I've been watering with municipal water for 30 years with no filter with fine results....but maybe they would be truly incredible with a filter! I wouldn't stress over that detail for now unless your water is super high in chlorine. Rain barrels and watering cans set out ahead of time to out gas chlorine and warm up are fine ideas for watering a 4x8 bed though, but not required with my city water. You can find good info for raised bed gardening in the square food forum linked below. I would go with spacings that weren't quite so tight as the square foot suggestions. Your soil should be okay, but it isn't the super specialized Mel's Mix on which the spacings are based. Here's one possible layout with my sq. ft modifications: 3 tomatoes in a row a foot in from a four foot edge (preferably the north end) with large cages or a trellis for support. This 4x2 foot area for 3 plants allows you to let the plants grow without much need to remove side growth. 4 peppers in the next row...make this row 30 inches in from the starting edge. They have a 4x1 foot area to grow The tomatoes and peppers can go in after your last frost date and will grow there all season til first frost. Buy young transplants at a local garden center. Save growing your own for another year. Pick varieties with short days to maturity. You will still wait till at least mid July for a harvest to start....maybe later. Tomatoes and peppers do well in large containers with potting mix (not soil) Check the container gardening forum for info. One plant per large pot is best. Look for tomatoes recommended for containers as some varieties are HUGE. The pot grown tomatoes and peppers may ripen ahead of the others since the soil will warm faster. Plant beans in the middle section and Spinach and lettuce on the other end. Adjust the amounts of each to suit your food preferences. Plant bush or pole beans after your last frost date. Direct seeding is fine although you may see transplants for sale. I'd only put in a few transplants if any since direct seeding gives a harvest almost as quick. Most bush bean varieties will be ready to pick in 7-8 weeks or so and may keep producing if you keep them well picked. Pole varieties need a sturdy 8 foot pole to climb. They will take a bit longer to start producing but should continue until frost if kept well picked. Space them as described in the sq ft charts or a bit farther apart (4-9 seeds spaced out in one square foot). Bush beans can be planted in two or three plantings put in 2 weeks apart to have a longer harvest time. Later plantings could go in where spinach and lettuce grew in the spring. Lettuce and spinach can go in early as seeds or transplants while we still have freezing nights. I'd go with seeds or else start my own transplants inside right now. Space out 4-9 seeds or plants per square foot and harvest some when young to keep the spacing okay. Harvest later pickings by removing the large outer leaves and letting the rest of the plant keep growing. Lettuce and spinach do not grow well in the heat of summer. They will send up a flower stalk (bolting) and the leaves will get bitter. Harvest them completely if this starts so you don't loose the crop to bitterness. Heat resistance varieties, shading and enough water can help, but figure on replanting later in the summer for a fall harvest. You may use the space where they grew for a mid June planting of bush beans. Perhaps remove an early bean planting for a late summer replant of spinach and lettuce. Starting them in the shade of other plants may help for the summer planting. Or grow transplants in a cooler area. Your 4x8 bed should give you a manageable area for a new gardener and allow you to learn a lot without being overwhelmed. Good luck. Hope you love it! Here is a link that might be useful: Square foot gardening

Thank you all! Thanks Surya55! We are so pleased with our garden. It's really brought out family together sharing the responsibilities of keeping up with it.

I think that sounds great (especially all of the peppers, not much yield there so great to see a number of plants. But not knowing how many people you plan to feed I wonder if you will have too many tomatoes? If you think you might, I personally would give up a tomato plant or two in order to let the sugar baby spread. I did them one year (albeit on the ground), and they spread like crazy, but the fruits were really excellent, even though we had to wait until late Sept/early Oct to harvest some of them here is coastal Connecticut. I'm sorry if you posted this and I missed it, but where in NY are you? Those watermelons take some time, and the most important time is at the end of the season, apparently (though I am no expert) since that is when most of the sugar is developed. Kinda like grapes I guess. Anyway, this is just a nit, good luck, sounds great! Paul

I think that's great! I'll take a look at that link, maybe it'll help me. My garden has been very haphazard the last couple of years. Keep us posted! Lee Ann