A 40-inch bed

Build or mark a rectangle 40 inches across (so you can reach the middle from either side) and 8 or 12 ft long. Path 18 inches. That bed can hold: three rows of carrots or salad, two rows of beans, or one center row of tomatoes caged.

Plan A — 4×8 ft, mixed kitchen bed (Zone 5 example)

North edge: two indeterminate tomatoes, 24–36 inches apart, caged. Middle: a row of basil and peppers. South edge: lettuce, radish, and scallions in spring, replaced by bush beans after last frost. East end: a trellis of cucumbers. This is an illustration for a last-frost around mid-May; slide dates to match your frost.

Plan B — 4×12 ft, one-bed rotation

Year 1: tomatoes + basil. Year 2: beans + lettuce. Year 3: carrots + onions + a cabbage. Then back to tomatoes. A second bed running the same cycle offset by one year keeps nightshades from following themselves.

Cold-hardy plants for shoulder seasons: kale, spinach, mâche, claytonia, collards, carrots, leeks, scallions, parsley. Use the cheat sheet for spacing. For a grow-zone lookup, use the USDA plant hardiness map and the zone filter at gardenbreezy.com.