Of all the garden designs I’ve created over the years, there’s one I find myself repeating again and again—for clients, friends, and in my own backyard. It’s four raised beds arranged in a square (two in front, two in back), tied together with two arch trellises that form a cozy garden doorway. Simple, right? But something magical happens when you step inside this space. You’re not just walking into a garden—you’re stepping into a little green world of your own.

Why This Raised Bed Garden Setup Just Works

This 2x2 layout makes the most of your space while keeping everything within easy reach. You can walk right into the center and harvest greens from one side, snip herbs from another, and never feel cramped or overwhelmed. The arch trellises create height and drama (not to mention a perfect spot for pole beans or flowering vines), while also giving the garden structure and a sense of arrival. Whether you’re planting your very first seed or you’ve been growing for years, this setup feels doable—and it always delivers.

A Garden Room You'll Never Want to Leave

There’s something about the way the trellises arch overhead and the beds hug the space that makes you want to linger. It’s an intimate setup that invites you in, asks you to slow down, and reminds you that growing food can be both beautiful and grounding. If you’ve been dreaming of a raised bed garden that feels like a retreat, this might just be your new favorite layout too.

Let’s Talk About the Raised Bed Garden Layout

This garden isn’t just functional—it’s thoughtful from the ground up. The design starts with four raised beds, each one measuring 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and standing 2 feet tall. These beds create a strong, balanced frame for the garden space, and their generous height makes tending and harvesting feel easy on the body (no more crouching and straining to pick your kale). They’re arranged in a square—two in front, two behind—leaving a roomy center path that feels like the heart of the garden.

The Modern Arch Trellises Tie it All Together

Connecting the two front beds to the two back ones are two modern steel arch trellises. Positioned directly over the center walkway, these arches do more than support climbing plants—they create a doorway into the garden. A place to walk under, pause, and look up as beans or cucumbers reach toward the sky. It turns a practical garden into a space with presence, structure, and just a little bit of wonder.

Details that Make the Garden Feel Finshed

To frame the entire space, steel edging surrounds the garden area, giving it a clean, polished look and helping to define it as something intentional. Inside, 2-foot by 2-foot square stepping stones create a soft, rhythmic path between the beds. These wide stones make walking through the garden feel grounding and easy, even after a rain. You’re not just stepping into a garden—you’re stepping into a thoughtfully designed space that invites you to slow down, grow something beautiful, and enjoy every step of the process.

A Little Bit of Everything, Everywhere in this Raised Bed Garden

One of the things I love most about this garden layout is how every bed becomes its own little ecosystem. Instead of dedicating one bed to just tomatoes or another to only herbs, we pack each one with a variety of flowers, herbs, leaves, roots, and fruiting plants. This kind of intensive planting makes the most of every square inch—and it also turns each raised bed into a tiny, thriving world full of color, scent, and flavor.

A Garden that Bursts with Life

In one bed, you might find kale and rainbow chard growing right next to marigolds and sweet alyssum. Nasturtiums spill over the edge while thyme and oregano tuck themselves in low between rows of beets and carrots. In another bed, tomatoes reach for the sky along the trellis while basil and parsley fill in the space below. Every plant has a purpose—whether it’s attracting pollinators, improving the soil, or simply making the space look and feel more alive.

Your Garden Shouldn't Be Boring

Planting this way—layered, abundant, and diverse—means your garden is never boring.

No matter where you look, there’s something interesting happening: a bee dipping into a flower, a cucumber vine wrapping itself around the arch, or a pop of new growth peeking through the soil. This layout brings joy and discovery to even the smallest moments in the garden, and it reminds you that your raised beds don’t have to be divided and overly tidy. When you mix things up and let them grow together, magic happens.

Great Raised Bed Gardens Start with a Patch of Grass

Like so many great gardens, this one began as nothing more than a simple stretch of lawn. Just grass—flat, green, and pretty uninspiring. But I could already see it: four beautiful cedar raised beds, a couple of modern arch trellises, and plants growing in every direction. I recommended the Four Garden Classic layout (two beds in front, two in back, with paths between), because it's my favorite. It creates just the right balance between form and function, and it always ends up feeling like a little garden getaway—right in your own yard.

Clearing the Space & Laying the Groundwork

The first thing I did was remove the grass using a sod cutter. If you've never used one before, just imagine a tool that slices under the roots and peels up the lawn like a carpet. It’s satisfying and kind of addictive. Once the grass was cleared, I laid down weed barrier cloth to help prevent anything from growing back. But if I’m being honest? If I could do it again, I’d skip the fabric and go with brown contractor’s paper instead. It breaks down naturally, keeps weeds at bay long enough for your plants to get ahead, and it’s a lot friendlier to the soil.

Pathways, Beds & Irrigation

Next came the stepping stones—those 2’ x 2’ square pavers that make such a difference. Laying them first meant I could walk the space easily as I worked, and later on, they became the garden’s natural rhythm. Then we had irrigation lines pulled up into the center of each future bed.

Trust me: if you’re building a garden from scratch, setting up irrigation from the start is a gift to your future self. Once the lines were in place, we set the cedar raised beds—each one 4’ x 8’ and 2’ tall—into position, got them leveled, and filled them to the brim with rich, organic garden soil. It always feels like a turning point when the soil goes in—like the garden is ready to grow.

The Finishing Touch: The Arches

Last but definitely not least, we added the modern steel arch trellises. They connected the beds across the walkway and gave the whole space height, structure, and a little drama. The moment they went up, the garden transformed. It wasn’t just a few beds in a yard anymore—it was a space. A destination. A place to grow, gather, and enjoy the process.