Anyone want to help plan my vegetable garden?

I purchased two raised beds on sale at Home Depot. Both are 4' x 4' x 8"

I bought three different kind of green bean seeds, some carrot seeds, two different kind of chive seeds, and an onion bunch that we think is Texas sweet onions. My mother would also like to plant a few cherry tomatoes.

Any ideas on how I should set it up? The chives don't say how tall they get, the three different green beans will be 15-20in high and the tomatoes will probably be tallest. Anyway, has anyone done a raised vegetable bed? I would really like some opinions on spacing and arrangement.

There was a thread about raised beds few months ago in this forum. Belle

I hate it when people say that. This is the first time someone has told me on this forum but honestly I could have guessed that already lol :)

I listed exactly what I purchased and am looking for tips on spacing and general arrangement for my specific situation if anyone was up to it.

Aslan, welcome to DG...

"Anyway, has anyone done a raised vegetable bed? I would really like some opinions on spacing and arrangement."

Space your tomatoes to the read of the bed so they won't shade out other lower-growing plants (beans). For regular-sized tomatoes spacing should be no less than two feet apart, 3 would be better if you are caging them. For cherry toms give them 3 ft because they'll usually get huge; give them a big cage or a trellis for support.

Beans: You didn't say if you got bush beans or pole beans. If bush beans sow the seeds as close as 2" apart in a row. If pole beans, erect a trellis/fence/or poles...if sown in a row sow 3 or 4" apart then thin to 6". If sown around a pole sow 3-5 seeds around the pole then choose the 3 best plants when they come up.

Chives are grown as perennials usually and top out around 8-12" in height. You can grow those anywhere, even in a flower bed or some out of the way area thereby keeping your new raised beds/veggie garden for higher production.

Onions, for bulbs most folks set them out 4" apart. As for me, I set them 2" apart then pull every-other-one and use for green onions; this allows the remaining onions the required 4" spacing and you get two crops, green onions/scallion as well as bulb onions.

Hope this is helpful.
Feel free to holler back.

Shoe

Aslan, Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening is the best source of info I've found so far. There's a book and website available. I highly recommend both.

Awesome! Thank you!

The beans are bush beans. My grandmother uses to grow all kinds o things on her farm and I do remember the green beans being rather close together but don't those plants spread up to 10 inches?

Aslan, have you looked into any sort of companion plantings? I'm still learning about that sort of thing, myself, so I will let others more experienced speak to that, but I am starting several things (including marigolds) that really help promote other plants. I like this general guide: http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_55/companion_planting.aspx

Yes, but w/ sq. ft. you can plant 9 per sq. When I first tried mel's method I couldn't afford to "make" his mix and used the soil out of my garden and fertilized like I always had. Although caring for the garden became much less work my yeilds didn't get much better until i started making compost. As long as they're well fed plants can be a little crowded and still produce well.

Well soil is not an issue, we live in a grapefruit orchard and I also spent 50 bucks on 8 bags of good soil today to mix in as well :p As mentioned above, I will most likely plant the tomatoes in the back so they get all the morning sun and the rest of the plants will get plenty of son from later in the morning through afternoon.

I like the idea of planting other plants to help out my veggies too. Chives naturally repel some insects and marigolds do the same as well so I may through a couple in the corners or something.

If it's any help I always grow my veg in 3 / 4 different beds, like all root crops are grown in one bed as carrots, turnip parsnips etc cant be transplanted, next bed would be for also they don't like new manured or fed soil as this can cause the roots /carrots etc to split / fork, they also need soil that has all the stones removes.
Next bed would be for the likes of pea's, beans and tomatoes etc, as I dig out a trench, for these plants I add an a thick layer of old newspaper as this helps retain moisture, these plants are normally started indoors for us, however if you live in a warmer climate, you can probably grow them right into the soil as seeds,
Next bed is for the Cabbage family, they do require a lot more space to grow once they are past the tiny seedling stage and will be in the soil right up till winter and beyond, so over crowding is a no, no, they like a heavy manured / compost bed and I have to cover mine with a fleece to keep the butterflies / white and their caterpillars off, you can stand at the window and watch a whole cabbage plant disappear over a day, then move onto the next plant.
Because the cabbage family are slower growing and in the soil for longer, I plant things like lettuce, herbs and radishes in between the plants as there is no use wasting bare soil eh.
You are wise to learn companion planting as mentioned, all onion plants and relatives are great at keeping other bugs away from your susceptible crops, like onions grown beside tomatoes or carrots, helps keep greenfly etc at bay, books at the library are a good source for this.
after the first year has been harvested, the next year you rotate the beds so you don't grow the same crop all the time in the same place, different veg require different things and also CAN carry different soil born diseases that you don't want to build up, hope this helps you out, but the main thing is to go at your own pace and ENJOY. best of luck. WeeNe;

Use one of the raised beds now for a cold frame and start some of the seeds like the cabbage onions and lettuce that thin to the other raised bed later! you can een start radish early. Put about 4 gallon of watter opne in each corner of the raised bed and cover with a frame made with double plastic or old windows. The double plastic keeps it warmer. I lt a few of my radish to to seed and have the nicest white and pink flowers in july for the butterflys!

Aslan

check out the raised bed thread in the veggies forum also check out the garden planner on the Mother
Earth News website they'll give you lots and lots of help