Requesting Help Laying Out My Raised Garden

[OldGuy43]

It measures roughly 12' x 4' x 24", and I plan on planting close. Here's a list of what I would like to plant:

Tomato - 4 to 6 plants
Kale
Onion - large red as well as green
Radish
Lima Beans - a pole variety
Carrot
Bell Pepper

Any suggestions on layout? Anything I shouldn't plant next to each other? Am I being overly ambitious?

It's going to get full sun all day, but is designed so that I can tarp it if it gets too hot/dry. Orientation is long way North to South. It's filled with commercial composted soil.

Here I am, hard at work, gardenin' with my favorite tool.

Yes, that is screen wire. My fervent hope is that it will reduce predation by insects and birds as well as keep down the weeds. There is a piece of copper wire stapled around the circumference that will hopefully keep the snails out.

More detailed pictures available if anyone is interested. Any comments or suggestions will be most welcome.

Oh yeah! We're calling it the RBR Experimental Station.

 

[lesa]

Well, Oldguy- I love your garden tool! It looks very restful! In my humble opinion- I think that is an awful lot of plants in that space. When the plants are tiny, you will feel that you have all the room in the world- and I predict when they mature you will have a giant group of tangled up plants. When that happens, you won't have great production, and it will be a breeding ground for powdery mildew, etc. Maybe you could put the kale in barrels on the outside?
I could be wrong- and I am always up for an experiment! Let us know how it goes.

 

[ninnymary]

With that much space, you could build another bed so you're plants won't be so crowded.

Mary

 

[HunkieDorie23]

That is an impressive raised bed. As for how you shoudl plant it.... I have a book that's called Carrots love Tomatoes so you should plant the carrots around the tomatoes. Radish are quicker and might be good with the kale which will get pretty good size. Put a trellis in there for the beans. That leaves the onion and the peppers. So plant the onions aroung the peppers. The onions offer protections for the carrots from the carrot maggot so the peppers and onion should be near the tomatoes and carrots.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

keep the onions towards the outside. they are protection from any animals that want to get into the garden for the rest of your plants. onions are supposed to be toxic to most animals so they avoid them. (but it could just be the strong smell)

 

[baymule]

I garden in small beds and I plant onions around the edges because they take up less room that way. I would think that you would need to plant pole limas outside the raised bed. I plant green beans in a bed that is one foot wide and 12 feet long on a trellis.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ok, Oldguy, what Lesa said is right on the nailhead!

That'll be jam packed.

Also, what NinnyMary said, another bed or 2 would be awesome, SO LONG AS IT DOES NOT CROWD OUT YOUR CHAISE LOUNGE! Yours looks a lot softer than mine...jealous...

For that bed you have, you might want to go with 2 determinate tomato plants. And what Chbickie's momma said, onions on the perimeter. I'd add, put the green onions between the big onions, that way picking them will thin for the bigger ones.

Put the patch of carrots on the south side. Stick your pole limas on the north side. Put the Pepper just north of the carrots, and then stick radish seeds here and there, mostly near the onions which start slow.

What NinnyMary said is good. You can do another longer bed, but without all the ambitiousness to put more tomatoes in, or at least minimal protection.

On the other hand, I tend to jam pack my fort knox garden too!

 

[OldGuy43]

Actually if this one works out well I plan on building a taller one for corn next year.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

to help make the raised bed's netting a little taller for the corn you might want to look into the electrical conduit/pvc pipe or the PEX pipe to bow over the top.

 

[ducks4you]

Agreed--not as big a space as you might think. I would grow the kale, carrots, radishes, onions and couple of peppers OR a couple of tomatoes.
I have 8 raised beds. 2 years ago, I double dug mine--30 inches below ground, all ~ 3' x 12'. Your raised bed represents a lot of work--SO PRETTY!!
I am SURE that the screens will prevent a lot of bugs. Could you buy some ladybugs? You could purchase ladybug larvae, then hide a bowl of water for them, so that any bugs that fly in when you have it open will be controlled.