Spacing of plants

Hi all! I'm brand-new to gardening and this year I grew from seeds leeks, lettuce, kohlrabi, tomatoes (cherry and regular), bell peppers, and banana peppers. I also plan to buy some cucumber seedings. I have a few plants of each, not many. I built an 4'x8' garden bed and to fill it, I got some dirt from a local community garden that went defunct a couple of months ago. The garden people said it was good soil for growing veggies, that it had been prepared for planting with compost, but I don't really know what's in it. My questions are: (1) Should I just trust that the soil is good and go ahead and put my seedlings in, or should I get something else -- fertilizer? -- to add to the soil before I put them in? (2) Should I soak the dirt before I plant? It's pretty dry right now. Or should I put my seedlings in and then soak them? Will overwatering kill them? The bottom of my bed is a layer of newspaper and weed cloth, no gravel ... maybe I should have put in gravel to improve drainage, but I didn't. (3) Someone told me that I should plant rows of tomatoes with lettuce in between since lettuce doesn't take up much room. I really have no idea how to arrange these seedlings or how much space they need. Any thoughts? (4) How do I get "successive plantings"? I would love for my veggies to be ready at different times, but I have no idea how to make this happen. Do I keep some seedlings inside for a couple of weeks and then plant them?

Thank you so much for *any* advice you can give this hapless newbie!

Welcome to gardening! That's a lot of questions!

1, First, get your soil tested. You'll want to know the ph and fertility. Different veggies like different soils
2, Don't work in wet soil. newspaper and weed cloth is great.
3, You can tuck lettuce between tomato plants, because it will be harvested before the tomato plants get large.
4, Don't buy cucumber seedlings, just direct seed.

A 4x8 bed is perfect for a starter garden. GardenersSupply.com has a handy tool- It's a garden planner that shows you how many plants to put in a square foot.. Are you going to trellis anything?

To create more space, you can let your cukes grow up a trellis or inside its own tomato cage.

I cage my squash. Most people don't realize that squash will walk right up a circular wire cage. You have a lot less mildew and fugus problems, also. Happy gardening.

Jim do you have a picture of your squash? mine got big last year and I would love to contain them so they dont overtake the garden again..

I'll post one for you. I always cage mine because they take up to much room in my raised beds if I don't. I've found that fungus and mildew problems are less to non existent with the cages.

Are they Made out of Ranch fence? at what stage do you cage them? I am really interested about this...

You can trellis them at any time, but it's easiest to do it before you sow. You don't have to worry about stepping on the vines; they climb pretty easy. Cucumbers and gourds do really well too. If you grow larger squash or melons you can use pantyhose to support the fruit so it doesn't break from the vine. There are many options for trellis; I use 2x2's with chicken wire stapled onto it.

I use concrete reinforcement wire to make my cages. It is stiff and lasts for years. I make a circular cage for squash with about an eighteen inch diameter and one a little smaller for tomatoes. I set my cages in the ground in my raised beds down to the natural dirt. Then, I just transplant or direct seed in to the cage. You can just set the cage on top of the ground but you have to stake it some way.