Kathy's 4 X 8 Raised Bed Garden

A second garden is being planned for Kathleen Phillips. She's set aside a 4 X 8' plot next to her shed in the back yard. The plan is to grow potatoes, onions, squash, cucumbers, peppers and as much as we can fit in that little space, hence the name micro-garden. I am space limited in my yard to a series of buckets or containers scattered around the South end of my CoOp. Below is a schematic for the plan to grow our veggies at Kathy's house.There are 16 rows and 4 columns of space on this 4 X 8 raised bed. Each row is roughly 6" wide and each column is about 12" long. We will grow a tomato plant and some herbs in containers. Everything else will be grown in the raised bed.

The raised bed space is dedicated in the following manner.

Broccoli     Summer Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Broccoli     Summer Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Broccoli     Summer Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Cauliflower  Winter Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Cauliflower  Winter Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Cauliflower  Winter Squash    Onion      Yukon Gold Potato

B. Sprouts   Cantaloupe       Onion         Yukon Gold Potato 

B. Sprouts   Cantaloupe       Onion         Yukon Gold Potato

Carrots      Cantaloupe         Onion         Yukon Gold Potato 

Scallions    Cantaloupe        Onion          Yukon Gold Potato

Carrots      Cantaloupe   Bell Peppers     Yukon Gold Potato 

Kohlrabi           Cabbage       Bell Pepper          Bell Pepper

Kohlrabi           Cabbage       Bell Pepper           Bell Pepper

Swiss Chard   Cucumber    Snow Peas    Gr. & Yellow. Beans 

Swiss Chard   Cucumber    Snow Peas    Gr. & Yellow. Beans 

Swiss Chard   Cucumber   Snow Peas     Gr. & Yellow. Beans 

Will they all play nice together & grow up big & strong ? That's anybody's guess. I've tried to keep the plant antagonisms to a minimum but with so many plants We'll get our answer in a few months. 

Some questions have been asked as to why make such a small bed to try and grow so many vegetables ? The decision to make a raised bed in the 1st place was pretty easy. I didn't want to invest a lot of resources and energy into digging & roto-tilling, period. There would be too many plants for containers so it pretty much came down to a raised bed. I could just lay newspapers, landscape cloth or some old carpeting down to kill the grass & fill it in with a compost & topsoil mixture. The potatoes will be hilled w/mulch, wood shavings or straw so the plants grow up, not down into the soil.  The rest have rather shallow roots so that does not seem to be a problem. All of the plants except tomato are heavy feeders so that's why the tomato is in a container. After the snow melts & weather get's warmer I'll show how we build the bed step by step.

Kathy's 4 X 8 Raised Bed Garden

A second garden is being planned for Kathleen Phillips. She's set aside a 4 X 8' plot next to her shed in the back yard. The plan is to grow potatoes, onions, squash, cucumbers, peppers and as much as we can fit in that little space, hence the name micro-garden. I am space limited in my yard to a series of buckets or containers scattered around the South end of my CoOp. Below is a schematic for the plan to grow our veggies at Kathy's house.There are 16 rows and 4 columns of space on this 4 X 8 raised bed. Each row is roughly 6" wide and each column is about 12" long. We will grow a tomato plant and some herbs in containers. Everything else will be grown in the raised bed.

The raised bed space is dedicated in the following manner.

Broccoli     Summer Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Broccoli     Summer Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Broccoli     Summer Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Cauliflower  Winter Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Cauliflower  Winter Squash    Onion     Yukon Gold Potato

Cauliflower  Winter Squash    Onion      Yukon Gold Potato

B. Sprouts   Cantaloupe       Onion         Yukon Gold Potato 

B. Sprouts   Cantaloupe       Onion         Yukon Gold Potato

Carrots      Cantaloupe         Onion         Yukon Gold Potato 

Scallions    Cantaloupe        Onion          Yukon Gold Potato

Carrots      Cantaloupe   Bell Peppers     Yukon Gold Potato 

Kohlrabi           Cabbage       Bell Pepper          Bell Pepper

Kohlrabi           Cabbage       Bell Pepper           Bell Pepper

Swiss Chard   Cucumber    Snow Peas    Gr. & Yellow. Beans 

Swiss Chard   Cucumber    Snow Peas    Gr. & Yellow. Beans 

Swiss Chard   Cucumber   Snow Peas     Gr. & Yellow. Beans 

Will they all play nice together & grow up big & strong ? That's anybody's guess. I've tried to keep the plant antagonisms to a minimum but with so many plants We'll get our answer in a few months. 

Some questions have been asked as to why make such a small bed to try and grow so many vegetables ? The decision to make a raised bed in the 1st place was pretty easy. I didn't want to invest a lot of resources and energy into digging & roto-tilling, period. There would be too many plants for containers so it pretty much came down to a raised bed. I could just lay newspapers, landscape cloth or some old carpeting down to kill the grass & fill it in with a compost & topsoil mixture. The potatoes will be hilled w/mulch, wood shavings or straw so the plants grow up, not down into the soil.  The rest have rather shallow roots so that does not seem to be a problem. All of the plants except tomato are heavy feeders so that's why the tomato is in a container. After the snow melts & weather get's warmer I'll show how we build the bed step by step.