A Simple 4×8 Raised Bed Plan for Beginners

A single 4×8 ft raised bed is the easiest way to start a vegetable garden. It is small enough to manage, big enough to keep one or two people in salads and summer vegetables, and you can reach every part of it without stepping on the soil.

This plan divides the bed into 32 one-foot squares and fills them with eight easy, productive crops.

The plan

Put the bed in full sun, at least 6 to 8 hours a day. The top row of the plan faces north, so the tall tomatoes and the cucumber trellis don’t shade the shorter crops.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
North	Tomato	Tomato	Tomato	Tomato	Cucumber	Cucumber	Cucumber	Cucumber
Row 2	Tomato	Tomato	Tomato	Tomato	Pepper	Pepper	Pepper	Pepper
Row 3	Beans	Beans	Beans	Beans	Lettuce	Lettuce	Lettuce	Lettuce
South	Carrots	Carrots	Carrots	Carrots	Onions	Onions	Radishes	Radishes

What goes in each square

Crop	Squares	Plants per square	Total plants
Tomatoes (caged)	8	1 plant per 4 squares	2
Cucumbers (on a trellis)	4	1 plant per 2 squares	2
Peppers	4	1	4
Bush beans	4	9	36
Lettuce	4	4	16
Carrots	4	16	64
Onions	2	9	18
Radishes	2	16	32

To space plants in a square, divide it into a grid: 2×2 for 4 plants, 3×3 for 9 plants, 4×4 for 16 plants.

Planting order

Count from your average last frost date, which you can find with Frost Dates by ZIP Code.

3 to 4 weeks before last frost: sow radishes and carrots; plant onion sets; plant lettuce seedlings or sow lettuce seed.
On the last frost date: sow bush beans once the soil feels warm.
1 to 2 weeks after last frost: plant tomato and cucumber transplants, once nights stay above 50°F.
2 to 3 weeks after last frost: plant peppers.

Put tomato cages and the cucumber trellis in place when you plant them. A trellis along the north edge, 5 to 6 feet tall, lets the cucumbers climb instead of sprawling over the bed.

Keep the bed full all season

Fast crops finish early, leaving space to replant:

Radishes are ready in about a month. Sow more radishes, or follow them with bush beans.
Lettuce turns bitter in summer heat. Replace it with a second sowing of beans, or leave the squares empty until late summer and sow lettuce again for fall.
Onions pulled as green onions free their squares by early summer.
In late summer, sow spinach, kale or more lettuce in any empty squares for a fall harvest. See Planting a Fall Garden.

Filling the bed

A 4×8 ft bed 12 inches deep holds 32 cubic feet of soil, about 35 cubic feet with extra for settling. The Raised Bed Soil Calculator shows how many bags of each ingredient to buy for different soil mixes and compares the cost with buying in bulk.

Once plants are up, a 2-to-3-inch layer of straw or shredded leaves keeps the soil moist and weeds down. A 4×8 bed takes about 5 to 8 cubic feet; the Mulch Calculator works it out for other depths.

Watering

Raised beds drain fast. Water deeply when the top inch of soil is dry, usually every 2 to 4 days in summer, and more often in heat. Water the soil, not the leaves, ideally in the morning. A soaker hose snaked between the rows makes it easy.

Want to feed a family?

One bed like this suits one or two people for fresh eating. For a family of four, or to grow enough to preserve, use the Garden Planner to see how many plants and beds you need.

Make it yours

Swap any crop for something you eat more of. Good one-square substitutes:

Basil or parsley: 1 to 4 plants per square.
Spinach or beets: 9 per square.
Bush beans for the peppers if your summers are short or cool.

Leave out zucchini in a single bed: one plant needs about 9 square feet. Grow it in a large container or a spare corner of the yard instead.