4x20 bed design help

13 years ago

My husband's employer has several garden plots on their property that they rent out to employees. We were put on their waiting last year, and just found out that we were able to get a 4x20 plot this year (not a raised bed).

I've only ever done limited container gardens, so I'm kind of freaking out about how to plant a "real" garden. : ) I've played around with some garden planners, and read about square foot gardening (it didn't seem super helpful for this situation), so I was wondering if people who are real-life gardeners would be willing to share how they'd plant a garden with these veggies:

peas, green & yellow wax beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, yellow summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers (both pickling and eating), and companion radishes & carrots.

We're a family of two, so I think/hope what I've chosen is reasonable for the plot size. On the other hand, I'd love to be able to freeze, can, and dry any extra veggies we have. Also, my husband won't eat anything but the peas, beans, peppers, and - if I'm very lucky- a few tomatoes on BLTs. The squash, zucchini & cukes are allllll mine! : )

Thanks for any advice you can offer a newbie!

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Comments (19)

ruthieg__tx
13 years ago
How is your bed oriented as far as the sun is concerned?
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loribee2
13 years ago
Nice to see someone from my home town (Hill High Class of '80!)

As for your garden plot, I'm presuming you're talking about a rectangle. You'll want to put your tallest plants on the north side so they don't shade the others. The only exception might be the peas. They're typically a cool weather crop though where I am (in the foggy San Francisco Bay Area) I can grow them in the summer, too. You might be able to get away with planting the peas on the northeast side of a taller plant so they'll get some shade from hot afternoons.

Next question is, what's tallest? Unless those green beans are pole beans, your tallest will probably be the tomatoes. I'd grow indeterminate, since you can get more out of less space. Next tallest is probably your cucumbers if you're planning on growing the vines up a trellis. I let my cukes trail on the ground because my raised beds are surrounded by rock. But if your cucumber vines will be sitting on wet earth, you'll probably want to trellis them. Squash would be next highest followed by peppers then your low lying root veggies.

I'm not sure what other kinds of advice you're looking for. Could you be more specific about what questions you have in particular?

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog
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littlebabywulf
Original Author
13 years ago
Ruthie, unfortunately I haven't seen the plot yet - I'm a full-time student and finals are this week. I'm planning to check it out this weekend.

loribee, yes, a rectangle. I picked out bush beans because I assumed they'd be more compact. But, I realized after I ordered seeds that pole beans may have been smarter since they grow up and up. Oops! That's one I'll remember for next year.

I'm mostly just trying to figure out how to orient all of the plants so they get the proper amount of sun, so they're accessible for harvesting, as well as how many plants I can squish in there. : ) It seems like all of the planners indicate that you can plant one tomato in one square foot, and two squash in one square foot, and 4 bush beans and so on. I'm just not sure how much of that is really accurate, especially if I'm not doing an official, raised SFG.

How large does a trellis need to be for the cukes? Do zucchini and squash need to be trellised, too, or will they be happy in their little hills? The gardens we always had at home were back in the midwest, with plenty of space, and we needed to worry more about dryness than dampness. : )
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jonhughes
13 years ago
Hi littlebabywulf,
Yeah... I'd be leery about all that jazz (ie... 1 tomato per sq.ft and such)

I do Bio-Dynamic/French Intensive gardening (what some call square foot gardening), but you still have to apply common sense to know what will and what won't "squeeze in there".

For example this is one SunGold Tomato plant... It is 12' tall and 6' wide and produced 100s of tomatoes (i would say 1000s but I never actually counted... so who knows ;-)

But if you have good soil,and your plants thrive, they are going to be way bigger than would actually fit (in a square foot),
So definitely,use trellises wherever possible...

PS...Post pics, we want to see your progress ;-)

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feijoas
13 years ago
I'm with Jon: if your full-grown tomato fits in a square foot, it's a very sad, sick plant!
I know "look online" isn't what you want to read, but there's a vast amount of info about actual recommended planting distances and configurations.
I'd take the most notice of dry, serious university-type stuff, and ignore anything with pretty pictures or "buy my product..." as part of its pitch.
John Jeavons has published insanely detailed planting charts which are really useful if you ignore the more obsessive aspects.
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nancyjane_gardener
13 years ago
Let's see.....zucchini for one? Grow at least 6 plants! NONONONONONONO JK!
You can still grow green beans up. You don't HAVE to order from the catalogues. Most hardware stores, feed stores and even grocery stores carry seeds. Heck! Even WM and the Dollar store do! You can still buy a pack there and have your pole beans. Nancy
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forensicmom
13 years ago
I agree that lots of stores sell seeds but if you're only growing a few of a certain thing, I find it much easier to just buy transplants instead of wasting all those seeds.

The ones I find readily available are: lettuce, broccoli, caualiflower, peppers (all kinds), tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumbers, yellow squash, eggplant and a few others but those are only the ones I plant.
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littlebabywulf
Original Author
12 years ago
I'm so sorry I haven't thanked you all for your advice! I think I posted when finals were rolling around, and here I am again, with finals rolling around. : ) They're never ending with these evil quarter system schools!

So, I realized that I can't take an actual picture of our garden since it's on company property. We can get permission to do so, but I think the garden could use a little more growing up before we do that. : ) In the meantime, here's a link to a picture I drew while procrastinating on writing a paper. It's not to scale, and I definitely didn't plant that many cukes! There's a little bit more space that we're going to pop some more beans in to stagger our harvest.

http://oi55.tinypic.com/11rvgia.jpg

Here's what I ended up planting:
Peas - Oregon Trail & Green Arrow
Tomatoes - Better Boy, Early Girl, and Oregon Spring
Bush Beans - Provider & Cherokee Wax
Black Zucchini Squash
Prolific Straightneck squash
Marketmore 76 & Wisconsin SMR 58 cucumbers
Scarlet Nantes carrots
Easter Egg blend radishes
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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
Well, you'll learn soon enough that whatever on-line program that gave you that layout should be dropped like a hot potato. Thin sooner rather than later. You'll be thinning that zuke and squash and cuke surely, as the zuke and squash take 4x4 no problem if they're happy, and the cuke I guess can be woven around somewhere and if you're careful you might keep it from smothering everything. But overall its fun and timing may work and you should be happy. Take good notes for next year. Fun!

Dan
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littlebabywulf
Original Author
12 years ago
There's no program to drop like a hot potato because I drew it up in paint based on how we decided to plant. ; )

Like I said, it's not to scale and doesn't include trellises and the correct number of plants. The plan was to thin the plants as soon as they start taking off, since I'm the only person who will be eating them. Even so, I'm sure I'll have a bunch extra to donate to the onsite food bank, which doesn't seem like a bad thing!
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TheMasterGardener1
12 years ago
Jon

Do those taller plants planted in the cinder blocks on the perimeter help protect those palnts?
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jonhughes
12 years ago
No, They are just individual planting holes,neither better nor worse than the bed area. But for Onions and Garlic and Flowers, they simply RULE THE PLANET ;-)

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elephantschild
12 years ago
Jon, I LOVE your garden pics - are you market gardening, or do you just eat a LOT of lettuce? How big is your space in total?
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jonhughes
12 years ago
Hi elephantschild,

I donate everything I grow to the Local FoodBank to feed the Needy in our community. I am so blessed ;-) Last year on this date I had given 300 lbs of Fresh Veggies to the FoodBank and with todays harvest (pics below) I am up to 657 lbs... WOO HOOOOO I am ecstatic ;-) What a blessing.! ! I grow on 1250 square feet of Raised beds. I am sooo Happy ;-)

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sckitchen_gardener_8
12 years ago
I like planning. So I used my art program. I ran out of room with the Squash. Looks like you need to decide on squash or peppers. It will be tight fit. You will need to trellis the cukes.

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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
SC, what's the name of that software utility?

TIA.

Dan
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sckitchen_gardener_8
12 years ago
Dan,
The program or app is Adobe Photoshop. The images are custom.
I try to make them accurate and use a grid because this is a tool I am comfortable with. I enjoy the art aspect as much as gardening, so I mix the two. I don't mind sharing either, but I don't think many people would have the patience to learn an art program on top of trying to figure how to grow veges.
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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
Got it sc, thanks. I have CS4. I thought it was something that had those pre-made plant images to scale...

Dan
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sckitchen_gardener_8
12 years ago
There is a file you can download here if you want to examine it/check it out. It looks like a txt file, just rename the extension to psd after you download it. It should work with Adobe Photoshop Elements, any version of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Creative Suite, and some others. Not sure about Gimp or Paint Shop Pro. It will not work with Microsoft Paint or a vector program like Corel. No warranties, gurantees, etc. I don't plan to be glued to my computer for technical support, but I will help when/if time permits. I plan to be in the garden. I just picked up some Beauregard sweet potato plants from the big box store. It is hard for me to believe anything can grow out there in this heat, but I've got nothing to lose.
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4x20 bed design help

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