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 companions in order to plant a functioning Mixed Culture. It is also advisable to plan Crop Rotation well.

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Planting Raised Beds in the First Year

As the supply of nutrients is very high in a newly created raised bed, you should grow heavy rather than light feeders in the first year. Most light feeders 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 feeders 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:

• Main Crop (Heavy Feeders): These hungry plants are the centerpiece of your garden bed.
  • Eggplant
  • Zucchini
  • Leeks
• Companion Plants (Medium Feeders & Beneficials): Valuable partners that promote soil and plant health. They provide food and habitat for pollinators and are also edible and healthy for humans.
  • Calendula (Pot Marigold)
  • Borage
  • Nasturtium
• Succession Crop (Light to Medium Feeders): Winter salads (e.g., Lamb's Lettuce) or Radishes are ideal to plant after the main harvest.
• Green Manure: Alternatively, a green manure such as Winter Rye (sowing possible until the end of October) ensures healthy soil for the following year.

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.

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.

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?

• From February (Hardy Cold-Germinators)
  • Swiss Chard: Particularly robust varieties like 'Bright Lights' are suitable for an early start.
  • Welsh Onions (Bunching Onions): A perennial form of spring onion. It is hardy and can be harvested almost year-round (from February until the first frost).
• From March
  • Root Vegetables: Early carrots (e.g., 'Lange Loiser') and parsnips (e.g., 'Halblange Weiße'). These remain in the bed as long-term crops throughout the entire summer.
  • Short-term Crops: Lettuce, spinach, and cress. These grow quickly and will clear the space by May for your summer planting.

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.

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.

Ideal Gap-Fillers:

• 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:

• First Harvests & Care
  • Welsh Onions: Ready for the first harvest starting in May.
  • Crop Optimization: Carrots and parsnips are now developing into young plants. Thin out the rows if necessary to ensure the plants have enough space to grow.
  New Sowing & Succession (Mid-May)
  • Beetroot: Follows the harvested cress.
  • Calendula & Savory: These move in where the spinach grew previously (Summer Savory, as it is an annual).
  Rotation for Herbs & Winter Vegetables
  • Oregano & Kale: Now replace the lettuce and Swiss chard. Kale remains in the bed throughout the entire winter and can be harvested fresh until February.

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:

• cabbage
• 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:

• Final Harvests & Winter Dormancy
  • Welsh Onions: Die back during the first frosts and will sprout again in March.
  • Root Vegetables: Harvest carrots, beetroot, and parsnips completely by mid-October at the latest.
  Sowing for Winter Harvest
  • Lamb’s Lettuce & Spinach: Sow between August and October. They remain in the bed over winter and provide fresh greens well into the next year.
  • Winter Peas: Can be sown late in the year (up until November).
  Planting Hardy Young Plants
  • Leafy & Head Cabbage: Successors for beetroot/parsnips; for example, the decorative Lacinato Kale (also known as 'Nero di Toscana').
  • Herbs & Winter Salads: Transplant young parsley and miner's lettuce (winter purslane) into the bed.
  Frost Protection
  • Winter Salads: Cover during periods of severe cold to prevent the plants from freezing.

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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