Guide
12 Crops for a 4×8 Raised Bed
A 4×8 bed gives you 32 square feet, which sounds like a lot until two tomatoes take a quarter of it. This list is one way I fill mine, not a rule. It mixes big summer plants, quick spring crops that make room for them, and a few that keep producing all season.
Put the tall plants on the north side so they do not shade the rest. That means tomatoes and the trellis at the back, peppers and kale in the middle, and low crops like lettuce, radishes and carrots along the front. Early crops go in before your last frost and come out as the summer plants fill in. The spacing in each blurb comes from that crop's profile.
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Two plants is plenty for one bed, set 2 feet apart at the north end. That gap looks too wide in spring. By midsummer it will not, and crowded leaves stay damp, which helps leaf spots spread. Choose a cage or stake and put it in before planting.
How to grow tomato → -
Two peppers fit in the middle row, 18 inches apart. They are slower and fussier than tomatoes, rated 4 of 5 here, and need warm nights to get going. Set them out a few weeks after your last frost, with a short stake so loaded branches do not snap.
How to grow bell pepper → -
Basil fills the gaps around the tomatoes and peppers at about 12 inches apart. Two or three plants cover most kitchens. Pinch off flower buds as they show so it keeps making leaves. Wait for warm nights before planting, since cold weather stalls it.
How to grow basil → -
A square of bush beans at about 3 inches apart packs a lot into a small patch. Sow after your last frost, and again a few weeks later if a gap opens. Keep them clear of the scallions in this bed, since most charts call beans and onions a poor match.
How to grow bush beans → -
5Peas
Peas get the trellis at the back of the bed in early spring, sown about 2 inches apart along the netting. They wind down as summer heat arrives. Pull the vines then, and the same trellis can go to cucumbers. Set the netting up first, and keep the scallions away from it.
How to grow peas → -
Once the peas come out, one or two cucumbers can climb the same trellis, set about 12 inches apart. Sow into warm soil a few weeks after your last frost, because cold ground rots the seed. Cucumber beetles show up early, so check the leaves often.
How to grow cucumber → -
Carrots love the loose soil of a raised bed, which is half the reason to grow them there. At 3 inches apart, a single square foot holds about 16. Getting them to sprout is the hard part, since it takes two to three weeks of a damp surface. Keep dill elsewhere.
How to grow carrot → -
Radishes are the bed's placeholder. Sow them where the peppers will go later, and they are out in about 3 to 5 weeks. At 2 inches apart they take almost no room. Pull them on time, because a radish left too long turns woody and splits.
How to grow radish → -
Lettuce goes in the front row about 8 inches apart and gets picked down before the heat. Later on, the strip behind the tomatoes gives it some shade. Sow a few heads every two weeks rather than all at once, or you get a salad flood followed by nothing.
How to grow lettuce → -
One or two chard plants cover a family's greens for most of the season, so give them a permanent spot about 9 inches across. Pick outer leaves and the center keeps growing. Leaf miners are the usual pest, and row cover over young plants keeps the flies off.
How to grow swiss chard → -
Scallions tuck into corners and edges at 2 inches apart, and you snip what dinner needs. They handle frost, so an early row can go in weeks before your last frost date. Onion maggots can tunnel into the roots. If plants wilt and pull up easily, move the next row.
How to grow scallions → -
12Kale
Two kale plants in the middle of the bed, a foot apart, can be picked from spring into fall. It handles hard frost at both ends of the season. Cabbageworms are the catch, so a strip of row cover over the plants from day one keeps the white butterflies away.
How to grow kale →
Every bed is different, so treat this as a starting sketch. Swap the peppers for eggplant, or skip the peas if you start late. You could even give the whole back row to one big zucchini if that is what your family eats. Keep notes on what crowded what and what you never got around to picking. By the second year, the bed starts to plan itself.
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Questions about this list
How many plants fit in a 4x8 raised bed?
It depends on what you grow. Two tomatoes take as much room as dozens of carrots. Check the spacing for each crop, and remember that quick spring crops can make way for summer ones.
How deep should a 4x8 raised bed be?
Many growers use 10 to 12 inches, which suits most crops here. Carrots and potatoes like more depth, and deeper soil also dries out more slowly.
Which way should a raised bed run?
If you can choose, run the long side east to west and put tall crops on the north side. That way the tall plants do not shade the short ones for most of the day.
General guidance for home gardens. Timing depends on your frost dates; check your local extension office for local advice.