This Small-Space Vegetable Garden Plan Bursts with Flavors and Color

Bigger is not always better when it comes to vegetable gardening. Small beds require less time to plant and maintain than large ones, and you can still harvest plenty of produce by choosing more compact crops. This small-space vegetable garden plan for a 6 x 8 foot raised bed brims with fresh greens, herbs, and edible flowers. It features nutritious lettuce and kale, which grow quickly and are easy to care for. Chives punctuate the bed with their upright, onion-flavor foliage and pink spring flowers that are also edible. Low-growing sweet alyssum fills in the gaps around the rest of the plants, adding a pleasant fragrance with its edible blossoms. All of these plants are easy to grow from seed and do best in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall.

• 7 Kale (Brassica oleracea): Annual
• 4 Chives (Allium schoenoprasum): Zones 3-9
• 12 Lettuce (Lactuca sativa): Annual
• 6 Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima): Annual

Kale and lettuce come in several varieties that offer different colors, shapes, and sizes. Feel free to experiment with an assortment of them.

The garden plan for this design includes an illustrated version of the planted garden, a detailed layout diagram, a list of plants for the garden as shown, and complete instructions for installing the garden. Free, one-time registration allows unlimited access to all garden plans, available as printable PDFs.

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