8 Free Vegetable Garden Plans to Bring a Harvest to Your Backyard

Fall-Harvest Vegetable Garden Plan illustration raised bed
Photo: Illustration by Gary Palmer

If you would like to create a vegetable garden but aren't sure where to start, these free plans will get you on track to grow a healthy, beautiful selection of edible plants. Whether you want just a small raised bed or a full scale patch of produce, you'll find plenty of ideas here.

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Small Children's Vegetable Garden

Easy Children’s Vegetable Garden Plan illustration
Illustration by Gary Palmer

Vegetable garden ideas that involve children help establish healthy habits and get young kids excited about eating produce. Use this easy vegetable garden for fun, and to pass along gardening lessons. Once planted, it takes only a few hours a week to keep it looking its best.

02 of 08

Spring-Harvest Vegetable Garden

Spring Vegetable Garden Plan
Illustration by Gary Palmer

What better way to celebrate spring than whipping up a salad with just-picked radishes, spinach, or lettuce? You can enjoy the freshest flavors of the season with this simple spring vegetable garden plan. Designed for a four-foot-square raised bed, it nestles in 10 different cool-season crops that do their best growing in lower temperatures and can even take a light frost.

03 of 08

Summer Vegetable Garden Plan

summer vegetable garden plan illustration
Illustration by Gary Palmer

Once the soil warms, plant summer-yielding vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers as in this vegetable garden plan. It's designed to follow the spring vegetable garden plan for a four-foot-square raised bed, so it has carrots, cabbage, onions, snow peas, and parsley already growing in it.

04 of 08

Fall Harvest Vegetable Garden Plan

Fall-Harvest Vegetable Garden Plan illustration raised bed
Illustration by Gary Palmer

Tender lettuce, spinach, and peas aren't limited to spring. Enjoy these and other cool-season crops by following this fall bounty garden plan for a four-foot-square raised bed. This plan is designed to follow the summer vegetable garden plan, so it includes previously planted crops that would be reaching maturity as your fall-planted crops are starting to grow.

05 of 08

French-Inspired Kitchen Garden Plan

French Kitchen Garden Illustration
Illustration by Helen Smythe

This vegetable garden plan features a central diamond-shape bed with four larger raised beds around it and wide brick pathways running between them. A row of ornamental perennials or shrubs of your choice can serve as a hedge around the perimeter, set off by a white picket fence. The raised beds are filled with a variety of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers, as a nod to the efficient yet beautiful kitchen gardens of Medieval monasteries.

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Large-Scale Vegetable Garden Plan

Large-Scale Vegetable Garden Plan illustration

If you're planning your garden with the hope to grow lots of different vegetables and have the space to spread out, try this large-scale vegetable garden plan. It's got a little bit of everything: leafy greens, root veggies, herbs, and tasty pods.

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Easy Children's Garden Plan

Easy Children's Vegetable Garden illustration
Illustration by Gary Palmer

Kids like plants that appeal to their senses and spark their imaginations. This easy children's vegetable garden plan will please gardeners of all ages with unusual and fun-looking vegetables such as kohlrabi and 'Scallop' summer squash. They'll also love making the garden pretty with the marigolds and sunflowers that flank the bed's edge.

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Small-Space Vegetable Garden Plan

raised bed vegetable garden
Peter Krumhardt

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.

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