I grow everything in raised 4 x 4 ft or 4 x 6 ft beds with bottoms to keep roots and gophers out. I get good corn production in 4 x 6 ft beds at one ft separation of rows and plants. You are right that a long skinny bed would not work well. For brocs I plant rows 1.5 ft apart across the 4 ft width, with the plants alternating - a 3 plant row, a 2 plant row, etc, -- same for cabbages. Four or five peppers or eggplants in a 4 x 4 bed will usually do well - fewer for bells, more for chiles. For spreading veg like cukes or vining squashes, I use trellises, so I only use half a 4x4 bed for 2 (squash) or 3 -4 (cuke) plants, and half the bed for bush plants.

Lots of options - good luck!
Eileen

You may find 8'x 8' a little hard to move around and work in. I find that 3.5' is about the ideal width of a bed, but 4' is definitely manageable. The idea of having a more narrow bed is so you do not compact the soil in the raised bed by walking on it, kneeling on it, etc. Walking in a raised bed eliminates one of the major advantages of a raised bed.

Personally, I would consider a 22'x22' garden, divided into 8 4' x 10' beds, with 2' pathways. That would be 320 square feet of growing beds, as opposed to the 256 of your previous plan and much better working space.

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Thanks for the suggestions! I'm still planning out my area, so I could make it a bit larger if I wanted more paths. Trellising is a good idea too. Do you have to tie the cucumbers to the trellis?

LL, I have grown cucumbers on tomato cages before. You just kind of lean the vines up against the fencing and then they will put out little tendrils that wrap around the wire. Once you get them started, they're pretty self sufficient.

I think that you would be wasting space splitting a square plot into four corners. A better option would be to cultivate the entire area and then make narrow paths on the interior. Some ideas would be to use pats of straw as pavers-stepping stones, or use the wood you were going to use for the raised beds. You could lay the boards across cinderblocks to keep them up off the soil. In either case the roots could extend into the soil under the walk way, and you wouldn't have to worry about mowing the lawn in the tight space between beds. Although it doesn't matter much with very narrow walk ways, the dragon tooth pattern is the most efficient use of space for greenhouse bench placement, and would be the same for garden blocks. It is basicaly an "E" or variant of it. I would put the long back row to the north and grow your tall plants there (corn, or tomato plants, or trellis). This pattern would also look nice out lined with boards as a single complex bed. If you are worried about isolating the cultivated garden soil from the lawn to keep things tidy, I have a 20 x 15 plot that uses logs as borders (but 2x6 boards would have also worked). The loosened soil plus ammendments makes the entire thing a large raised bed. I leave room for a couple of narrow walkways on the interior, and just mulch that more heavily than other areas to keep my shoes from getting dirty.

You know i think i agree with spiced ham.

My main garden area is 20 x 25 with five 4' wide beds 20' long separated by 1' wide foot paths. i tilled and amended the entire area so i am jealous about donating space to paths.

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i have free access on three sides of the perimeter so one foot paths seems entirely adequate for weeding and maintenance but ymmv.

My gardens are pretty tangled and informal but in the vegetable garden i find i have a need for symmetry. i satisfy this with strategic placement of vertical elements like trellising and tomato cages. i also like to plant in blocks separated with rows planted across the beds. And a bird bath ; )

i don't have any full pictures of the garden but here's an example. This was right after the two matching tomato cages to the right were blown over.

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