How to Lay Out a Planting Bed

Damrosch starts by drawing a wide metal rake over the planting area (in this case, a slightly raised bed in her vegetable garden where she wants to grow lettuce). She removes stones and debris from the top inch or so of the soil, creating a flat surface to trace out her planting grid.

Using the width of the rake as her guide, Damrosch lays out lines of string attached to wooden stakes in the soil as a guide for her rows of seedlings.

She then attaches short pieces of hose or plastic tubing to the metal rake, counting the tines so that the hoses are spaced equally.

These tubes are then dragged lengthwise down the planting bed to create furrows. In this case, she has adjusted her spacing for heads of a second, late-season planting of lettuce.

Starting at one end, she then drags the tubes crosswise across the loose soil surface to create visible planting grid of long and short lines.

The bed is now ready for planting. Mature summer vegetables are in the adjacent beds.