by themselves in a raised bed to allow them to sprawl without shading other crops.

Frequently Asked Questions

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