How many raised beds do you need?

Why do you want a vegetable garden, and how much do you want to harvest? Once you know that, you can decide how many raised beds you need. That's probably fewer than you think.

*You can harvest a surprising amount from 24 squares.*

What sounds fun about having a vegetable garden?

Do you want one because:

you like being outside?
you want to do something fun with your children?
or is it purely about the harvest?

Harvesting early in spring from a raised bed: enough for a tasty salad — *Harvesting from your raised bed in spring*

What do you want to grow, and how much do you want to harvest?

Do you want:

fresh lettuce from your own garden every day?
to be completely self-sufficient?
or just a fun hobby and a regular harvest for a meal?

Not that one has to exclude the other: with a Makkelijke Moestuin, you can often make it all happen.

How many raised beds do you need for that?

Most people think a Makkelijke Moestuin hardly produces anything. But the opposite is true. Per square meter, a Makkelijke Moestuin even yields 5 times as much as a normal vegetable garden where vegetables grow in open soil.

Let me translate that into what you harvest from the raised beds:

With a 120 by 120 cm raised bed, you can provide 1 to 2 adults with fresh salad all season, with all the extras. Think herbs, little tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and beets.

Even for a large part of the winter if you want.

You can grow enough salad for much of the year in one raised bed — *Harvest salads all year round*

Add another raised bed and you can grow even more vegetables. Even some edible flowers if you like.

If you also want to freeze vegetables or regularly give some to family and friends, then you can think about a third raised bed.

For children, a smaller raised bed is plenty

For children up to about 11, count on fewer squares. Eight is usually more than enough.

Kids love having their own little vegetable garden. With a small raised bed, they can get started themselves. A 60 by 120 cm bed works well, or for the little ones even a single MM-Mini.

A child with a smaller Makkelijke Moestuin raised bed — *For children, count on fewer squares*

How many raised beds for a family?

That depends on how big your family is. And again: what do you want to harvest?

When I started with my Makkelijke Moestuin, there were four of us. My brother Arjen and I were 15 and 14 and ate more than my parents.

I started with four 120 by 120 cm raised beds. We harvested more than we could eat.

The fact that quite a few more raised beds came later was thanks to my mother. She went completely overboard with raised beds for strawberries, flowers, herbs, and raspberries.

Plan your vegetable garden and start small

Every now and then people say to me: "Easy for you to say, Jelle, you have a big garden. I don't have that much space!" But did you know you really don't need that?

Because if you plant one raised bed really well from the start - and keep it planted all year - you can harvest a lot from it.

In 2017, I harvested over EUR 230 from one single raised bed. In 2023, it was only a little less, even though the weather was bizarrely bad.

(Too) many raised beds

People often get so enthusiastic that they immediately start big.

*A large Makkelijke Moestuin with lots of raised beds*

That's great, of course, and it can work really well. But you can also have too many raised beds.

It's not about the amount of work, because that really isn't too bad. We maintain our 16 raised beds easily, in about an hour a week on average.

The issue is this:

People who set up more raised beds than they need often start treating them carelessly. They no longer plant according to the system, sow random vegetables, and don't immediately refill empty squares. Then a raised bed like that doesn't produce half of what it could.

One more reason to start small

If you make one raised bed and decide at the end of the year that gardening isn't for you, you can remove it in no time. If you start with 12 raised beds right away, that's a different story. A waste of material.

Although the chance that you'll get completely enthusiastic - just like I did - is much bigger.

You can also easily add a few MM-Minis to your vegetable garden. Ideal for the plants you don't quite have room for but would still love to grow.

You'll be amazed at how much you can harvest from a small vegetable garden with one or two raised beds or a few of those minis.

Want to start right away?

In the shop, you'll find different options: from small MM-Minis the size of one square to a super-deluxe MM-Hero with 16 squares, water reservoirs, and legs.

Next steps

Do you have a bit of an idea now? About what you want and how many raised beds you need?

Then you're ready for the next step: choosing your ideal spot: