Plant Library

Sun, water, spacing, and planting-season basics for what to grow in your raised bed — vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers.

Vegetables

Crops you grow for their roots, leaves, or fruit to eat as a main dish or side.

Freshly harvested carrots with soil still on the roots, laid on a wooden garden table

Carrot

Daucus carota subsp. sativus

Grow carrots in full sun and loose, stone-free soil 8–12 in deep. Sow seed ¼ in deep, thin to 2–3 in apart, and harvest in 60–80 days.

Rows of leaf lettuce growing in a garden bed

Lettuce

Lactuca sativa

Lettuce grows best in cool spring and fall weather. Sow ¼–½ in deep, thin to 4–12 in apart by type, and harvest leaf lettuce in 50–60 days.

Ripe red tomatoes growing on a staked vine

Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum

Tomatoes need full sun, 1–2 in of water a week, and soil above 60°F at planting. Space them 18–36 in apart and harvest 60–85 days after transplanting.

Herbs

Fast-growing plants grown for their leaves — easy to tuck into a bed's edges or a container.

A cluster of fresh green basil leaves

Basil

Ocimum basilicum

Grow basil in full sun once nights stay above 50°F. Space plants 12–18 in apart, pinch off flower buds, and start harvesting in 50–75 days.

A rosemary shrub with narrow needle-like leaves

Rosemary

Salvia rosmarinus (syn. Rosmarinus officinalis)

Rosemary needs full sun, fast-draining soil, and little water. It's hardy outdoors in zones 8–10; in colder zones, grow it in a pot and bring it indoors.

Fruits

Berries and fruiting plants that usually take longer to establish but keep producing.

Ripe strawberries growing on a mulched bed

Strawberry

Fragaria × ananassa

Strawberries need full sun and soil with a pH of 5.5–6.5. Set crowns at soil level; June-bearers fruit the next spring, day-neutrals the first summer.

Flowers

Blooms grown for color, cut flowers, or to attract pollinators and beneficial insects.

Orange calendula flowers blooming in a garden bed

Calendula

Calendula officinalis

Calendula is a cool-season flower for full sun to part shade. Sow 2–3 weeks before last frost, space 8–12 in apart, and expect blooms in 45–60 days.

Bright orange and yellow marigold flowers in bloom

Marigold

Tagetes spp. (French: T. patula, African: T. erecta)

Marigolds need full sun. Plant after last frost, space French types 8–10 in and African types 12–18 in apart, and water about 1 in a week.