Thinking about designing a vegetable garden? Needing to find garden layout plans and spacing requirements that go along with them? Read on to see my favorite garden designs with tips on planning your ideal garden design.
Planning a vegetable garden layout
Make a list of vegetable plants when ready to design a vegetable garden
Start a list of what vegetable plants you plan on growing. Include each plant’s requirements, including spacing, light, and soil requirements. Also, include how tall each plant will grow and if it will need a trellis. This will help you to plot out your garden.
Draw a map of Your Property
The first thing you want to do is grab some paper, preferably grid paper, and a pencil to draw. Then walk around your property and draw in any trees, shrubs, buildings, hills, and low spots. The ideal areas you are looking at should be close to your house, to be convenient to keep the garden up, but not too close as to be too shady.
You are also looking for an ideal place where the soil is loose, rich, level, and well-drained. Try not to pick a place that is low with water standing. Your vegetables will not grow very well in those poorly drained spots. If a poorly drained area is your only option, consider raised beds or containers in your planning.
Plant your vegetable garden near a water supply if possible. During dry times or when planting your seeds watering will be especially important. Again, convenience is key. If you have to haul water to your garden, on a hot summer day, well, that’s going to get old. Use long hoses if necessary, or a type of irrigation.
When you design a vegetable garden, your perfect spot, you need to stay a good distance from trees, as these will pull valuable nutrients and water from your plants. They of course also may shade your plants too much. Also, stay away from areas where weeds do not grow. If weeds won’t grow, neither will your vegetables.
Know What Veggies Require Shade or Full Sun
Vegetables need sunlight to grow well, most vegetables need at least 6 hours of sunlight daily. Try not to plant where buildings or large trees will shade your garden.
Few people have the perfect garden location, so look for the best spot possible.
Once you have picked a good spot, you will want to sketch your ideal garden. Check out the garden plans below for the design that best meets your needs.
Sketching the Vegetable Garden Area – Plot the Vegetable Plants on the Map.
When you sketch your garden plan onto the map, keep in mind that the most basic garden plans consist of a design with straight rows running north-to-south orientation. This ensures that your garden will get the best sun exposure and air circulation. A vegetable garden that runs east to west tends to not get enough sun because of the growing vegetable plants in the preceding row.
Vegetable Garden Layout and Spacing
Now, using your list of vegetable plants you plan on growing, the map you created earlier of your property, and the garden design you chose from below, plot out where you want each group of vegetable plants to go. Measure out the ideal places for each vegetable seed or plant and the group of plants needed so your vegetable garden will grow healthy and productive.
So as not to shade smaller crops, plan to grow taller crops, like corn and pole beans, on the north side of your garden. Grow smaller crops, such as carrots or beets on the south side.
In plotting your garden, also decide which vegetable crops you want to grow vertically, and what will support them. Tomatoes, pole beans, and cucumbers are good examples of vegetables you could grow vertically, like on a trellis.
Also keep in mind that vining plants, like squash, need a lot of room. You should grow these vegetable plants in the center of your vegetable garden. You can also put vining vegetable plants on a trellis.
Grow medium-height plants like tomatoes, squash, and cabbage in the center of your vegetable garden.
Be sure to consider adding pollinator plants, such as marigolds, to attract beneficial insects that can not only help you get a better harvest but will also prey on garden pests.
Then, use a tape measure, stakes, and string, head over to your new plot, and stake out where your vegetable garden is going to go, and any blocked sections. Make sure to measure out the exact area you need by following your garden layout.
Garden Design Ideas – What is the best way to lay out a vegetable garden?
Four Square Garden Design
In this plan, you divide your garden into four quarters. Each square within the square represents a different bed. Each bed is a different category based on the number of nutrients they will need.
For example,
- Heavy feeders, like corn, lettuce, herbs, spinach, brassicas, and leafy greens need lots of nutrients. You will include these together in one bed.
- Middle feeders, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, melons, and peppers, will be in another bed.
- Root plants, such as onions, garlic, beets, radishes, turnips, and carrots are light feeders and like potash in the soil. You would grow these together accordingly.
- The soil builder group is those veggies that leach nitrogen into the soil, such as peas, beans, lima beans, and potatoes will be another group.
This type of garden layout plan has the advantage of making you practice crop rotation.. It is generally from bottom-left and counter-clockwise: heavy feeders – leaf, middle feeders – fruit, light feeders – root crops, and soil builders – legumes.
After each harvest, you will rotate each group to the next square the following year. By doing this crop rotation, you will help reduce pests and soil diseases.
Square foot Garden Layout
In this plan, you set up grids of 4×4 squares with string or wood attached to the frame to divide the bed into equal square-foot sections. You would plan for at least a 1-foot walkway between each square.
Plant one type of vegetable in each section. Place vine plants in the back with a trellis to allow the plant to grow.
Calculate the number of plants per section by dividing the lowest number of spacing inches you need into 12 inches, which makes up the individual square-foot plot.
For example, the closest spacing for carrots is normally around 3 inches.
You would calculate by dividing 12 by 3, making your answer 4.
This means that you fill the square with four rows of four plants each or 16 carrot plants.
Vertical Garden Layout
Growing vegetable gardens vertically is yet another option, designed for people with traditional garden space.
Rather than planting in your typical garden bed, you take advantage of vertical space, growing plants along trellises, hanging baskets, or even upside down.
There are even stackable containers available that allow you to grow several plants in one area by simply stacking the pots onto one another like a tower. Speaking of which, planting towers are another vertical option for growing plants and are popular for potatoes.
Raised bed Garden Idea
Again, for those having little space or even inadequate soil, planting veggies in raised beds or containers is a great alternative. With this garden layout option, the sky is the limit, as you can move the garden around and use all available space, including vertical areas. Find raised beds here:
Pallet Garden Layout
If you want to grow a smaller garden, then you might want to consider this method. You have one raised garden bed.
Then you put a pallet on the backside of the bed to allow vegetables to grow up the pallet for support. This could be a frugal option as well. Many feed stores have pallets they give away or sell very cheaply. Look in local newspapers for people getting rid of pallets.
To make the most of your garden bed, you would use a pallet square for each vegetable grown.
Small Garden Idea
If you have limited planting space in your garden or you are simply just looking for a small, easy-to-follow plan, then this vegetable garden layout is for you.
This layout gives you a recommended number of plants in each square foot of the design.
You can literally plant any vegetables of your choice or try one of the vegetable garden suggestions.
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