Easy 4 x 4 Summer Garden

Use this summer garden plan for a 4 x 4 bed and harvest fresh homegrown produce all summer. The garden plan includes your favorite summer vegetables and herbs.

Plant the best flavors of summer in one garden.

This simple 4 x 4-foot summer garden plan can supply you with a bountiful harvest of herbs and summer veggies. You may be surprised how much a small, but well-tended space can yield. This little template for a manageable bed gives you enough room for the pleasure of a summer garden without too much work or expense. Designed for easy maintenance, a 4 x 4-foot bed lets you reach the center from any side.

For excellent results, do these 3 things: First, fill your bed with premium quality raised bed soil, such as Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Raised Bed Mix, which is just the right weight and texture for raised bed growing. Second, feed plants with Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Raised Bed Plant Nutrition Granules to ensure they get all the nutrition they need. And third, be sure to choose Bonnie Plants® for your Easy Summer Garden. Bonnie has been around for over 100 years, so you know you're getting strong young plants of the highest quality.

If you want more room, place two 4 x 4-foot units symmetrically on either side of a 3- or 4-foot path, wide enough for you and your tools, remembering that some of these plants will trail over the edge and into the path. If you get really ambitious, add two more to make a group of four with a path like a plus sign in the middle.

Planting the 4 x 4-foot Bed

Take inspiration from these planting options. Consider your family recipes and food preferences. Notice that each is divided into 4 planting areas. These plants are pictured small to make the illustration simpler, but your bed will be spilling over as the plants grow! Follow spacing on the plant labels, adding a few more plants than we have pictured if the spacing allows.

Area 1: Low Growing Herbs

Choose any 3 of these low growing herbs

parsley
thyme
sage
mint (in a sunken pot)
Spicy Globe or Boxwood basil
sweet marjoram
oregano
onion chives

Area 2: Tall Herbs

Choose any 3 of these tall herbs

basil
rosemary
dill
stevia
sage
tarragon, French or Mexican

Area 3: Salad Items

Choose from these salad items

2 cucumbers (to trail over the edge)
8 lettuce or arugula (for cool climate gardens)

Area 4: Tomato or Pepper

Pick two plants, caged or staked

any peppers
any tomatoes

This plan gives options for what to plant in each area of a 4 x 4 summer garden.

Garden Planning Gardening How-To Planting Plans Raised Bed Planting Plans Summer Garden

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Cilantro (2 Pack)

If you like the aromatic flavor of salsa served in Mexican restaurants, you'll like cilantro. The leaves have an instantly recognizable fragrance that fills a room when you cut them. Sometimes called Chinese parsley, its distinctive aroma and flavor is also part of Caribbean and Asian foods, lending flavor to recaito, salsas, curries, salads, chutneys, herbed butters, and meat marinades.Cilantro looks like flat leaf Italian parsley, but the leaves are thinner. It grows in a rosette of stemmy leaves that are ready to harvest shortly after planting. Young leaves have the best flavor, so be sure to harvest often. It is a fast-growing annual except in milder climates where it will overwinter. Cilantro grows tall and blooms at the end of its life, usually after the weather gets hot. After it blooms, harvest the seeds--they are what you buy in spice jars as coriander, another common ingredient in Asian cooking. You can grind the seeds or use them whole. Some gardeners also let the seeds drop to make new plants.Fall is a great time to grow cilantro in mild climates, as the plants are frost tolerant and love the cool weather in fall, winter, and early spring.Organic varieties are only available at retailers.