How Much Can You Grow in a 4×4 Garden This Spring?
Have you ever thought, I’d love to grow vegetables, but I just don’t have the time or space? What if I told you that in just 16 square feet—a 4×4 garden bed—you could grow a spring garden with room for fresh herbs, flowers, and a variety of vegetables? You don’t need more time to grow more; you just need to know how to make the most of what you’ve got.
Here’s a peek at what’s possible and tips to help you maximize every square inch of your spring garden.
Make the Most of Your 4×4 Garden
- Start With a Plan: On a sheet of paper draw a large square and then divide into a grid of 16 squares to create a 4×4 bed.
- Decide What You Want To Grow: Make a list of vegetables your family likes. Since this is a spring garden bed, consider leafy greens like lettuces, Swiss Chard, Kale, and spinach. Then root vegetables like radishes, carrots, spring onions, and beets. Once you have written those down, take a look at the brassicas: Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, and collard greens. Print the download here
- Assign Plants to Squares: Based on the size of the plant, add that number to a square. You can also mix them up. Tuck small radishes, spring onions, and leaf lettuce seeds around larger plants.
What You Can Grow in a 4×4 Garden
Using the square foot gardening method, you can grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, and even flowers for both beauty and pest control. Here’s what you can fit in your 4×4 space this spring:
- Broccoli (1 per square): Plant a few to enjoy fresh, homegrown heads of broccoli.
- Cabbage (1 per square): Great for slaws, soups, or fermenting into sauerkraut.
- Collard Greens (1 per square): A hearty green perfect for cooking or smoothies.
- Carrots (16 per square): Small but mighty, carrots thrive in compact spaces.
- Onions (9 per square): Whether green or bulb onions, these are garden staples.
- Radishes (16 per square): Fast-growing and ready to harvest in just a few weeks.
- Beets (9 per square): Harvest for greens early and enjoy the roots later.
- Lettuce (12-16 per square): Use cut-and-come-again varieties for up to two harvests. Head lettuce varieties are 4 per square foot
- Spinach (9 per square): Another quick grower, perfect for salads or sautéing.
- Swiss Chard (4 per square): These leaves are delicious steamed or sautéed and the young leaves are usually tender enough to be served raw in salads.
- Baby Kale (9 per square): Large “dinosaur” kale is 1 plant per square foot. Baby kale is tender and great in smoothies.
- Sugar Snap and Snow Peas: Plant every 2 inches down the down of a trellis, or around and obelisk.
Now to Plant:
- Start by planting the perimeter of your bed with herbs and flowers. Herbs and flowers are your organic pest control partners. Depending on the plant, it either attracts beneficial insects or deters pests. Dill attracts ladybugs to lay their eggs in and in turn the ladybugs fight pests such as aphids. Visit your local garden center to see what is in season for spring. Herbs such as parsley, oregano, cilantro and dill can be planted in the cool season. Flowers include violas, petunias, and snapdragons.
- Next using the spacing information above, start adding your vegetables.
- Increase your garden space by adding an obelisk in the middle to grow sugar snap and snow peas, or add a trellis along the northern end of your bed.
This plan shows plants mixed together in many of the squares. For example, leaf lettuce and carrots. Or Swiss Chard and radishes. Spring onions with cabbage plants. The only rule is pair root vegetables such as carrots with leafy greens or brassicas. The roots will not compete with the greens.
Spring Harvest
By the end of spring, you’ll have enjoyed:
- Two rounds of lettuce and spinach
- A steady supply of herbs. Oregano, chives, thyme, cilantro, dill and parsley. These also play a role in organic pest control.
- Fresh root crops like carrots, radishes, and spring onions
- Hearty greens like collards, broccoli and cabbage. Swiss chard and kale.
- Sugar snap peas planted around an obelisk to grow up it.
- Beautiful edible flowers such as violas, and pretty flowers like snapdragons and pansies to add color to the garden.
With just a little planning, your small garden bed can provide more than you ever imagined. If you’re short on time or space, a 4×4 garden is proof that you don’t need more—you just need to grow smarter.
Ready to Grow More in 2025?
If you’ve ever felt like you don’t have enough space to garden I’m here to prove you wrong—and to show you how to grow MORE than ever before. Join the waitlist today and be the first to know when my No Fuss Gardening Community is open. Let’s make 2025 your best gardening year yet!
Happy Gardening
Karen
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