Raised Beds: your planting plan for a year

Planting raised vegetable beds: tips for beginners

In a raised bed, there are many plants in a small space, so choosing the right species and variety of vegetables can help you to have a high-yield harvest. Varieties with a short cultivation period or a long harvest period are particularly suitable. The shape of the plants is also crucial. If the plants grow more in height than in width, you can plant more in your raised bed. Alternatively, plants that need a little more space, such as pumpkins, can hang over the edge.

Planning a harmonious mixed crop for your raised bed

A raised bed provides a good basis for many species. You can turn it into a vegetable, herb or flower bed or combine different crops. Of course, what you plant depends on what you would like to have in the raised bed. As in a normal bed, however, it is important that all plants harmonize with each other. To do this, it is important to know good and bad plant neighborhoods in order to plant a functioning mixed culture. It is also advisable to plan crop rotation well.

Planting raised beds in the first year

As the supply of nutrients is very high in a newly created raised bed, you should grow strong rather than weak growers in the first year. Most weak growers are leafy vegetables such as lettuce. These store the excess nitrogen in the leaves, which is not good for consumption. However, some strong or medium growers can also tend to store nitrate. For example, turnips or goosefoot plants, such as spinach and chard, should also not be grown in the first year.

It is best to build your raised bed in spring so that you can start planting your bed with heat-loving heavy eaters such as eggplants, zucchinis, pumpkins and peppers in May. You can find instructions on how to build your own raised bed in this article. Here we also provide tips on how to fill raised beds correctly.

Example of a planting plan - the first year in summer:

In addition to heavy feeders such as eggplants, zucchinis and leeks, this raised bed is also home to flowering plants with lower nutrient requirements: marigolds, borage and nasturtiums. These three flowers are valuable neighbors in a mixed culture. Not only are they very healthy for humans, they also have a positive effect on soil and plant health. They also attract pollinating insects as they provide food and habitat. Eggplants, zucchinis and nasturtiums form tendrils that you can let grow over the edge of the raised bed. This not only looks very decorative, but also makes optimum use of the available space.

Medium to light feeder crops such as various winter lettuces, e.g. lamb's lettuce, or plants with a short cultivation period such as radishes, are suitable as a secondary crop. Alternatively, it is best to sow a green manure crop such as winter rye (can be sown until the end of October), which is not harvested.

Plan your mixed cultivation with Fryd!

With our bed planner, you can easily plan a colourful mixed crop. Good and bad neighbours are displayed directly and you get tips on crop rotation and crop rotation for a perfect mixed crop in your raised bed!

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Ideas for your planting plan: step by step through the gardening year

To give you inspiration and ideas for your planting plan, we have created a year-round overview. You can see which crops you can plant at which time of year. We have also created digital planting plans for you, with an example of pre- and post-crops.

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Raised garden beds in spring: February - April

We start the cultivation planning in March. At the beginning of spring, you can sow the first (less cold-sensitive) vegetables of the year in your raised bed. Due to the faster warming of the soil in the raised bed, this is possible a little earlier than in a "normal" bed.

Suitable vegetables for spring:

• radish and radishes
• spinach and chard
• rocket
• picking lettuce (such as oak leaf or lollo rossa)
• vegetable and spring onions, chives
• broccoli, cauliflower
• cress

Our tip: To protect against late cold snaps, you can stretch a gardener's fleece over your raised bed. This will store the heat in the raised bed better and significantly reduce the risk of late frosts for your young plants.

What can I sow in the raised bed in February and March?

At the beginning of the season, you can sow crops that can cope well with colder temperatures. In February, you can sow the leafy vegetable chard, e.g. the robust variety 'Bright Lights', as well as winter hedge onions directly into the raised bed. Winter hedge onions are an old variety of spring onions. They grow perennially and can be harvested all year round from February until the first frosts. In March, you can then sow early carrots (e.g. 'Lange Loiser') and parsnips (e.g. 'Halblange Weiße'). These crops will remain in the bed throughout the summer. You can also sow lettuce, spinach and cress now. These crops only have a short cultivation period and make room in the bed in May.

Prefer heat-loving crops

In March, you can also start pre-growing some plants that you want to plant out in your raised bed towards the end of spring (tomatoes, peppers, etc.). Not all crops need to be pre-grown, but you should give heat-loving crops a head start!

Here you can read about which crops you prefer to preplant and which are better sown directly.

Raised bed in summer: May - September

Things really get going in May. The cold-sensitive species that you have been growing at home or in your cold frame since March can now (after the "ice saints") be safely planted outdoors. These include tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers/chili peppers, eggplants and pumpkins.

If you still have space in your raised bed or if space has become available again due to harvesting, you can fill the gaps in June and July. These crops, for example, are suitable for this:

• leek
• parsnip
• kohlrabi
• carrots
• beetroot

In August , summer is slowly coming to an end and you can start planning your raised bed for winter. Suitable vegetables and herbs for late summer are, for example

• kale
• strawberry
• chervil
• dill
• salads such as radicchio, endive or lamb's lettuce

Some of these plant species are also proven winter crops and will continue to provide you with fresh flavor and plenty of vitamins during the cold season.

Your raised bed could look like this in summer:

From May, the winter hedge onions are ready to be harvested for the first time. The carrots and parsnips have already sprouted and are growing into small young plants. If you have sown too densely, you can thin out the rows a little. By mid-May, the cress will have been harvested and you can sow the beetroot. Where the spinach was, you can now sow marigolds and plant savory seedlings (summer savory, as it grows as an annual). Lettuce and chard make way for oregano and kale. You can either sow kale directly into the bed from June until the end of September or you can grow your own seedlings from May. Kale can remain on the bed throughout the winter until February and can be harvested again and again.

Preplanting winter vegetables

In June (sometimes even as early as May), it is also time to start thinking about winter vegetables. Most hardy vegetables are now grown on the windowsill or in the greenhouse. There are some plants that survive the cold weather well in winter. If you grow these plants at home in summer, you can harvest earlier. Some examples of winter vegetables include stem, green, flower or Brussels sprouts, radicchio and tat soi. You can find more winter vegetables and their sowing times here.

Ideas for the winter: September - January

At the beginning of September, summer finally says goodbye and fall begins. Now you have two options:

• You can either continue to plant winter crops such as various cabbages, winter lettuce or spinach in the open areas
• Or you decide to green manure your soil

If you have not yet sown green manure, you can do so now. Or you can opt for a layer of mulch made from horn shavings; this will also release nutrients into your soil over time. However, it is better to plant your raised bed all year round.

Winter sowing in raised beds

You can also sow some plants directly in your field in winter or plant them as seedlings. To be able to provide yourself with vegetables for as long as possible, we even recommend growing vegetables in your raised bed all year round. These vegetables are suitable for winter sowing:

• charcoal
• hardy salads such as endive or lamb's lettuce
• swiss chard
• spinach
• carrots
• radishes
• parsley
• dill
• winter postelein

Planting raised beds in winter - an example:

With the first frosts, the winter hedge bulbs retreat into the soil and do not sprout again until March. By September, or early October at the latest, you should have harvested all the carrots. Instead, you can sow lamb's lettuce, which you can leave in the field and harvest until the following year. The same goes for spinach - you can sow its seeds between August and October and harvest them throughout the winter. You should at least cover the lettuce in very cold weather to prevent it from freezing. By mid-October, the last beetroots and parsnips have been harvested and there is room for something new. Here you can plant more leafy or headed cabbages such as palm kale 'Nero di Toscana'. You can also plant parsley and winter postelein as young plants in the bed. There are also winter peas that can be sown late in the year (until November).

More ideas for your mixed crop planting plan in the raised bed

Here you can find more inspiration for planting your raised bed with a colourful variety.

That's the whole gardening year in a nutshell. As you can see, you can use your raised bed all year round and it never has to be "empty" if you don't want it to be.

P.S.: This seasonal plan is just an example. Most of the species listed here can also be planted in your raised bed at completely different times than those described here. Due to the large number of possibilities with a raised bed, there are (almost) no limits to your imagination.

If you have any questions or comments, please write to us at [email protected].
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