How Big of Beds? 

Many people say three-to-five-feet wide and however long you like. I say, make your beds as wide or as narrow as you like. It’s your garden. Experiment and see what works for you for each set of plants and your space. 

What We Do and Why

Width

If you’d like to know what we do and why, we tend to make our beds about five feet across—sometimes a little less, but rarely less than four or four-and-a-half feet. Any wider and it’s hard to reach the center. Any narrower and it seems like the garden is all paths again. 

Length

We also find that the length of beds is important. We’ve made plenty of garden beds as long as the garden, only to find ourselves having to walk their entire length anytime we need to get to the other side of a bed—to pick pepper or pull we weed we can’t quite reach, for example, or to plant our new seedlings.

Wide Center Path with Smaller Side Paths and Tiny Cut-Through Paths or Stepping Stones

It’s a pain, so we’ve compromised on two solutions: 1) a wide center path (up-to-five-feet wide) with smaller paths (about two-feet wide) radiating between the beds and 2) strategically-placed, cut-through paths or stepping stones breaking up the longer beds as we find necessary. 

Sometimes, in my zeal to see a garden as full of plants as possible, I forget the importance of paths, but, as a good partner often does, Jen gently insists, sweetly reminding me of the trouble I make for us when I try too hard for more bed space and less paths: “There needs to room for the wheelbarrow to pass;” “We want to be able to walk down the main path carrying straw and not constantly bumping into everything;” “We’ll be wanting to get to the other side here often, let’s add a stone or two.” These two strategies keep us off our vegetables and our preciously (you’ll understand why “preciously” once you’ve broken your back to get it this way) fluffy, aerated soil and keep us sane in the process. 

Okay, beds makes sense, but how do I space my plants in the beds?