Rosemary is a perennial and prefers the soil to be drier and leaner than what the other plants you list like. I would plant it off by itself somewhere.

As for the rest, zucchini and tomatoes are large plants. It would be a tight fit but you should be able to squeeze in 2 plants of each in that bed.

Rodney

Agree it will be a very tight fit unless you plan to do a lot of pruning and cutting back. The zucchini alone can easily take up 6 feet. Also agree the basil and rosemary would be much happier somewhere else as they both need very different nutrient and water needs. If you don't have another spot for them they do well in containers.

Dave

So if I do the basil and Rosemary in containers, looking to do two tomato plants (I have heard one zucchini can produce enough for one family) maybe I could do two pepper plants??

Rethinking things I have a 4x6 raised now maybe I should do basil and rosemary in that one (depending how many of each I can fit without overcrowding) The another 4x10 for (2) tomato (large cherry) type (1)zucchini (might be enough for one family) and maybe (1) squash or (2) pepper plants. Not sure of depth requirements for the 4 x 10 if ground is available (no bottom)

Rosemary gets huge if it can survive your winter so in a 4x6 bed you can put in 1 rosemary plant to take up 4x4 and 2 or so basil plants to take up the other 4x2. Rosemary doesn't like wet feet, it likes to dry out a bit between watering's,while basil loves moisture BUT if you want the tastiest basil let it dry out a bit between watering's as that will produce more of its oils resulting in tastier basil. though if you want a huge lush bush then give it lots of moisture.

Dawson

In the 4 x 10 is it doable in what I would like to plant??

I'm confused now with the additions and changes but if I understand your question a 4x10 bed could hold 2 tomato plants, 1 zucchini plant and 2 smallish pepper plants IF you do some pruning on the cherry tomato plants and support them well to keep them contained. You don't name the variety of them but most cherry tomato plants are easily 4' + wide and 8-10+ feet tall.

One problem with only 1 zucchini plant is reduced production due to less pollination. 2 plants will triple the odds of successful pollination.

Dave

Rosemary takes many years to get huge, and it is easily pruned. So I wouldn't worry about its size. Rosemary is a many-year proposition. The rest are not. But that's true that it doesn't belong next to those other plants just because of it's needs.

My idea is to put the 1 or two rosemary and two basil in the 4x8 keeping them far enough away for different watering habits. In the 4x10 I would have two tomato 2 zucchini and either 2 squash or two red pepper plants

In your original post you already had as many plants as that 4x10 bed could hold and as both myself and Dave said even those would be a tight fit. Now you are talking about adding more? You should forget that idea unless you want to build another bed. But, if you want to disregard the advice given and want to try to fit everything all that in one bed then go ahead. You won't like the outcome though.

Rodney

I think in the 10x4 I will stick with 2 tomato 2 zucchini and 2 pepper plants that would be all

Then be sure to stagger those plants rather than all in a row to give them each a little more room. And keep in mind that the tomato plants will shade the others if not placed on the north side.

Also be sure to note the lower pepper plant needs when it comes to water and nitrogen vs. the others.

Dave

Frankly, why don't you just stick the rosemary in the ground? Unless your soil is really awful, it sure doesn't need a raised bed to do well. It's an evergreen shrub. It's drought tolerant, and pretty indestructable. I have them all around my house, in places I'd never put veggies. In fact, since it is a perennial, you don't want it growing in a bed you're going to be digging around in for cultivation of annual stuff.

Dave I have tried before to grow red pepper plants in containers. I understand as long as they say red pepper plants on the tag they should be. Also they grow green and as they stay on the plant they turn red. However when I tried in a container they started to rot before turning red. Any idea why??

daninthedirt I have a large flower garden would it work in there??

If your flowers grow well, I'm sure the rosemary would do fine. But again, if this flower garden is one that you're going to be doing deep digging in every year, pulling out dead annual flowers and amending the soil for example, it's not the place to put a perennial. Maybe you should declare one corner of your flower garden a do-not-disturb corner, and plant the rosemary there. Again, think about it as shrubbery.

we do mostly all perennials maybe I can plant a couple!! It gets sun from 11am on

"Dave I have tried before to grow red pepper plants in containers. I understand as long as they say red pepper plants on the tag they should be. Also they grow green and as they stay on the plant they turn red. However when I tried in a container they started to rot before turning red. Any idea why??"

Are you talking about sweet peppers or hot peppers? Which kind of sweet - bell or the cornish types like the marconi roasting peppers? They all have different needs and yes, most all will start out green and then turn color as they mature given the right conditions.

Causes for rotting on the vine are many - over-watering, BER, too much nitrogen especially at the wrong time, climate changes, etc. but they all boil down to plant stress of some kind. And if in a container - the size of the container. I use 7 gallons for mine. Plus you have to be willing to sacrifice some production to get color with some varieties as they will quit setting new fruit in order to ripen the existing ones.

Lastly don't expect fully bright red peppers like you see in the store. They are ripened artificially so home grown is seldom as uniform and perfect. Don't leave them on the vine until they fully turn. They will do downhill quickly from that point on. Pick them as soon as the color begins to show (what is called color break) and let them finish turning indoors.

Dave

Sounds like you have your rosemary all figured out. Go for it.

Hopefully it will come back every year seeing on how here in the northeast we have tough winters

Frank, if you're concerned about it coming back every year you could always put a few layers of row cover over it or mulch it intensely to help insulate it from the cold until a blanket of snow falls to insulate.

Yeah, the hard-freeze tolerance of rosemary isn't great. Be prepared to protect it, and keep it pruned well enough to make that protection easier. I guess an obvious possibility is to put it in a container that you can move someplace warmer when the temperature gets bad.

I can't imagine raising rosemary as an annual, because it grows slowly, but many people do.

IMO If you use a good amount of rosemary then growing it as annually is out of the question unless you want to pay lots of money for a plant every year to get a large plant. It just grows so slowly....

I've managed to overwinter an Arp rosemary here in Missouri for the last 3 years. Arp is the most cold hardy variety available. I have it now in a 1/2 barrel and I bring it inside my garage during the coldest months...around Thanksgiving to sometime in February and anytime we are forecast to get below around 25 degrees outside of that window. It was looking good this spring until a hail storm defoliated much of it in early March. I think it is a little stressed now because it is already blooming.

I have learned so much from this thread I wont overcrowd my 10 x 4 bed It will be just two cherry tomato plants and 2 zucchini and the 4x8 bed will house basil and red pepper pants maybe 2 of each, and rosemary in the flower garden!!!!

Do bush cucumbers need a lot of room I was thinking of planting 2 of them in my 4x8 bed along with a couple of basil plants

I'd give them a trellis if I were you, even the caged bird sings. Cucumbers like to climb and crawl everywhere so even though the cucumber variety is labeled Bush it will still climb and crawl a bit so in order to put them in the bed with the basil it would be a good idea to give them a trellis.

Dawson