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

Personally, you really don't need to spend too much on a fancy raised planter. And I agree that the example you showed is too shallow. Not to mention because it is raised, the bottom is exposed to cool temperatures which is not good for roots. Plants thrive when their roots are warm. You can easily find suitable planters at hardware stores like Lowes. However just make sure you get a depth of more than 6 inches so you have good growth. line the bottom with a landscape fabric. Add some gravel for drainage and then top with good earth. The link here is just to show you ideas on how deep good planters out to be. I have one that's 2 plank deep. good enough for carrots and other taprooted veggies. Mine is set directly on soil so it's got good access to water and earthworms which are essential. Also a really cheap way to do this is jto make a grow bag our of a large bag of earth. lay it down on the side. Perforate the other side for good drainage. Cut large holes on the other side to grow your plants. It would be good enough to grow tomatoes and peppers. For carrots, any tall pots will do. For potatoes... here;s a very neat trick... Take a tall pot, and lay your potato seeds on the bottom layer. let it grow and as it grows, add more earth just to cover a couple of inches of the growing part.. and by the time the potato grows long enough to reach above the rim of the pot, the area covered with earth would have grown a large number of potatoes. The larger the pot, the more the potato harvest. A very cool thing to do. http://www.tomatocasual.com/2009/04/17/growing-tomatoes-in-potting-soil-bags/ http://www.westcoastseeds.com/productdetail/Gardening-Supplies/Container-Gardening/Reusable-Potato-Grow-Bags/ However if you like to a more eye pleasing look -- take a look at this...http://grow-vegetables-at-home.com/the-advantages-of-growing-vegetables-in-planter-bags/ Here is a link that might be useful: idea

No harm in putting it out there. Perhaps they don't have a car to drive to buy them. Why does everything in the world have to cost people money? Plants make so many seeds, I'd rather give them away, if I can't use them. If there was more giving in the world, I'd be a better place. Anyway, I have... 1. Broccoli - spare about 25 seeds 4 u. 2. Cantaloupe 20 seeds 4 u 3. Corn- can spare 25 blue Hopi corn-can eat as corn on the cob in the milk stage (white kernels), or fully mature as flour corn 4. Green beans- I have an open pack of Kentucky Wonder Bush bean 4 u. 5. Kale-I have Red Russian Kale 6. Parsley- Triple curled -some from an open pack 7. Radishes- I have Sparkler White Tip & Cherry Belle 8. Sunflowers-I could spare a few. If you get a few to mature, this year, you'll have hundreds of seeds for next year. 9. Tomatoes, cherry- I have an open pollinated cross cherry. Not good for saving seeds, unless you don't mind variable offspring, but good cherry tomatoes to eat, if you want any. It should be short statured, around 3 feet, with usually red cherry tomatoes, but some seeds could produce some plants bearing amber colored cherry tomatoes. 10. Acorn Squash - 20 seeds. All these, will be $2.00 postage, to send in a reused bubble envelope. you can send 4 stamps, or paypal $2.00, as "personal" NOT "goods & services", no credit cards. If u want them. $2.00 divided by 10 = 20 cents a pack. Also, for sweet potato, and potatoes, I bought organic ones from a store, and planted any that sprouted. One wrinkly, sprouted potato, that was inedible, which I planted in the ground, made 20 more potatoes for me. 20, out of one "bad" potato! So, it's worth the $5.00 for a bag of organic potatoes, if you plant them. Some larger potatoes, you could cut in halves or quarters, to get even more to plant. Just make sure there are two "eyes" on each piece, and that you let the cut ends callous over before planting. I had two sweet potatoes sprout, so I planted them too. They are my experiment for this year, to see if they make additional tubers. I also have one pack of Italian Chard available. I grow veganically - vegan & organic - no commercial factory farmed animal by products, no chemicals, no GMO, I use worm castings, organic kelp & alfalfa, organic PET rabbit manure, and PET goldfish water, organic banana peel "frappes", (frozen banana peels put in a blender with spring water, and buzzed into a "frappe", which I then dilute into rainwater, to make a thin soup or tea. I pour this on vacant beds, and let it get rained into the bed. To me, organic veggie scrap "tea" is way less intensive than a compost pile. I just do this with what the rabbits won't eat. If you freeze the veggie scraps, they won't degrade, smell, or take up much space. Buzzing the veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, particlizes them, so nature can use them more readily. It's free "fertilizer", and no waste. Rhubarb leaves make great soil amendments, if put on a vacant bed, and left to dry in the sun. When they're completely dry, they just shatter into tiny pieces, that can easily be turned into the soil. Supposedly, dead rhubarb leaves, are no longer toxic. Thank you in advance

Edit your name and include your USDA hardiness zone behind your username. Example: PlantingPeanut (6A). That helps us know what seeds will do best for you and if what we have fits with your area.