Raised Bed Garden Plans by Size
20 finished layouts across 9 common bed sizes. Pick your bed, copy a plan square for square, or open it in the planner and change anything. Every plant count is calculated from real spacing data - nothing here is a guess.
Data reviewed: . Plant spacing, companion and sow-date data are checked against university-extension sources; this date changes only when we actually re-verify.
4x4 bed
Most popular16 squares - 3 plans
The classic starter bed. A salad bed, a salsa bed and a beginner mixed bed.
4x8 bed
32 squares - 3 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
family summer bed. spring greens and roots bed. pizza and pasta bed.
2x4 bed
8 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
cut-and-come-again salad bar. small salsa bed.
3x6 bed
18 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
summer mixed bed. cool-season brassica bed.
4x6 bed
24 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
everyday family bed. spring greens and roots bed.
2x8 bed
16 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
long salad row. herb and tomato strip.
4x12 bed
48 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
full-season family bed. preserving bed.
3x3 bed
9 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
nine-square starter. kitchen herb square.
5x5 bed
25 squares - 2 plans - 0 cu ft of soil at 6 in
25-square summer bed. 25-square cool-season bed.
Not sure which size to build?
- Never grown anything before? A 3x3 or a 4x4. Nine or sixteen squares is enough to learn on and small enough that a bad week does not lose you the whole garden.
- Feeding a household? A 4x8. It is the most common bed sold in the US for a reason - it is the biggest bed you can still reach into from both sides.
- Balcony, patio or a narrow strip? A 2x4 or a 2x8. Both are reachable from one side only, which is what those spaces allow.
- Never build wider than 4 ft unless you can walk all the way around it. If you have to step on the bed to reach the middle, you compact the soil and undo the method.
Free printable - no signup
Take the whole lot outside on paper
A 13-page PDF you can print: blank 4x4 and 4x8 grids to fill in with a pencil, eight finished bed plans with their exact plant counts, and the spacing chart for all 40 crops with sowing times and days to harvest. Every figure is the same verified data as this site.
Download the planning pack (PDF)