A traditional, productive row vegetable garden with wide walkways and companion planting.
Have room for a larger vegetable garden? This 34 × 40-foot row vegetable garden plan uses long planting rows and blocks to grow tomatoes, corn, beans, greens, root crops, melons, herbs, and more.
The layout is based on a real gardener’s successful backyard garden and is best for gardeners ready to manage a larger plot. Use the plan, plant quantities, and spacing as a starting point, then use your local planting dates to determine when each crop goes in.
Quick Plan Overview
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Garden Type | Traditional row vegetable garden |
| Difficulty Level | Intermediate |
| Sun Exposure | Full sun |
| Seasonality | Spring through fall |
| Soil Type | Rich, well-drained garden soil |
| Watering Needs | Regular, consistent moisture |
| Special Features | Long planting rows, wide walkways, and optional reusable weed barrier |
| Garden Size | 34 × 40 feet |
| Fun Fact | This size can produce plenty of vegetables for fresh eating, preserving, and sharing. |
Row Vegetable Garden Layout (34 × 40 Feet)
This 34 × 40-foot plan uses long planting rows and wide walkways to organize a large mix of vegetables, herbs, and flowers while keeping the garden easy to access for planting, watering, and harvesting.
Want to customize this layout? Use the Almanac Garden Planner to adjust crop spacing, quantities, or plant choices for your own garden.
Plant List
The quantities and spacing below match the 34 × 40-foot garden plan above.
| Plant | Quantity | Spacing |
|---|---|---|
| Asparagus (‘Jersey Knight’, ‘Purple Passion’) | 8 | 18 in. apart; 18 in. between rows |
| Basil | 2 | 6 in. apart; 10 in. between rows |
| Bush snap beans (‘Big Kahuna’) | 40 | 6 in. apart; 14 in. between rows |
| Beets | 68 | 4 in. apart; 8 in. between rows |
| Bok choy | 13 | 8 in. apart; 10 in. between rows |
| Summer red cabbage (‘Ruby Perfection’) | 6 | 18 in. apart; 22 in. between rows |
| Cantaloupe | 8 | 35 in. apart; 35 in. between rows |
| Carrots | 68 | 4 in. apart; 6 in. between rows |
| Chili peppers | 25 | 12 in. apart; 16 in. between rows |
| Cilantro | 2 | 6 in. apart; 10 in. between rows |
| Corn | 51 | 12 in. apart; 18 in. between rows |
| Cucumber (‘Bush Pickle’) | 24 | 24 in. apart; 24 in. between rows |
| Dill | 1 | 6 in. apart; 10 in. between rows |
| Garlic | 1 | 4 in. apart; 10 in. between rows |
| Kale | 16 | 14 in. apart; 14 in. between rows |
| Lemongrass | 3 | 24 in. apart; 35 in. between rows |
| Crisphead lettuce | 18 | 8 in. apart; 12 in. between rows |
| Buttercrunch lettuce | 10 | 8 in. apart; 12 in. between rows |
| ‘Igloo’ lettuce | 42 | 8 in. apart; 12 in. between rows |
| Leaf lettuce | 80 | 4 in. apart; 6 in. between rows |
| Marigolds | 209 | 8 in. apart; 8 in. between rows |
| Onions | 119 | 4 in. apart; 8 in. between rows |
| Peas | 66 | 4 in. apart; 8 in. between rows |
| Maincrop potatoes (‘Yukon Gold’) | 30 | 14 in. apart; 30 in. between rows |
| Spinach | 28 | 6 in. apart; 12 in. between rows |
| Strawberries (‘Ozark Beauty’) | 6 | 18 in. apart; 24 in. between rows |
| Sweet potatoes | 7 | 18 in. apart; 24 in. between rows |
| Swiss chard | 40 | 12 in. apart; 16 in. between rows |
| Large tomatoes (‘Beefsteak’, ‘Cherokee Purple’, ‘Martian Giant Slicer’, ‘Wisconsin 55’) | 20 | 18 in. apart; 24 in. between rows |
| Cherry tomatoes (‘Cherry Baby’) | 4 | 18 in. apart; 24 in. between rows |
| Watermelon (‘Sugar Baby’) | 8 | 35 in. apart; 35 in. between rows |
When should you plant? Planting dates vary by location. Use the Almanac Planting Calendar for local sowing and transplanting dates, and see our Vegetable Growing Guides for crop-by-crop instructions.
This layout provides enough produce for fresh eating and preserving—perfect for canning tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, or storing root crops.
How to Plant This Row Vegetable Garden
- Prepare the soil. Before planting, loosen the soil and add compost or other organic matter as needed. Good soil preparation is especially important in a garden this large.
- Plant in stages. Cool-season crops such as peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and beets can go in first. Wait until after your last frost and the soil has warmed before planting warm-season crops such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, corn, and melons.
- Keep the walkways open. The generous paths in this plan make it easier to move through a large garden for planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting without stepping into the growing rows.
- Choose a weed-control method. Kenny covered much of his garden with reusable weed barrier, cutting openings for the plants. This is optional, but it greatly reduced the amount of weeding he needed to do.
- Water along the rows. Drip irrigation or soaker hoses work especially well in a row garden, delivering water directly to the root zone while keeping foliage drier.
- Harvest regularly. A garden of this size can produce far more than you eat fresh, so plan ahead if you want to freeze, can, pickle, store, or share part of the harvest.
Not sure when to start? Use our Frost Dates Calculator to find your average last spring frost date.
Gardener Spotlight: Kenny’s 34×40 Garden
This plan comes from a real garden created by Kenny, who was new to gardening on this scale. He used the Almanac Garden Planner to work out plant spacing and timing, then adapted the garden as he learned what worked for him. Because of its size and the number of crops, we consider this an intermediate-level plan for most gardeners.
“This was my first large garden, and I never realized how much space each vegetable needs until I used the Garden Planner. I didn’t start any seeds indoors—I just planted everything outside according to the Planner’s timing guide.”
“I covered the whole garden with a weed barrier. It took some extra work in the spring, but after that, I had almost no weeding all summer—just a few plants that popped through the holes. In the fall, I rolled each sheet up, labeled it, and stored it for next year. Genius!”
“Our harvest was amazing—we canned spicy dill pickles, pickled beets, and lots of spaghetti sauce from our tomatoes. It was delicious and rewarding. At 55, I realized I have a green thumb! If I can do this, anyone can.”
More Garden Plans to Explore
- Backyard Vegetable Garden Plan — A more manageable in-ground layout using two 8 × 4-foot beds.
- 4×8 Vegetable Garden Layout for Beginners — A compact single-bed plan for gardeners just getting started.
- Raised-Bed Vegetable Garden Plan — A larger raised-bed option with organized planting areas and easy access.
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