Vegetable gardens are usually designed in one of two ways: row cropping or a bed system.

1. Row Cropping

Row cropping involves planting the vegetables in a single row, with a path between each one offering access to all the plants. Although this allows easy access between individual rows for feeding, watering and weeding, it is a very inefficient use of land, with much of the soil area used for footpaths rather than vegetable plants.

2. The Bed System

A bed system usually involves planting the crops in wide bands, generally 30-120 cm (1-4 ft) across. This method reduces the amount of area needed for paths, which may be made from soil, grass, concrete, bark, stones, brick or any other suitable material. The centre of the bed should be reached easily from the path so that all work may be done without walking on the soil. High yields may be achieved by growing plants with even spacing, as this makes the best use of available space and reduces competition between plants.

A variation of the bed system is to divide the garden into small beds (typically 1.2 m (4 ft) square), further subdivided into 30 cm (1 ft) squares. Each square is planted with 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants, depending on the size of the mature plant.