Best Vegetables for Raised Beds: A Beginner’s Guide

Best Vegetables for Raised Beds: A Beginner’s Guide

Raised beds offer good soil and easy access, making them the perfect setup for many types of vegetables. This guide covers 15 of the best ones, but there are many more you can try growing in a raised bed by following the tips listed toward the end.

Best Vegetables for Raised Beds

Here are 15 of the best vegetables to grow for both beginners and seasoned gardeners:

Lettuce

Lettuce plants grow well in shallow soil. Since they normally stay small and prefer cooler weather, you can usually plant them around the base of larger plants to help with ground cover.

Spinach

A cool-season crop that’s easy to grow in a variety of soils. Like lettuce, it can be planted around the base of larger plants to offer ground cover and maximize space.

Swiss Chard

This colorful green can handle heat and keeps producing all season. Unlike most greens, it prefers full sun.

Kale

Another hardy leafy green packed with nutrients. It prefers cool weather, so it makes a great spring starter crop or fall crop when your raised bed may otherwise lie dormant.

Carrots

Raised beds are ideal for root crops like carrots, which need loose, well-drained soil to grow their best. Keep the soil deep—at least 12 inches of soil—so they have room to stretch.

Beets

Another great root crop, beets are easy to grow and don’t take up much space. Like carrots, they love deep, loose soil to grow in.

Radishes

If you like their flavor, radishes can be a great addition to your raised beds. They’re fast growers (around a month from planting to harvesting!) that are great for beginners.

Turnips

Turnips grow quickly and don’t mind cooler weather, making them great spring and fall shoulder season crops for your raised bed.

Corn

Despite its height, corn is a great option for raised beds! The plants benefit from the better soil quality. Here’s a complete guide to planting corn in raised beds.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes love the controlled environment of raised beds, especially when planted in full sun. If you add a cage, they’ll stay more compact and save space.

Bush Beans and Pole Beans

Beans are a good choice for raised beds. Bush beans stay compact, while pole beans grow upward on a trellis, which is also a good option for maximizing space.

Peppers

From bell peppers to spicy varieties, these love the added warmth of the soil in a raised bed garden. Pair them with good drainage and soil mixes enriched with compost for healthy soil.

Brussels Sprouts

These slow-growing cool-season crops are great for raised beds. Just give them plenty of space and add compost for nutrients.

Pumpkins

If you enjoy edible or carving pumpkin varieties, you can grow them easily in a raised bed. They benefit from the longer growing season, better drainage, and of course they’re a lot easier to care for! Here’s a complete guide to growing pumpkins in raised beds.

How to Choose Other Plants for Your Raised Beds

Consider Your Space

Measure your available space and think about the maximum width of your beds. Some vegetables, like squash, need more room between plants than others. Any vegetable can grow well in a raised bed if it’s given appropriate room!

You can grow more in less space using intensive planting methods. This involves planting crops close together to maximize your efficient use of space. Find a few tips for getting started here, and follow plant tags for spacing guidelines. It also helps to use efficient methods of companion planting, which you’ll learn about now:

Companion Planting

Pairing certain plants together helps with pest control, growth habits, and most importantly for a raised bed gardener: maximizing space! I previously mentioned using small leafy greens like spinach and lettuce around larger plants, but here’s a complete guide to companion planting to get you started.

Pick Compact Varieties

Some plants (especially squashes) get very large! You can keep big vegetables from taking over your small raised beds by picking compact varieties, which are usually specified on their seed packet or nursery tag.

You should also plan to using staking, trellising, and cages to your advantage to encourage large or bushy plants to grow up, not out.

Plan for the Growing Season

Some crops, like cool-season crops (lettuce, spinach), prefer early spring. Others, like tomatoes and peppers, thrive in late spring and summer. Your seed packet or nursery tag will tell you when to plant and what conditions to keep them in (full sun, partial shade, etc.) You can plan ahead so that cool crops flourish in early spring and fall, leaving space for warm season favorites during the hottest months using succession planting.

Maintaining Your Raised Beds

• Add fresh compost or organic material each season to maintain soil quality.
• Remove weeds as they appear (here’s a complete guide to getting rid of weeds in raised beds!)
• Rotate crops each year to prevent pests and diseases.
• Add a layer of mulch like wood chips to retain soil moisture and keep your greens happy (here’s how to mulch a garden.)

Happy Growing!

Are you ready to start your own raised bed vegetable garden? I recently wrote a guide that will take you from complete beginner to accomplished vegetable gardener – with low-maintenance tips so you can spend fewer hours working and more time enjoying your harvest! Get it now!