Guides
What to Plant in a 4x4 Garden
Three finished 4x4 layouts you can copy square for square - a salad bed, a salsa bed, and a beginner mixed bed - with exact plant counts.
A 4x4 bed is sixteen 1-foot squares. Each square holds a fixed number of one crop - 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants depending on size, following the standardSquare Foot Gardening Foundationspacing. If that rule is new to you, start withwhat is square foot gardening first. Below are three complete plans. Read each grid like a map of the bed: the top row is the north edge, where the tall plants go so they do not shade the rest.
Plan 1: The salad bed (easiest, cool season)
Fast, forgiving, and productive within weeks. Everything here is a cool-season crop, so sow it in early spring or early fall. This is the plan to pick if you have never grown food before.
| Lettuce | Lettuce | Spinach | Spinach |
| Lettuce | Lettuce | Beet | Beet |
| Carrot | Carrot | Carrot | Onion |
| Radish | Radish | Onion | Onion |
| Crop | Squares | Per square | Total plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lettuce | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Spinach | 2 | 9 | 18 |
| Beet | 2 | 9 | 18 |
| Carrot | 3 | 16 | 48 |
| Onion | 3 | 9 | 27 |
| Radish | 2 | 16 | 32 |
| Total | 16 | 159 |
Sow the radishes and lettuce first - radishes are done in about a month, so that square frees up for a second sowing while everything else matures.
Plan 2: The salsa bed (warm season)
Everything you need for fresh salsa or pico de gallo. These are warm-season crops, so plant after your last spring frost. Keep the two tomatoes on the north row and give them a stake or small cage - one tomato per square is the maximum, and they will lean on their neighbors otherwise.
| Tomato | Tomato | Pepper | Pepper |
| Pepper | Pepper | Onion | Onion |
| Onion | Onion | Garlic | Garlic |
| Basil | Basil | Marigold | Marigold |
| Crop | Squares | Per square | Total plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Pepper | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Onion | 4 | 9 | 36 |
| Garlic | 2 | 9 | 18 |
| Basil | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Marigold | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Total | 16 | 76 |
Swap a basil square for cilantro if you prefer the classic salsa herb - it plants at the same small spacing. The marigolds are there for pollinators and a bit of pest help; see thecompanion planting chart for what that does and does not do.
Plan 3: The beginner mixed bed (a little of everything)
The best "learn what you like" bed. It packs eleven different crops into one 4x4 so you can taste the whole range and see what thrives in your spot before you commit a bigger garden to any one thing. It leans warm-season; plant after your last frost.
| Tomato | Tomato | Pepper | Basil |
| Bush bean | Bush bean | Lettuce | Lettuce |
| Carrot | Carrot | Beet | Marigold |
| Radish | Onion | Onion | Strawberry |
| Crop | Squares | Per square | Total plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Pepper | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Basil | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Bush bean | 2 | 9 | 18 |
| Lettuce | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Carrot | 2 | 16 | 32 |
| Beet | 1 | 9 | 9 |
| Marigold | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Radish | 1 | 16 | 16 |
| Onion | 2 | 9 | 18 |
| Strawberry | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Total | 16 | 116 |
Tips that apply to all three plans
- Tall on the north. Tomatoes, pole beans, and anything trellised go on the top (north) row so they do not shade shorter crops.
- Re-sow the fast squares. When a radish or lettuce square is harvested, replant it the same day. This "succession sowing" doubles what a bed yields over a season.
- Match the season. The salad bed is cool-season; the other two are warm-season. Do not mix a frost-tender tomato into an early-spring bed.
- Soil depth. Six inches of good mix grows all of these. Only add depth if you want long carrots or full-size beets. Fill the bed with the recipe in the raised bed soil mix guide.
Want to change a plan or build your own? Thebed planner lets you drag any crop onto a grid and it counts the plants and checks the spacing for you, and theplant spacing chart lists the per-square number for every crop. The counts above follow the same density values the planner uses, cross-checked againstWashington State University Extension.
Frequently asked questions
How many plants fit in a 4x4 raised bed?
A 4x4 bed has sixteen 1-foot squares, and each square holds 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants depending on size. So a bed can hold anywhere from 16 large plants (like 16 tomatoes, one per square) to 256 small ones (like carrots, 16 per square). Most real beds mix sizes and land somewhere between 80 and 180 plants.
What is the easiest thing to grow in a 4x4 for a beginner?
Salad crops. Lettuce, radishes, spinach, and bush beans germinate fast, forgive mistakes, and give you something to harvest within weeks. The salad bed plan below is the most beginner-proof of the three.
Where do I put tall plants like tomatoes?
On the north edge of the bed (in the northern hemisphere). Tall crops there cast their shadow off the back of the bed instead of over your shorter, sun-hungry vegetables. Every plan below puts tomatoes and other tall crops on the top row for this reason.
Plan your bed square by square
Open the planner