Compact Starter Bed (4×2)
The smallest sensible raised bed: one tomato, salad, roots, and herbs in a 4×2 footprint you can tend in five minutes.
About This Template
A 4×2 bed (about 120×60 cm) is the smallest raised bed worth building — and this layout squeezes a remarkably complete garden into it. One cherry tomato anchors the west end, chosen over full-size tomatoes because it sets fruit reliably in any summer. Two lettuces and a basil plant fill the top line, while the bottom line packs in quick radishes and carrots at intensive spacing with a marigold standing guard at the corner. Nothing here needs staking beyond the single tomato cage, nothing needs spraying, and the whole bed can be watered in under a minute. It is deliberately boring in the best way: reliable crops, forgiving spacing, fast wins.
Benefits
- 1Fits standard 120×60 cm raised-bed kits and lumber offcuts
- 2Five-minute daily care: one tomato to check, one meter of bed to weed
- 3Radishes come in 4 weeks, lettuce in 6 — early wins for new gardeners
- 4Cherry tomatoes set fruit dependably even in cool or short summers
- 5A complete salad — greens, roots, herb, tomato — from half a square meter
Growing Tips
- 1Cage the tomato at planting time; it will look too big for the bed and it isn't
- 2Sow radishes in two batches two weeks apart for a steady supply
- 3Harvest outer lettuce leaves only and the heads keep producing for weeks
- 4Refill the radish gaps with a late-summer arugula sowing
Included Plants (6)
Cherry Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Spacing: 45 cm · 18 in
Lettuce×2
Lactuca sativa
Spacing: 25 cm · 10 in
Basil
Ocimum basilicum
Spacing: 25 cm · 10 in
Radish×4
Raphanus sativus
Spacing: 5 cm · 2 in
Carrot×4
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Spacing: 8 cm · 3 in
Marigold
Tagetes patula
Spacing: 25 cm · 10 in
Ready to Start Growing?
Use this template as a starting point and customize it in the garden editor.
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