Town Vegetable Garden Layout

I’m sure that I have mentioned this before, but just in case I haven’t, we currently rent a house in town from my husband’s grandparents. They live out on a lake a short distance from town. We hope to build out there in the next few years. Because of this, we have multiple vegetable gardens in two different locations. In this post, I’m going to chat with y’all about the town vegetable garden!

The town vegetable garden is about 24X10 feet. While this is a large area for a town garden, when we first planted the garden, we planted raspberries, which have since taken over 1/3-1/2 of the total area. We plan start the process of transplanting them out to the country site sometime this summer, but for now we have about a 12X10 space to work with. I have a tendency to not space things out very well, and this year is no different. I fit quite a bit of stuff into that little area and look forward to seeing how it produces!

I am a visual person, so I figured the easiest way to explain where I planted what was to include it in a picture. I made a few changes this year due to losing some of the space in front of the raspberry plants, but I think it will work out well!

This year, I decided to focus on variety, and wanted to have many different vegetables available to us in town so we can run out and pick stuff to have for a meal. While we may have enough to preserve some from this garden, the main goal here is to pick to eat, while the country gardens will be much larger and we will preserve a lot of the harvest from there to enjoy this coming winter.

Raspberries

I have Caroline Raspberries, which produce huge, delicious berries in the fall. They are mow down raspberries, so I just use the sheers and cut them off to about 3-4 inches every spring. They took a couple of years to produce, but not we get many berries to eat and make into jelly! They have multiplied very quickly. We started out with 10 plants, and now they seem to be everywhere!

Tomatoes

I included Beefsteak, Cherry, and Roma tomatoes this year in the town garden. I grew all of these from seed, which you can read more about in my LED Grow Light post and Seed Starting post. We love to use the Beefsteak tomatoes for burgers, BLTs, and other sandwiches. We use the Romas when we make our spaghetti sauce and salsa. We also use Roma tomatoes when we make grilled margarita pizzas. Cherry tomatoes are perfect to just pick and eat or toss in a salad.

Jalapeno (Hot) & Sweet Peppers

I also started these from seed. They grew beautifully under the grow lights and I’m looking forward to seeing how they do in the garden! In the past, I have only grown banana peppers, so this is my first try at these specific types!

Broccoli & Cauliflower

I purchases these plants started at a local nursery. I have grown them before and had good luck! I had grown them in front of the raspberries in the past, but I think they will do better by the peppers because they should have more space to grow. What I remember most about these is that they grow out to be very large in diameter and there seemed to be a fairly narrow window for picking!

Celery

I also purchased the celery from the local nursery. A couple of locals in line to check out mentioned how tasty this stuff is! I have never tried growing my own! Honestly this was a total impulse purchase after seeing it. I love celery though and we use it in a lot of soups and our salsa!

Beets

The first time I planted my garden, I had no idea what kinds of everything to buy, so I bought whatever seeds that seemed to be selling quickest. So whatever tubs had the lowest number of seed packets I assumed were the best. I totally lucked out using this method and tried Detroit Dark Red beets. Let me tell you… these are so yummy! Picked at a golfball size, they can be boiled or roasted and they have an amazing sweet flavor. I loved them so much that I have never tried a different type! I plan to stick with these!

Carrots

We have really liked the Tendersweet carrot variety. We wait until after there has been a good freeze in the fall before picking, because I have heard they taste better that way. They do seem to be sweeter! I had a difficult time planting these this year because I decided to plant on a windy day since rain was coming. Carrot seeds are very small! Chances are good there will be carrots growing all over, but that’s okay!

Green Beans

Green beans are one of my favorite veggies. We like the Tendergreen IMP bush beans. We steam them to eat right away, and we blanch and freeze them too! Our dog, Cara, also loves green beans and we often use them as a bargaining tool when she gets something she shouldn’t have. She has become very good at trading for green beans!

Peas

We have always planted peas right along the smaller metal fence that we use to keep Cara out of the garden. The first year with the garden, I would pick and share the peas with Cara. Now, she just goes and picks them herself! We often find her laying along the fence having a snack. She is able to just bite off the pod, which I find very impressive! We like to plant the Sugar Bon Pea (Snap Pea) variety!

I am so happy to have this garden planted! It is the first one that I have completed so far this year and I was able to get it done before the rain! Can’t wait to start seeing little sprouts! Stay tuned to see how it goes and they layouts for my other gardens!