Sample plans for gardens
The plans here are not actually plans for whole gardens. Instead, they are sample plans for individual beds (see beds for more details about how to use a bed system).
Each bed can be treated more or less like its own independent garden. If you use beds that are approximately 1 m (40 in) wide (and as long as you choose), each of these miniature gardens can be planted at any time with either one row, two rows, or three rows of plants, depending on the size of the plants.
In the course of the season, each bed may be planted with:
A) only one crop that takes up the bed for the entire season; see examples 1 and 2
B) two successive crops; see examples 3, 4, 5
C) three successive crops; see examples 6, 7, 8
For beds with two or three crops, as soon as one type of plant is harvested, you can put in the next (different) crop. Note that a given bed may have different numbers of rows at different points in the growing season.
The plans shown below are only a few of thousands of possible plans for a single bed for one year. Once you have a number of possible beds planned out that include all of the crops you want to grow, you can arrange them to fill in your available garden space (you can make some beds longer than others if you prefer some crops over others). Remember that it’s important to practice crop rotation — put each crop in a different place than it (or any related crop) was the previous year.
