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

Corn will grow well with squashes, peas, beans, but don't plant onions or garlic near peas or beans. For corn make sure the roots never show on top, it is disastrous, grow them in a small ditch 6 inches deep row, plant the seed in the row, and as the corn grows to 3 1/2 feet tall, fill it in 8 inches , 2 inches over the normal 6 inch height of your ditch. Use lots of fertilizer with it. Don't plant tomatoes next to corn, I've read opposite, but half and half of the sites you find say not to grow them next to each other. Collards are cool weather crop and mine did better in the fall. Maybe plant them under something bushy and tall to shade them. Some grow the tall, I pick them at 3 to 6 inches, so if you pick them small, you can have more above ground space and they will fit nicely under something. The sun rises east to west, plant all your tall stuff North, short stuff south.

The holes and missing parts were eaten off my insects, snails, or slugs. They did only a little damage. The brown spots could be a fungus, and if you used something organic, the fungicide will not hurt your plants. Our gardens do not look as perfect as the nursery plants freshly put out because those plants are commonly grown in greenhouses under almost sterile conditions. They are also fertilized heavily so they look great when we buy them. It's hard to duplicate those conditions in the home garden. You can still get delicious produce, even if the leaves aren't perfect. Keep the fungicide on hand. You may need it later. If you put your zone in your ID, people will be able to give your information more suited to your climate. Here is a link that might be useful: My vegetable garden

Yeah the location in your second photo is what i was suggesting as it will get more sun longer in the day. 8 hours is the ideal, more is fine, but if you drop below 6 hours problems will develop. "I was hoping to have the bed be at least 2-3' high and I do plan to build it myself (whether elevated on legs or a raised box)." A 12-18" deep, 4 sided box with no bottom in it and sitting level directly on the existing soil is the cheapest and easiest and best for growing. Elevated beds up on legs with open air underneath them always sound good in theory to new gardeners - who wants to bend over if you don't have to? But they have all sorts of shortcomings those new to gardening don't know about yet. The air gap causes soil temp issues and shortens your growing season, depending on the bottom material they drain quickly and dry out too fast or they drain too slowly and you get root rot. It is difficult to maintain consistent soil moisture levels in them and the nutrients wash out every time you water. Depending on what is used for the bottom of the bed, if you get heavy rains then water ponding can develop in them and drown roots. For example the Garden Trugs one sees advertised are built with a V bottom shape in an effort to overcome the draining problems but they also hold much less soil. So as a general rule - a bottom in any garden bed is a bad idea and should be avoided if possible. You are better off in that case using large containers and setting them up on blocks to get the height you want. A 3 foot tall bed, unless you are close to 6' tall will be difficult to work the soil in - you'll lack the leverage needed. It will also have to be filled with a soil-less mix and amended regularly so the $$$ go up. If doing an elevated box, I would want it to be 3' high and 2' deep (top to bottom). Would this be insufficient soil for plants to root? I was a little concerned about drainage, as you mentioned, but was considering laying some sort of mesh bottom to let the water drain out but not the soil to fall through (like some of my indoor plants have)? Are these all bad ideas for growing veggies though?" We do what works best for us but if you just have to go that route then a double layer of 1/4' hardware cloth works best for the bottom but you will still have some soil loss and still have the nutrient and water issues. Like Dan said rather than jump in at the deep end with building and spending $$ try some soil amending first. Or even try some big plastic containers. Google 'poly bunk cattle feeder' to see what I am talking about. Legs, concrete blocks or other ways to elevate them are readily available, drill drain holes in the bottom, fill with a good mix, and grow (just one of many possible suggestions). Dave