Vegetable Garden Layout: 7 Best Design Secrets!

I used to work as a garden designer for over 10 years and my favorite gardens always had an edible garden in them!

There are certain things that the best vegetable garden layouts and designs have in common. They are well planned, easily accessible, very productive, inviting, and beautiful.

The following text provides instructions on how to plan and map out a vegetable garden. It explains how to space out crops and position plants within garden beds, and provides tips for creating a layout that is efficient and easy to maintain.

Site Selection

As you plan your garden, think about where it will be located.

• Where do you get the most sun? Ideally, choose the sunniest part of the garden for your beds, away from frost pockets. Most vegetables need 6 to 8 hours of direct sun a day! Note that the south, east, and west sides of your home will get more sun than the north.
• How far away is the water? Make sure you have easy access to a hose or water source!
• Is there a spot near the house? The ideal garden is one that you can see outside your door or window so it’s easy to water and keep an eye on!
• Is there a nice clearing? If you have too many shrubs or trees nearby, they may compete with your garden for nutrients and moisture as well as sunlight.
• How large do you want your garden? It’s better to start small! If you’re new to vegetable gardening, a 10’ x 10’ garden (100 square feet) is a great place to start. 

Which plants do you want to grow?

Don’t make the mistake of biting off more than you can chew by trying to take on too much at once. You’ll only end up disappointed and overwhelmed by how much there is to learn, keep up with, and get rid of.

• For a beginner, perhaps pick 3 to 5 plants that you would like to grow! Consider picking the ones that taste best fresh and/or cost a lot to buy in the store. Then buy 3 to 5 plants of each one.
• Then plan to create a few vegetable beds each year, expanding as you become confident.

Deciding on raised beds vs. rows

You’ll need to decide on a style for your vegetable garden and what type of planting system to use. Some good options are raised beds, traditional rows, or square foot gardening. In general, it’s best to keep garden beds 4 feet wide with a 2-foot path between them. This way you can easily lean into the middle of the bed when weedings without compacting the soil. If you have children, it’s a good idea to build raised beds to clearly mark the edges of your garden.

It will be important to define good paths using materials such as woodchips and weed suppressant fabric, and this will save a lot of time in maintaining them.

Consider Dedicated Beds

If you have extra space in your yard, we recommend that you create different garden beds for your different crops. This allows you to plant crop “families” in separate beds, which helps with “crop rotation.” This practice helps with avoiding pest buildup, nutrient depletion in the soil, and disease issues.

Cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower plants need special care to protect them from caterpillars. One way to do this is to grow these plants together in a tunnel of netting or horticultural fleece.

• Allium Family: chive, garlic, leeks, onions, and shallots
• Solanaceae Family: eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatillo, and tomatoes
• Brassica Family: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, radish, rutabaga, spinach, and turnip
• Cucurbit Family: cucumbers, gourds, melons, pumpkin, and squash
• Legume Family: beans and peas.

The plants in each family should be planted together in the same bed, so they can be rotated to a different bed the following year.

Perennials (plants that come back year after year) such as asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberries need their own permanent space in the garden, since they will come back every year. For example, gardeners will often grow rhubarb near the compost bin or asparagus along the side of the garden.

Companion Planting

One technique that can work for gardening is called “companion planting.” This is where you have different crops in the same space.

• There are a number of well-known flowers that attract beneficial insects (ladybugs, hoverflies, etc) that will naturally control plant pests. See which flowers work as companions.
• Certain vegetables pair well together, helping each out in terms of pest control, whether it’s deterring pests or attracting beneficials. 
• Tall plants can shade others or can be used to offer support to others (e.g., climbing beans can grow up sweet corn).

Design Your Paths

• Make access paths between beds at least 2 feet wide to enable easy access for weeding and harvesting.
• Paths can be made of grass if they can be easily mown.
• Alternatively, lay cardboard and cover it with a mulch of wood chips, or pour a loose material such as gravel over the weed-suppressing fabric.
• For a more permanent path surface, consider using brick or pavers.

Our Garden Planner allows you to create a variety of irregular shapes by selecting textures from the Palette and adding solid shapes.

Step-By-Step Planning

With the above principles in mind, here are recommendations for placing plants in a new vegetable garden:

• Tender Plants: Plants such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil are the fussiest. Unless your climate is extremely warm, you’ll want to reserve the best sunny spots in your garden for these high-value crops so add them to your plan first. South-facing walls can be particularly good for providing the heat that these plants like in order to produce an abundant harvest.
• Roaming Plants: Next, place plants that like to send out vines that roam around the garden—melons, squashes, etc. These need to be situated at the edge of your vegetable beds so that the broad leaves attached to the vines don’t cover your other plants. Placing them at the edge lets them spread out across paths or grass.
• Vertically Climbing Plants: Anything that grows up supports—peas, beans, and some squash and cucumbers—will need to be located where they won’t shade other vegetables. The one exception is areas with very hot summers, where some cool-season crops such as lettuce and spinach can benefit from shade in the heat of the day.
• Irrigation: Some plants perform badly in dry conditions—like celery, onions, and strawberries. Areas of your garden that are slightly lower will retain more moisture or you may need to plan to provide irrigation to get consistent growth.
• Pollination: Certain plants need to be near others in order to pollinate well and “set fruit” (i.e. produce the edible portion). The main one you need to consider is sweet corn, which should be grown in blocks to ensure that it produces full cobs.
• Accessibility: What plants do you want to be able to regularly harvest? Herbs, salad, tomatoes, etc.? These should all be placed as near to your kitchen as possible. Not only will you then be more likely to use them, but it will help you to keep on top of the weeds and remove slugs regularly.
• Succession Planting: If you are short on space or want a crop throughout the season, consider using succession planting and intercropping.
• Don’t Overcrowd: Finally, tempting though it is, be very careful not to overcrowd plants as you add the remaining ones to your plan. This is the number 1 mistake made by new gardeners and it’s easy to see why—plants look so small as seedlings and we all hate pulling up the result of our hard work to thin them out! 

Vegetable Garden Layout: 7 Best Design Secrets!

I’m sharing seven secrets to creating a great vegetable garden layout and design, as well as practical tips you can implement in your own garden right away.

1. Start with sun and shade when creating vegetable garden layouts and designs

Most vegetables will grow best when they are in an area that gets full sun. This means that there should be no trees or buildings blocking the sun from reaching the vegetables.

It is best to choose a location for your kitchen garden that gets a lot of direct sunlight, preferably 5-6 hours per day. The sunniest hours are usually between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. In the northern hemisphere, the south, southwest, or southeast side of a house is typically a good spot for a vegetable garden.

Typically, the garden gets more sun exposure when rows are running north-south.

If your garden is on a slope, you can’t plant taller plants on the north side, because they will shade the shorter plants on the south side. Try planting shorter plants on the south side, and taller plants on the north side.

2. Well-designed beds and paths in the vegetable garden layout

A well-designed vegetable garden should be easy to walk around in. The main path should be at least 30 inches wide. Narrower paths or stepping stones can be used in the planting beds.

Garden beds that are less than 4 feet wide can be easily accessed from the sides without stepping onto the soil and harming the plants.

3. How to space vegetables in a garden

When you are designing your vegetable garden, it is important to know how to space the vegetables in the garden bed.

The square foot gardening system is popular because it allows for better planning of an intensive vegetable garden. The system works by dividing the growing area into 1-foot square sections.

4. Learn from beautiful kitchen garden designs

There are many exquisitely designed kitchen gardens and potagers from throughout history to provide inspiration.

These garden layout designs can be used in our own gardens. It’s important to remember that garden beds don’t have to be rectangles or squares – you can use curved shapes in your garden designs too.

5. Use trellis & structures in a vegetable garden layout

Garden fencing can be used to keep out deer and rabbits, and can also act as a trellis for climbing plants like beans and cucumbers.

Trellises can improve a garden by making it more efficient. Additionally, they can be used to make an edible garden more aesthetically pleasing.

6. Front yard vegetable garden layout and design

A front yard vegetable garden was once seen as ridiculous, but now with more urban farms and edible gardens, people are no longer limited to just having a backyard garden.

7. Biodiversity and companion planting

When planning your garden, it’s a good idea to use companion plants. Companion planting is when plants are placed together based on how they can help each other grow. This system can create more beneficial relationships among plants to increase productivity and repel pests naturally.

By planting certain vegetables, herbs, and flowers together, you can create a symbiotic relationship in which they help one another to grow a healthier and more beautiful, and abundant garden.

Please note that gardening is both an art and a science, so there are no solid rules to follow. The art of gardening lies in taking these guidelines and using them to design a garden that works for you and is enjoyable to maintain.