Hello, you might want to check out the square foot gardening forum on this site for plant spacing. If you taking advantage of successive planting methods you could easily grow lettuce and carrots within the tomato plants mature space boundaries (the amount of space a mature tomato plant would need) and just harvest them before the tomato plant is fully mature. Another idea is to grow lettuce between tomato plants because the heat of the summer can force them to prematurely bolt and become bitter. Squash, melons, and cucumbers could be planted along the edge of the beds and trained to run in the yard, otherwise they'll take over everything in the beds. Peas and beans can be grown up a vertical "fence" of chicken wire or some other type of mesh supported by rebar poles, or something of that nature just be sure to not allow them to block the sun of plants that really need it, namely, the tomatoes. One idea is to place the beds in a straight line rather than parallel so that both beds can get the most amount of sun. Good luck! And you might want to start soon, it's nearly time for the peas, lettuce, and carrots to go in.

2 tomato plants should take up an entire 4x6 bed by the end of the season and maybe then some. Depending on your soil temperature don't heavily mulch tomatoes until it really feels like summer.

Now is a good time to get your peas in and probably soon the lettuce. Both peas and lettuce will probably be finished before July. Then you can plant a 2nd crop for the season. Squash really takes off at that time so having a few sown before the lettuce and peas are done would save you a few weeks.

As you don't have a lot of space you'll probably want pole beans but you could probably work in some bush beans.

The carrots might make a good border crop.

I agree with catepelose. Check out the square foot gardening forum. I had two 4x4 raised beds last year and had a total of 32 pepper plants between the two beds and they are had excellent yield. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Pepper Guy's Blog

You can certainly grow some of each in your two beds. If you have raised beds with good soil, you could grow 4 tomatoes in a 4x6' bed, as long as you prune a little, and it's OK for the tomatoes to stick out past the bed a little. Lettuces don't do so well in the heat of summer anyway, and I've had great success growing them in my my tomato bed in spring, and thinning them out by harvesting, interplanting the tomatoes, which then grow to shad eth lettuce so that it stays cooler and doesn't bolt as quickly as the weather warms.

Carrots do not take a lot of space - you can sow them about 2" apart. Moisten the soil, and put a lightweight board down for a week to keep the seeds moist so they will sprout better.

Peas will also grow early in the year, and be done by the time your tomatoes get big. I plant mine along the edge of my raised bed so they take almost no space - they are all done around early June here in Zone 6.

Squash - you don't mention what kind, but I'd give at least 4x4' for 2 summer squash, which are bush types. Winter squash are mostly vining types. You might be able to trellis some vining winter squash to minimize the amount of bed space they take, as long as they are smaller-fruited varieties like Acorn.

Beans are like peas in that pole beans can grow along the edge of a bed in a small area. They will grow at the same time as your squash and tomatoes.

If it were me, I'd plant a row of peas along the 6' edge of one bed, and seed that bed with lettuce. Harvest lettuce where you plan to put your tomatoes.

In the other bed, plant carrots in between the edges and the middle. Then, when it's warmer, put your beans along the edge, and your bush-type squash in the middle. I'd probably put an eggplant and a couple peppers or a cucumber in this bed as well. That will fill the two beds up pretty well.

I just posted this link in another thread. You may also find it useful. It's a cool idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Planner

Check out Susan's link and I think you will most of your questions addressed. Some of their suggestions may seem a bit overcrowded to you at first but with good soil and a bit of extra work with feeding and watering you'll be surprised how much you can fit.

Dave

You might also consider planting the tomatoes in containers rather than in the beds. That could give you some extra bed space for the other crops.

On the SFG forum, there are several people who grow toms in containers (you could also check out the container gardening forum or tomato forum)- some are in 5 gal buckets others in self-watering containers (SWCs). People sometimes post their garden plans to get some input, perhaps you could get some ideas.

FWIW, here's a link to my earlier plans (I haven't really completed my 2010 plan yet). I started this garden in 2008 and expanded for 2009. If you click the pics you can see an enlarged view. My beds are: (two) 4'x 10', (two) 4x5', (three) 4x4 and (one) 2.5x11 plus a few other spots.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plan posts