Planning:  Every book I’ve read says to plan out your garden before you plant.  So I did.  Though I didn’t take measurements, figuring let it be rough in case it has to change.  And things changed.  We had enough dirt for very tall beds (8-12” tall), and the beds are long and wide (13 ft long x 4 ft wide).  The width is just a tad wide for me, as I really have to stretch to get to the middle.  Matt can reach fine, though.  Also I expected to have 4 rows of 3 beds each.  But the last row hits the septic system, so we ended up with one row that has 2 large beds.

Things to consider:  future crop rotation, sunlight, wind direction, water needs, size of mid-sized and final growth, access (eg, every book I’ve read says put herbs and flowers close to the door, and plants that need the least care further away).  Also SEASON:  time it takes to get from planting to maturation, date it needs to be planted, etc.  And whether or not you can still get seeds from the seed store - I didn’t plan for that one, so the bed compositions changed a bit.  And finally, we’re finding that you should definitely stagger plantings as much as possible, so you don’t have a gluttony of carrots or squash all at once, and then none.