How to plan a productive raised bed

Start with the bed, not the seed packet

Measure the usable inside length and width of your raised bed. A common 4×8 bed has 32 square feet, but paths, trellises, and sprawling crops can change what actually fits.

Plant by mature size

Small crops like radishes, carrots, and leaf lettuce can grow close together. Large crops like tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers need more room for roots, airflow, and harvesting.

Use vertical space

Peas, cucumbers, pole beans, and some tomatoes perform better on trellises. Vertical growing keeps fruit cleaner and frees bed space for low crops.

Plan successions

Do not plant the whole bed once and call it done. Replace finished radishes, lettuce, peas, and spinach with another crop. Succession planting is the main recurring-use habit this app is designed to support.

Adjust for your climate

The calendar gives general temperate timing. Your last frost date, summer heat, rainfall, and daylight will shift the exact weeks. When in doubt, use the calculator for spacing and your local extension office for frost dates.