The summer before we moved to our current homestead, I was sick and tired of being squished while picking tomatoes and peppers and having loads of weeds in my cut flower garden. I wasn’t designing a garden before planting at this time. My husband helped take care of the weeds, but I wanted something different. Something better.
Wanting to grow flowers to cut and sell, I bought Floret’s book “Cut Flower Garden”. In this book, she shares how to grow her cut flowers in beds of 4’ x 10’, or to length desired. I began to connect how I plant double rows of tomatoes, saving space. Now, what if I created these vegetables beds that were 3’ wide. How much more effective would my garden space be?
I never was able to plant that first vegetable garden I designed. We moved the following spring, but as soon as we agreed to buy the property, I was designing a garden for that space. Over two growing seasons of designing my garden with using beds versus rows, I am not going back and hope to see others transform their garden space as well.
Getting Started in Designing a Garden
Whenever I begin designing a garden for the following season, I take into consideration what garden space I currently have or that I would like to add to. I do this in the later summer and the early fall whenever my current garden is still there. I like to reflect in the moment and seeing what worked and what I want to improve on.
If starting a new garden, I will take a landscape tape measure outdoors to the area that I want to rototill for the garden. I’ll do this as well for any new additions to see how much space I am gaining.
For the 2023 garden, I actually may be losing 8’ along the north side of my garden where there is a low spot in the yard that becomes a swamp every spring. So, I plan to not include that area when designing.
There are various media to design a garden space. I’ve tried Almanac’s online garden planner before, which was fun, but I usually do a few drafts of my garden space. So, I want something that can be quickly redrawn without a computer, or even erased and changed.
I use 4×4 loose-leaf grid paper with a pencil and very good eraser. 4×4 grid paper just means that each block is equal to ¼”. Other grid paper may have smaller blocks at 5×5. Either works, but I find the 4×4 grid paper is larger and easier to split cells in half or quarters.
Come planting season, this paper plan can become a mess from being outside with me in the garden’s soil, so I use sheet protectors. This also helps when I need to use two sheets of grid paper for the whole garden. I can just flip it over to see what the other half the garden is growing. Then I keep my plans from all the years in a gardening binder.
Designing My Overall Garden Space
For designing my garden, first, I outline the whole garden. My garden is 52’ x 90’. In 2022, it was 52’ x 98’, but I don’t want to plan where the swamp and poor soil is again for 2023. In this space, I have my cut flowers, sunflowers, sweet corn, berries, grapes, and some perennial flowers.
If I knew we would be purchasing more ground adjacent to ours, I would have reserved all the perennials for the second property. Having perennials in the main garden does make it more challenging to rototill every spring.
2’ wide walkways work great between the vegetable beds. It provides enough room without taking up too much garden space. The vegetable beds range from 3’ wide blocks, or I as like to call them “mini-fields” to 4’ wide vegetables beds. A few items I still plant in rows, such as peas.
Focusing specifically on the vegetable section of the garden, I create 8 vegetable beds 4’ x 24’, one extra vegetable along the fence 2’ x 24’, and two 3’ x 24’ “mini-fields” or blocks of sweet corn in the back of the garden. In terms of grid paper, 4’ equals two blocks by 24’, which is twelve blocks.
It is imperative to create this garden plan to size. You are essentially creating a map of your garden that is neat and communicates your plan well enough somebody else could pick this up and plant your garden for you.
Crop Rotation when Designing the Garden
Every year, I move my crops in a rotation, and I include this when designing my garden for the current season.
The sweet corn stays near the back of the garden so that it does not shade out some of the other sun loving plants.
The 2’ wide bed next to the fence will have Roma tomatoes for the second year in a row. Compost will be added before planting to ensure nutrients are available.
As to the eight 4’ wide vegetable beds, I group these with their family plants and make sure that they are rotating in order to make the plants happy and healthy. My biggest struggle with this was keeping potatoes away from the peppers and tomatoes, and not planting the above ground nightshades where potatoes were the prior season. Here’s what I figured out.
Two beds of melon family will be planted where tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes were planted in 2022. The above ground nightshade family will be planted in the two beds north of the melons (to the left on the grid paper). In the past, I planted peas with beans side-by-side, but this coming season, I plan to have a pea bed next to the cabbage family, which will follow the potatoes in 2024. The cabbage family will follow the beans family in 2024. The potatoes are planted near the beans, and both will follow the melon family.
Designing a Garden with Weed Prevention in Mind
One of the objectives with designing a garden is growing vegetables in long beds versus rows is to maintain weeds. I hate weeds. Hate hoeing. Hate pulling them. I just want to keep them out of my garden to begin with.
For the vegetable garden, I have two methods. The first is to use newspaper with rocks or straw. Something needs to hold down the newspaper from blowing everywhere. This works awesome if you are still in your first years of designing your garden space and are not sure where you want everything year after year. It’s great. And a benefit it that you can rototill the weathered newspaper into the soil after the season in the fall.
The second method is to buy high quality landscape fabric and to burn holes into where you plan to plant the vegetables plants year after year after year. This does cost more of an investment, but the landscape fabric can be reused for years. I bought a 6’ x 300’ roll from Johnny’s Select Seed last year and am quite a fan. For heat loving plants, it keeps the soil warm. For laying it out, it is easy to lay down. Most people use landscape staples to keep it from blowing away. I use cap blocks we had on hand. For keeping down weeds, it keeps the pathways and beside the plants clear. A few weeds will sneak up with the transplants, but pulling those is much easier and less stressful than pulling out a whole fold.
Designing a Garden with a Melon Patch
The first two 4’ beds at the entrance of the garden on the south side are for the melon family. With designing my garden for 2023, I plan to do what I did in 2022, I planted everything in Sunbelt landscape fabric. These plants loved it. It kept the soil moist during our drought and provided heat to them as well.
For 2023, I plan to plant one green zucchini, one golden zucchini, two pickling cucumbers, four slicing cucumbers, two honeydews, two cantaloupes, two sugar-baby watermelon, and two large sized watermelons. This does not provide much extra to sell, but that’s not my intent. My intent is to grow my vegetables for my home, animals, and to give to family and friends where there’s extra.
Radish will work as companion plants to zucchini and cucumbers. I chose not to include them in my 2023 garden due to the landscape fabric. Nevertheless, I plan to incorporate nasturtiums with the melons. I will burn holes off-centered to where the melon plants will go and plant nasturtium seeds.
Last year in 2022, this area in the garden had a bed of peppers and tomatoes and a second bed with potatoes. In 2024, the beds of beans and potatoes would follow.
Designing My Tomato Beds
Tomatoes are a must in the garden. I use to plant loads of tomatoes, but in the past two years, I have downsized to the point that I want my abundance of tomatoes back. The extra I don’t use will go to neighbors, family members, and our chickens too. When designing my garden for this year, I include three beds with tomato plants.
South of the melon patch is one 2’ bed for my Roma tomatoes. I did have Roma tomatoes in the same location last year, but I plan to provide lots of nutrients to them through compost. Interplanted are two African marigolds. I did provide two square foot of space for each, but these marigolds can grow tall and outwards. Newspaper will keep the weeds from the tomatoes. 3’ – 4’ tall tomato cages will keep the tomatoes upright for majority of the season.
First Large Tomato Bed Design
North of the melon patch are two 4’ beds of tomatoes and peppers. In the first bed are all slicing tomatoes. I created room for six various varieties that are orange, purple, yellow, or other unusual colors that I wanted to try.
In 2022, my mom bought her tomato plants from a local Amish nursery. She had tomatoes before us by about a month. It wasn’t that she bought from the local nursey because I also bought two potted larger tomatoes from a nursery and they didn’t produce until later. When I talked to my mom about it, she shared that she bought the Early Girl variety. For 2023, I am trying the New Girl slicing tomato variety from Johnny’s Select Seeds. It is an earlier variety than Early Girl. I’m hoping for this year that I have some rather early tomatoes!
I may switch the Classic Beefsteak variety to the end of the bed. Finding that when I grow large tomatoes next to a smaller or medium variety, the smaller variety grows larger and the larger variety grows smaller. I don’t need a fancy variety for a classic slicing tomato. I just want quality and large.
The Bonny Best are tomatoes I have never grown before. But my struggle in 2022 with tomatoes was that we had a draught in June. My Roma tomatoes did not produce as much quality or quantity. I do like using the paste tomatoes for my tomato puree because they have less water content and are meaty, but I’ve used large slicing tomatoes in the past that enabled me to produce an abundance quantity of tomato puree. Bonny Best are from Baker Creek’s Heirloom Seeds, are larger, and are described as being for canning.
Second Large Tomato Bed Design
In the second 4’ bed, I plan to plant more large red slicing tomatoes and a variety of cherry and plum tomatoes.
Between the tomatoes in both 4’ beds, I plan to plant marigolds. I’m not sure about the variety whether a petite French version or an African Crackerjack variety, but marigolds help the health of tomatoes and peppers, as well as drawing in the bees and beneficial insects.
For supporting the slicing and cherry tomatoes, I want to build a few wooden tall tomato cages myself so that the plants can keep growing after 4’ – 5’. Depending how many I make, some tomatoes may just be staked. I’ve used zip ties to secure them to the stake, but it is not the best for the plants health. Elastic work nice to where it can stretch.
Designing Vegetable Beds of Peppers
In the second above-ground nightshade bed, I start with the sweet peppers. Last year, I kept it to a minimal of just California Wonder and Banana Pepper. I honestly love having a variety of colors and green and red just don’t cut it for me. Reserving three spots for banana peppers, the rest will be a mix of varieties for different colors.
I separate the hot peppers from the sweet so that they don’t cross with each other and so that I know the difference between my sweet banana peppers and my Hungarian Hot Wax. In 2021, my husband and I played Russian Roulette with our peppers. I didn’t have them label in the garden, although I did have a garden plan on paper. We ate what looked like a banana pepper, not realizing it was hot. Oops! Live and learn.
The hot peppers will also be a mix of four varieties, including jalapeno, hot Hungarian wax, pepperoncini, and a fourth variety I have yet to decide.
Keeping in mind the crop rotation for designing a garden, in 2024, melons will be relocated to where the tomatoes and peppers are in 2023.
Planning My Rows of Peas in My Vegetable Garden
When I learned about designing a vegetable garden in beds versus rows, the only thing I’ve never applied it to is peas. Why? Peas are hard to pick and it would have been impossible to pick any in the two interior feet of the bed.
I also grow my peas on a pea trellis with planting peas on both sides of the trellis. I needed a walk-way between the two so that I could pick peas on both sides of the trellis.
The new thing I want to try in my garden is to buy a 16’ cattle panel to use as a trellis. My current pea trellis works being made out of a plastic yarn, but the cattle panel seems more hardy and easier to put up.
T-posts work to help up the pea trellis or the cattle panel. Use zip ties to secure.
I haven’t used newspapers or landscape fabric in the past. I do want to try putting down some cheaper landscape fabric between the two pea rows to keep weeds at bay.
Peas, like beans, leave behind nitrogen in the soil when their plant remnants are left to be rototilled into the soil at the end of the season. In 2024, tomatoes will be planted in this bed, which works out great because tomatoes are heavy feeders.
If peas are planted as soon as the soil can be worked, their season may be done when it is time to plant tomatoes. If that is the case, tomatoes can take over the peas’ spot in the garden. When my peas are done, I like to replant a second succession of peas for a fall harvest.
Designing My Cabbage Patch and Other Brassicaceae Family
My biggest problem with growing cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower in 2022- everything was ready at the same time, and I was not in the mood to eat that much of all those plants. No way! I love cabbage and noodles, cabbage and sausages, and coleslaw, but I can’t eat it for days straight.
To combat this, I created four sections of the cabbage patch for succession plantings, about two to three weeks apart. The selection of six plants I am growing are an early cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and kohlrabi.
Interplant the cabbage with geraniums. These flowers repel cabbage worms.
Eight plants of a large late flat Dutch cabbage are included . I will use these in attempt to make sauerkraut, so I need these to be harvested all at the same time. Two may just be used for normal dinner use, while six will be used for canning. I went overload on canning sauerkraut two years ago in 2021. One batch was pretty good. Another batch was not. So, I want to take 2023 to focus on making quality sauerkraut over growing lots of cabbage in anticipation that I think I’ll be able to learn more about making good sauerkraut.
My last cabbage plant is going to be unique. It is the largest cabbage from the Baker Creek catalog. It’s huge in the picture. I’m giving it 4’ square feet of growing room.
With the larger cabbages, I plan to add nasturtium between the plants as a companion plant.
I’m hesitant to use Sunbelt landscape fabric with tomatoes and their stakes. With the cabbage family, I never add any supports, so I do plan to use the higher quality landscape fabric with the cabbage patch, including this when designing my garden space.
Nightshades follow the cabbage family in crop rotation.
Planning My Mini-Field of Potatoes in the Garden
Potatoes are my favorite crop to plant in 4’ beds. It feels as if I have a mini-field of potatoes in my garden. I harvest these all at once. Once they are harvested, they are done.
Marigolds help pests in the ground, such as nematodes. Being great as a companion flower, I plan to replace some rows of potatoes with four marigold plants.
Potatoes are a part of the nightshade family. Last year I planted a vegetable bed of potatoes next to my tomato and pepper beds. I realized I needed more room for my tomatoes and peppers. I thought about grouping the potatoes and cabbage together because they work well as companion plants. My predicament was that potatoes and tomatoes can share diseases being in the same vegetable family. If I grouped potatoes with cabbage, then tomatoes would be following the potatoes. If the potatoes get disease this season, it would affect my 2024 crop of tomatoes. I didn’t want to chance that.
Instead I group the potatoes with the beans to then follow melons. The peas will follow the potatoes and return nutrients into the soil in the 2024 season for the tomatoes to then follow after the peas.
This sounds complicated, but I feel confident in this decision to keep the potatoes away from the tomatoes and to place the potatoes further away in the crop rotation, having peas in between.
My Rows of Beans in the Garden
I can deal with double rows of green beans. With three rows of bush beans, I can still feel happy when picking them. I cannot do four rows in a 4’ bed. Nope, I won’t do that again. I keep this in mind when designing my garden space for bush green beans.
Beans are not something that I want to return to single rows for. I could double rows, but the 4’ spacing I have available for it does not match up.
Beans have plenty of companion plants. They work with marigolds and petunias, and also carrots.
I left the beans, including blue lake, purple, and yellow varieties, on the exterior of the bed. On the inside where I rarely need to reach, I added square footage space for its companion plants and some succession plantings of beans.
The beans will follow the melon family in 2024. Beans, when the dead plant is left in the garden to be rototilled in, will leave nitrogen for the heavy-feeders of nitrogen- the cabbage family to enjoy in the 2024 season.
Designing My Blocks of Sweet Corn
I plant sweet corn in long blocks 3’ x 24’. I’ve thought about creating it 4’ wide, but I have chosen not to because whenever there’s lots of rain and the corn keeps growing and growing, the 2’ walkway turns into a jungle. It becomes much harder to reach in and grab the corn cobs in the center whenever I want to run for some open spaces.
One block will be for the heirloom seed varieties I have. The second block will be for our peaches & cream variety.
One companion crop for sweet corn is cucumbers. Many people know the story of the three sisters- Corn, beans, and pumpkins. Cucumbers vine like pumpkins, but they will be done and harvested about the same time the sweet corn is finished. Cucumber vines will also deter away any raccoons.
We do fence our main garden, but last year things were eating the field corn later in the season. I’m going to try out the cucumbers with the sweet corn to see how it turns out.
A good flower companion for sweet corn is geraniums. Geraniums repel worms, including earworms in corn.
I don’t have our sweet corn in a rotation at the moment. However, sweet corn is always grown at the back of the garden on the north side so that it does not shade out other plants.
Blocks of Field Corn in the Pumpkin Patch and Its Design
Outside of the main garden, I plan to have blocks of decorative field corn with rows of pumpkins and winter squash in between. The field corn rows will be 3’ x 12’ and be followed in the same row with a different variety. The pumpkin rows are 3’ x 24’ and will have pumpkins planted every 3’. The pumpkins will trail through the rows of field corn.
Pumpkins act to keep critters away from corn, as well as acting as a companion plant. Pumpkins and field corn are also done about the same time in later fall.
Lettuce & Other Raised Bed Gardening
I have two 4’ x 8’ raised beds behind my house. Whenever I want lettuce or salad products, I never want to walk up to the garden when I’m making a meal. Walking right outside my sunporch door, it works!
I’ve never drawn a plan for planting lettuce, spinach, endive, garlic, onion, radish, and carrots. I may someday. Currently I am growing tulips, onions, and rhubarb in the one bed, while the other may be used to start some cool hardy seeds. It just works easier to not create a plan and then to plant whenever it’s time.
That’s okay too. Everything doesn’t have to be planned. Having a design drawn out on paper to help manage the spacing in a garden is an amazing tool and planning step. In some garden spaces though, it is nice to have it completely free.
I can see myself at some point designing the raised bed, but it is a matter of doing things first until I gain experience in how to plan what I want.
Will I Change My Mind about Designing My Garden?
I might. I love reflecting and seeking out the best opportunity. While planting, I never follow my design perfectly. I don’t need to take the time during planting season to redraw my new ideas. While taking action and doing something, it sparks ideas in my head that I just can’t ignore. Better ideas than what I thought of before. Overthinking and overthinking or designing and re-designing don’t help. It is good to plan. But it also good to go with the flow of how things are going while doing it!
I may see that I have room in the garden early in the season once the potatoes are done. Or, I could decide to plant a fall harvest of peas or beans. I may see that while planting beans I just don’t care about planting small successions of them in the garden. Maybe I’ll change my mind and plant some beans in the raised beds beside my house. That’s okay to change your mind while doing the project, as long as you don’t have to rip things out of the soil or to overspend your budget. Simple changes can make a lastly impact and have a huge lesson behind it.