{"id":50098,"date":"2023-02-27T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/?p=50098"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:48:09","slug":"mapping-your-raised-garden-beds-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/mapping-your-raised-garden-beds-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Bird Series: Start Mapping Your Raised Garden Beds Now for an Easy Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many gardeners put off planning until the last minute or don\u2019t do it all. While it\u2019s possible to improvise and still reap a bountiful harvest, planning your garden can make a world of difference. Planning ahead allows you to take advantage of companion planting, crop rotation, and a harvest schedule\u2014all of which can reduce your workload and increase your yields. Here are some great ways to get a head start on planning your raised beds, and benefit from companion planting!<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Use Space Wisely in Your Raised Beds<\/b><\/h3>\n

The first thing to consider is how to use the space in your raised beds. Do you want one sprawling pumpkin plant to take up all of your garden? Or, would you prefer <\/span>tightly-spaced<\/span><\/a><\/span> salad greens that give you a continual harvest? The main questions to ask are: what are the plants you want to grow, how much space do they need, and where can you grow them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep in mind that some vegetables, like pole beans and indeterminate tomatoes, can climb upwards, freeing up space below, and squash can be trained to grow outwards onto the <\/span>lawn<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span> Also, <\/span>remember to rotate your crops from year to year, so you\u2019re not continuously growing them in the same spot in your garden.<\/span> This makes them more resilient against pests and gives them access to fresh nutrients in a new area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Plan for Multiple Harvests in a Raised Bed\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Some garden vegetables, like kale, zucchini, Swiss chard, and tomatoes, offer a continual harvest once they start producing. Others\u2014including lettuce, spinach, radishes, and beets\u2014have a short growing period and a window when they\u2019re ready to eat. With 30 to 60 days of growing time, you can replant them several times throughout the season. <\/span>So, if you want a continual harvest of these crops, it\u2019s wise to plan successive plantings through the season<\/span>, e.g., one batch of these crops every 2-3 weeks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"companion<\/b><\/h3>\n

How to Plan Your Garden for Companion Planting\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Another huge upper hand in planning your garden is to take advantage of friendship among your plants, or what is officially called, <\/span>companion planting<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>These companionships involve anything from repelling pests, to providing shade, and fixing nutrients in the soil, among other benefits.<\/span> Here are some relationships to use when planning your raised garden beds:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beets<\/b> grow well alongside brassicas, bush beans, garlic, lettuce, and onions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Broccoli<\/b> does well with oregano (which repels pests,) and alongside beets, celery, lettuce, chamomile, and potatoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cabbage<\/b> is friends with nasturtiums, garlic, and sage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carrots<\/b> thrive alongside chives, leeks, onions, peas, radishes, rosemary, and sage; but they don\u2019t jive with other members of the carrot family, such as dill, coriander, and celery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cucumbers<\/b> grow well near beans, borage, dill, lettuce, nasturtiums, oregano, radish, and sunflowers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kale<\/b> thrives alongside companions of the onion family, which repel common pests like flea beetles, cabbage loopers, and aphids.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lettuce<\/b> is happy with chives, onions, oregano, peas, and radishes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Onions<\/b> are powerful companions that protect many plants against pests, including beets, cabbage, carrots, chard, kale, lettuce, strawberry, and tomatoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tomatoes\u2019<\/b> most famous companion is basil, which helps improve the flavor of the fruit. They also grow well alongside asparagus, borage, calendula, dill, garlic, nasturtium, onion, parsley, and thyme.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peas<\/b> grow better when planted near alyssum, carrots, chives, lettuce, mint, radish, spinach, and turnips; but onions close by can stunt the growth of peas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peppers<\/b> thrive surrounded by pest-protecting <\/span>herbs<\/span><\/a><\/span> like basil, marjoram, onions, and oregano.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Potatoes<\/b> increase their bounty near beans, and benefit from the protection of calendula, horseradish, garlic, oregano, and catmint.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spinach<\/b> benefits from the shade of peas and beans and the pest-repelling presence of cilantro, oregano, and rosemary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Winter squash, zucchini, and pumpkins<\/b> benefit from the presence of buckwheat, calendula, nasturtiums, and oregano which either deter pests or attract predatory insects to reduce pest populations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re aware of these mutually-beneficial relationships, you can orchestrate your plantings to help your vegetables thrive and reduce their resilience against pests. The list above is by no means exhaustive, and we encourage you to research specific plants if you want to learn more about their best companions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember to rotate your crops from year to year, so you\u2019re not continuously growing them in the same spot in your garden.<\/span> This makes them more resilient against pests and gives them access to fresh nutrients in a new area.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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What Plants Should Not Be Planted Next to Each Other in a Raised Bed?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

There are far more <\/span>friends<\/span><\/a><\/span> than foes among plants, but still, some partnerships just don\u2019t work out. Tomatoes and potatoes, which are from the same family, compete for common resources when planted together, as do carrots, dill, celery, and other members of the carrot family. Members of the onion family\u2014including onions, leeks, garlic, and shallots\u2014will stunt the growth of peas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, keep in mind that planting a lot of a single plant in one raised garden bed is like offering a buffet for any pests that feed on it. The same happens when you plant many vegetables of the same family, like brassicas, in one area\u2014together they all attract the same pests. In general, remember to mix your plants in your raised beds to create more resilience against invading bugs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"newly<\/b><\/h3>\n

How to Map Your Raised Garden Beds<\/b><\/h3>\n

With all of this information, you have the knowledge to create crop maps for your raised beds. Both a diagram and a planting <\/span>calendar<\/span><\/a><\/span> will come in handy to orchestrate your optimum planting design and schedule. Even with this plan, the gardening season will still throw some curveballs at you, and you\u2019ll likely have to improvise. But even though your plans may change, it\u2019s still essential to have a plan A from the beginning!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"raised<\/a><\/p>\n

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For any more tips on <\/span>companion planting in your raised garden<\/span><\/a>, feel free to visit our garden centers in Chicagoland! <\/span><\/p>\n

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Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago\u2019s premier garden center and nursery.<\/span><\/i><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many gardeners put off planning until the last minute or don\u2019t do it all. While it\u2019s possible to improvise and still reap a bountiful harvest, planning your garden can make a world of difference. Planning ahead allows you to take advantage of companion planting, crop rotation, and a harvest schedule\u2014all of which can reduce your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":50104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[971,977],"tags":[108,109,1929,1931,1930,1226,1386,1933,1932,1928,1927,1446],"class_list":["post-50098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","category-vegetables-herbs","tag-bloomingdale-garden-center","tag-carpentersville-garden-center","tag-companion-planting-raised-garden","tag-mapping-a-raised-garden-bed","tag-multiple-harvests-in-a-raised-bed","tag-platt-hill-nursery","tag-platt-hill-nursery-chicago","tag-raised-garden-bed-plan","tag-raised-garden-layout","tag-raised-gardens","tag-starting-raised-garden-beds","tag-what-is-companion-planting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65752,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50098\/revisions\/65752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platthillnursery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}