Back in the day, I had 23. Over time,most of them either vanished under the vasty size of too many roses, got kicked over by me, redug, redone, resized (the initial beds were always too wide). Now I have 3 long main beds which are 30m long, but only 1.2mwide (just over a quarter of the whole plot), plus the 2 largest remaining originals. For the last decade, I generally only used the 3 main beds for vegetables although I had fruit all over the place. I have since sacrificed a full long bed and parts of the remaining 2 for ornamentals, with the idea of stopping growing vegetables altogether...but I have not been terribly consistent in the planning stakes so who knows? The enormous redcurrants are on the list for removal, plus a plum tree. I only have strawberries and tree fruit now (apples, almond, hazel and cherries).

I have found it really hard work, growing vegetables (or any high calorie annuals) on stony, poor soil. I did used to be able to get a hold of decent quantities of manure but pyralid herbicides put paid to that. I compost a lot of stuff but my best efforts don't yield more than around 3 tonnes a year. Then there was the timing, the harvesting and worst of all, the storing, preserving, bottling, freezing. I will miss the vegetables I did grow (will probably still do tomatoes in the greenhouse) but I find I am not enjoying being in the garden if I don't have the time or energy to do a decent job...and a cycle of guilt and paralysis looms.

Although the edges/boundaries vanished, the outlines of the original beds have remained...so I have a 'spring bed' which still occupies a rectangular space. I kept a lot of the grass paths too. I like having the spaces delineated - each one became a tiny,manageable mini-garden which was also psychologically easy to manage.The main change I made was to make narrower beds - I could reach every bit without having to walk on it...which improved the soil structure too.

I too am downsizing. I have four "permanent" cinderblock beds; three of them are two rows high, one is one row. I don't know exact dimensions but I'd say two of them are about 15-18 feet long and three feet wide, with two (one two-row and the one-row) about 12-15 feet long and three feet wide. They are on top of solid rock ledge.

I also have about five beds that have plastic sides that are held together with plastic stakes at the corners. The reason for these beds is the same as why I'm downsizing - diminishing sun. My raised veggies beds are in a corner of the yard near a telephone pole and along the street with power lines above. The corner had a lot of scrub shrubs and that darn sassafras patch, and there apparently was a small oak tree which now has become a big oak tree (funny how that sneaks up on you!) and so now much of the raised bed area is in too much shade for veggies. And the tree is growing through the power lines. To make up for the encroaching shade, I've put the plastic beds up along the front of my perennial beds, where it's sunnier. I've done this for the last three years but never really meant it to be a permanent set-up. Those beds are 4x4, with one of them being 4x8 - two beds put together. (Or.... is it 3x3 and 3x6...???)

This year I planted about 36 tomato plants and 8 cukes in this area. I also grow beans on a tower that is about 2 feet by 2 feet. I also planted some eggplants and peppers, and herbs.

But I finally decided that veggies are just not worth it. They either don't do well due to lack of sun and lack of attention from the gardener (that would be me!) or they do well but then no one really eats the produce. I've got three people in my household, including a very good cook and a very good eater lol. But still the produce often goes to waste (except tomatoes and cukes). So I took out two of the smaller square beds this fall, (extending my perennial bed with the soil from them) and plan on taking out the other two square ones over next season. I may leave the larger plastic bed up another year or so.

And in the cinderblock beds, I'm using the sunniest one for tomatoes, and the sunny half of another one for more tomatoes and my cukes and green beans, and that's the only things I'll grow. There's also one end of the third bed that has some sun (like literally 4x3 feet of sunny area) that I can squeeze something in. So I'll end up with an area total of about 33 feet long by 3 feet wide with the one and a half cinderblock beds and the rectangular plastic bed. I'm thinking I can do about 30 tomato plants in this area, with my cukes and beans (which don't take up much room). So I'm not downsizing my tomatoes by much, but no more peppers, or eggplants, or greens, or squash, etc.

Not sure yet what I will do with the remaining two and a half cinderblock beds. One is half full of oregano, more than I could ever use in ten lifetimes. But I keep it for the bees. But since it seems to do well here I may try my parsley in this bed and maybe even basil, although I'm not so sure there's enough sun for basil.

And one bed (the one-row-high bed) has the last poor remnants of my lily bulbs. There apparently is enough sun here for them, if only the red lily leaf beetles would leave them alone. But I'm thinking that perhaps some annuals or cutting perennials might do okay here - not great, but okay enough to get some blooms for cutting. It will be an experiment.

FYI, the soil in these beds is quite good. I always dump shredded leaves in the beds in fall, and then usually supplement with some bagged compost in spring - maybe 4-6 bags in the 15-18-footer, 3-5 bags in the 12-15 footer, and 2-3 bags in the rectangular plastic bed (this plastic bed seems to lose more soil each year for some reason). I used to get buckets of composted llama manure, all I could use, for free, and topped them off every year, but I no longer do that.

Hope there was something useful in all this info!

:)

Dee

I used to live in the country, in Gopher land, so had to have everything in pots or raised beds with hardware cloth. We had the equivilent of 7 4x8 beds. One 4x8 was all asparagus/basil or other annual small rooted stuff.

We moved into town and were pleased to find a garden bed, only to find that the former owner had used this bed to dump gravel instead of having it dumped! GRRRRRR!

We had it emptied and refilled, then built 2 more 4x8 beds that get a bit more sun, so we are at 3 4x8 beds plus herbs in large containers.

This actually does the 2 of us great! We have more than enough tomatoes (3-4 plants) for sauce and salsa, peppers, basil, etc.. But, I'm not one to can stuff. I will freeze.

Anyway, 3 4x8s seem to do us well! Good luck!

I have four which are fenced with hardware cloth to fend off the gophers. I try to use them for sweet potatoes and eggplants during the summer. In the winter they're seeded with mustard greens and radishes. By spring the chards would have taken over. Compared to the "free" plots, their productivity is disappointing but then I know we have to pick our battles!

Think about the vegfetables you really like and want to grow. Calculate how much of each you want, then how much space each will take. Add a bit more for fun/experiment and use the grand total to decide how many beds you need. The answer needs to be tailored to you and your family/friends needs. Good luck!

I have four raised beds in my garden, and it's just me and my partner. We find that it's enough to grow a variety of veggies for the two of us. It really depends on the size of your beds and how much you like to garden, but starting with a couple of beds is a good way to ease into it.

I have three raised beds, 4 x 8 ft., which produce plenty for my DH and I. And I usually have enough extra to share some. I add leaves and compost to it, and some time released fertilizer when I plant.

I had a much bigger space until it became a City project for two years. Heavy equipment compacted good soil that took me years to build, and then they backfilled it with what seems like half sandy soil and half rocks. So raised beds were the answer to that. I don’t can, I may freeze something, but I mostly grow what we like to eat fresh.

Besides the three raised beds, I run a soaker hose around the perimeter, where I have sunflowers for the birds, and one side with room to sprawl is where I put my vining crops and tomatillos. Tomatillos grow better in the poor soil.

I can grow six to eight tomato plants and a few peppers in one raised bed, using that one for the nightshades. I used to squeeze in eggplants, but we never ate them. I usually grow bush zucchini /yellow squash, and cucumbers in the second bed with room for something extra like some onions. And the third I can use for anything else I feel like trying. I grew corn in it this year. I rotate what I grow in each box, so that’s every three years.

The problem with a small garden is when there’s a loss of any plants, it’s not like you have rows and rows of more of them that survive. And the drip irrigation doesn’t always run smoothly.

The benefit is less work, and I enjoy my vegetable garden more when it doesn’t feel so burdensome. And it’s good to have the fresh produce we like. We enjoy lots of tomato, cucumber, feta salads in the summer. Having a big garden was fun back in the day, but even then I was making it smaller every year.

If you plant what you really enjoy eating fresh, I don’t think you’ll miss all the work of a big garden.

@sandyslopes z6 n. UT You got 6-8 tomato plants in one 4 x 8 bed?!? Wow! I space mine about 4' apart in the ground, maybe I'm over-spacing. How far apart do you space yours, and do you grow determinate or indeterminate types?

I put mine 15 - 18 inches apart...but I do nip out all the side shoots so, like sweetpeas, I end up with one long vine, which I wind around a string or cane and stop after 5 or so trusses. Indeterminate, obviously. I would expect to have 8-10 canes, in 2 rows in that sort of space.

Caveat - I didn't do any of this (tying in, nipping out) and actually let the vines lie all over the grass like squash plants. I had a zillion tomatoes which were a nightmare to harvest. Won't do that again (thankfully, I had 6 plants in the greenhouse) but I like to try different things. I think a sort of halfway house, using tomato cages and allowing sideshoots to develop, seems to be a popular US method of growing, in which case, 3-4foot placement would be appropriate.

"I think a sort of halfway house, using tomato cages and allowing sideshoots to develop, seems to be a popular US method of growing, in which case, 3-4foot placement would be appropriate."

Yep, that's what I do. Except I use cattle panel cages, not the flimsy tomato cages you find for sale at the nurseries. I've always grown indeterminate types, though. I ordered seed of a couple different determinate types this year, so maybe those aren't as sprawly and can be placed closer together, IDK but guess I will find out.

My biggest puzzle with all this is what the heck to do with all the vining crops I grow. Cukes and peas can go up fencing easily and bear well. I did not have such luck when I tried to grow squash or melons vertically. Melons just don't really want to climb, and the squash climbed but didn't bear well. In fairness, I only tried that once and then went back to letting them run on the ground. Melons don't run as far (not the ones I grow, anyway), so I can probably just dedicate one raised bed to melons. But I'm going to have to figure out what to do about the squash -- I love my winter squash, don't want to give those up. I see all sorts of pics in catalogs and internet of lush-looking squash growing on trellises/fencing in raised beds so someone must be doing it right. Maybe I'll try again this year in the current plot and see if I do any better, maybe that off year was a fluke -- could grow half of them as runners and the other half as climbers and see which does better.

Yeah, I have also had various constructions for growing cucurbits...ranging from growing up a hazel A frame to growing across a pergola. The A frame was fantastic but took hours of cutting and tying to construct, and almost as long to dismantle. I have let the squash sprawl over the compost hills but that was not ideal because I couldn't use the compost bays while growing was in progress. If I had several raised beds like what your partner made, I might be tempted to lash canes across the gaps between, creating a sort of horizontal trellis, which could support the fruits - all that business of hanging them in nets and bags was also something I only did once. I have seen cattle cages used to support squash but they are spendy to buy so not something I have attempted. I once used an old bed frame balanced on trestles,but the squashes would not be confined to a 6foot x 4.5ft frame, and dangled over the edges, so another half-arsed method. In the end, I just tend to grow them where they can sprawl wherever they want and try to place tiles underneath each fruit to keep them off the grass/soil. Best luck with supporting them has been with the smaller hokkaido/Uchiki Kuri types, or the small Sweet Dumplings or Patty Pans. Crown Prince or Hubbard ones have to take their chances on the ground. Melons are always a bit iffy in the UK - I grew some Minnesota Midgets once and smaller canteloupes but I am not really a huge melon lover so don't often bother.

mxk,

I grow indeterminate tomatoes because I don’t need them to all ripen at once and want more of an extended season for picking. They’re about 22” apart. I still have the flimsy tomato cages, the tallest ones. I have to put a stake inside of each to anchor the cage because the tomato plants get big and heavy. I don’t prune them, but the deer do once in a while.

For my vining crops like winter squash, mini pumpkins, and ornamental gourds, I laid down landscape fabric for where they’re sprawling out towards the afternoon sun. A soaker hose waters that row of soil running parallel to the raised bed. You can also extend whatever irrigation you’re using for your boxes. If you have room on a sunny side then you can grow your vines outside the box!

I do pretty much the same as sandyslopes - indeterminates, about 2 feet apart, flimsy cages with a stake inside. Lots of tying up too. This year I went up and down the beds and used string to make supports on stakes - from one end of the bed to the other, wrapping the stakes and plants - it's kind of hard to describe but here is a quick video from Fruition Seeds. I love Petra - the world would be a better place if we had more Petras!

Anyway, despite the helpful video lol, I'm done with all this tying up stuff! I finally opened the wallet and bought (at the end-of-season sale of course lol) some heavy duty cages. Only three, but I will try them and see how they work. I will say, that in putting so much work into my tomatoes this year I had one of the best crops ever, but I just don't have time to do that every year. So I will try the cages.

I'm hopeful because one year I had a garden customer who had a vegetable garden (I only took care of perennial beds) and this garden was absolutely, totally neglected. Fenced to protect from deer, but it must have kept the humans out too, because it was completely overgrown, weeds and vegetable plants everywhere. And the biggest, most gorgeous tomatoes I'd ever seen. Honestly, it ticked me off to see the work I put into my vegetable garden and MY results, and the results of this totally neglected garden lol. The worst thing was, the homeowners didn't even reach over the fence to pluck a veggie now and then - it all rotted on the vine.

As for my cukes, I use some trellising panels I got years ago from Gardener's supply. It's a four-panelled trellis, and you can make it into a square for tomatoes, or flatten it, or kind of zig-zag it. I zig-zag it and plant my cukes at the base, and they do quite well growing up it - with a tuck here or there from me. They're only about 4 feet tall but they have taller ones too (I use those for my beans).

:)

Dee

I have 18 raised beds of various sizes from 3'x3' to 4'x16' and anywhere from 10" to 24" deep. All are made from treated wood and the oldest ones are starting to rot out and will not be replaced. I only used about half of them last year as I start to downsize.

I saw some that could be made out of steel, but DH wants to make them so going to have to be wood. Of course he'll get pressure-treated wood, but I also might have him consider the suggestion I saw for the Trex-type decking material. How long do wood raised beds typically last?

"Honestly, it ticked me off to see the work I put into my vegetable garden and MY results, and the results of this totally neglected garden lol."

That's the way it always is, isn't it LOL!

If I use gravel boards (treated 6in x 1inch planks), typically used at the base of closeboard fencing, they last around 10 years. Scaffold boards or joisting timber would last longer but I usually do a cost/benefit analysis and was already 'in the trade'.

I would, very much like a fully raised table-top growing set-up for my strawberries...ground level gardening was a total bust for me, this year as I found the mollusc numbers to be uncontrollable...but I feel that a fully raised bed will definitely offer a bit more protection, especially if I am vigilant (and I bloody well am!). Of course, this has to be weighed against the extra irrigation needs - tricky with hosepipe bans (which I mostly ignore unless the city was experiencing anything remotely drought-like). Having a metalworker in the family is useful too (I have some beautiful arches and trellis configurations...and the new fruit cage is almost built)...so I am hoping for a long metal cradle, I can line with either a permanent wooden trough or fabric 'hammock' type containers for the strawberries. Have removed all the other currants apart from a coupla blackcurrants and buffalo currant.

I had been giving up more and more space to ornamentals...and after the absolute wash-out of this years grow season (the worst in over 25 years...by a huge factor), I am only keeping the moveable potato beds and growing some greenhouse vegetables over the summer. The only in-ground edibles will be herbs (as most grow well for me, requiring little attention and nearly always enhancing my dodgy cooking.

Like laundry, if only vegetable growing was as simple as popping a wash in the machine/seeds in the ground...but nope...this is just the beginning of an endless list of chores, all of which must be performed to a deadline and all of which take 10x more time and effort than the initial hopeful tasks. And, with just a moment's inattention/negligence, the whole edifice collapses into a chaos of unpicked vegetables/tottering piles of clothes which end up on the 'floordrobe'

Now, at the end of the season, is a much better time to make decisions, mxk3...when practical reality tempers the wild optimism of spring. Are you decided on what you are aiming for next year?

"Are you decided on what you are aiming for next year?"

No. I've paid very little attention to the vegetable garden since about early September -- too many other things going on. I at least remembered to harvest my butternut squash before the hard frost hit.

But no concrete planning of the raised beds yet -- just drawing up some rough plans in my head and going back and forth between two spots to locate it. Winter-time is planning time where I am, so that's when I'll probably sit down with things.

This was a good learning year in preparation, though. I did grow just about the right number of plants this year. I might grow a couple more tomato plants next year, but all in all I didn't grow too much nor too little, so when I sit down with pen and paper and start sketching thing out I've got a good reference point for how much room I'll need. I also confirmed that I need to figure out a way to grow all the winter squash I want to grow without growing vertically -- this was my second time trying that, and I just don't get near the yield as letting them run (I had a post earlier this summer about that).

Omg, rosa! "Floordrobe"!!! I love it! Did you coin that yourself? I am going to use that from now on!

:)

Dee