Vegetable gardeners everywhere all have one thing in common; they dream of high vegetable yields! High vegetable yields definitely mean more bang for your buck, and I’m sure all of your neighbors would gladly take any excess veggies off your hands! Read on for tips and tricks for a vegetable garden layout.
Vegetable Garden Layout: Raised Beds
Raised garden beds are great for anyone with a limited amount of space to use. When laying out your vegetable garden in raised beds, make sure you put the beds in an area of full sun. Additionally, you will want to use rot-resistant wood and be careful when watering, plants in containers are more susceptible to root rot. When planning my garden in raised beds, I like to have a garden bed dedicated to each variety of plant. If you keep everything separated in containers, it’s more likely to survive. Farmers Almanac has more tips for laying out your garden in raised beds.
Vegetable Garden Layout: Square Foot
If you are looking to find a vegetable gardening layout for minimal square feet, it’s best to keep things simple and small! Using only a salvaged pallet, you can keep a garden big enough to feed two thriving. First, map out your pallet section so there are 4×4 sections. Keep things like tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, and beets together. Radishes, peppers, pole beans, and parsley also do well together on the other side of the pallet. This is one of my favorite vegetable garden layout ideas.
Vegetable Garden Layout Designs
There are tons of vegetable garden layout design ideas out there, you just need to find a layout that is right for the size of your area. The layout ideas below should help you get inspired.
If you have tons of space to work with, try a large garden layout with multiple beds. Each bed should be sized around 11×3 feet to maximize the space.
If you have practically NO yard space to work with, it is possible to still grow your own vegetables, you just have to get creative. Use PVC pipes to create a hydroponic system that keeps your plants fed and happy. Learn more about growing your own vegetables vertically here.
To better control weeds in your vegetable garden, plant your crops in “blocks” that are no bigger than 3-4 feet wide. They should also be 18-24 inches apart.
Vegetable Garden Layout: For Beginners (These Are Great Tips!)
Before beginning, it’s important to pick an area of your yard to garden. Ask yourself if raised beds are important, and which areas of your yard receive the necessary amounts of sunlight based on the variety of veggie. It’s important to also consider things like proximity to water and soil quality! Location is everything!
When growing tall plants like beans, corn, and seeds, it’s best to put them on the northern side of your garden. This way, their shadows won’t cast themselves over any other plants that need just as much sunlight!
Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, squash, and pumpkins should be grown in the center of your garden. They need plenty of room, but often don’t need as much sunlight as some of your other varieties.
For your shorter crops (think carrots, beets, radishes, and onions) place them in the southernmost corner of your garden. Here they will receive the necessary amounts of sunlight.
Planter Box
If container gardening is more your speed, it is often a good idea to keep tomato plants in their own containers. Keep all of your herbs together in one pot, and pair an onion plant with parsley. More container gardening tips and tricks can be found on The Spruce.
And, another fun way to garden is using pallets.
Christy King says
Love this
Nerline says
These are some great tips. I’m trying to grow some veggies that I can freeze. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Sandy says
This is awesome. Thanks for the information.
Teresa says
We garden in kiddie pools and it works great! We are growing every herb available. Our Rosemary has found a permanent home and is growing to be huge. We have red & green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, 2 types of onions, bush green beans, lima beans, tomatoes 4 different types of peppers, eggplant, rhubarb, asparagus, 2 different watermelons, cantaloupe, 4 different types of squash, corn, sunflowers, perennial flowers, lillies, strawberries and more! We now have several pools 6 completed, and growing! We lay down dark landscape fabric under the pools, place & fill the pools, then mulch over the fabric around the pools. There’s very little weeding – none in the last 3 years. If you’re going to try this, remember to drill several drainage through the bottom of the pool.
Jennifer says
Sounds fascinating, it would be nice to see a picture of that.