Raised-bed Gardening Questions

[reliquary]

I scavenged four railroad ties that are in really good shape.  Using some odds'n'ends of treated lumber, ground cloth, and compost/clean dirt, I now have a raised-bed planter two ties long and four feet wide.
 
So, my question is, "Now, what do I plant, this coming spring?"
 
I live in lower Zone 8 East Texas.  I usually grow peas, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and honeydew melons, in about 1,000 sq ft.  The raised-bed thingy is in addition to my usual site.
 
Ideas and experiences, please?

[Drilling Man]

  Rainse what ever you want in it, i have tomatoes, mellons, flowere and other veggies in mine,
 

 
  It works out very good.
 
  DM

[bilmac]

I have never used one but I thought they were best suited to smaller plants like onions, carrots, lettuce ect.

[reliquary]

My intent was to find out if there are things that lend themselves to the raised bed moreso than the normal methods.  I grew a few strawberries in a 4' x 4' bed last year and they seemed to do better than just in a row in the garden.
 
I grow greens (mustard, turnip, collards) by planting them in otherwise unused areas...where I've burned out a stump, in the 90-degree corners of the fences, between grapevines, etc.  So I probably won't bother with them in the raised bed.

[longwinters]

I'm going to all raised beds (live in Michigan's Upper Penninsula)  I grow tomatoes, broccoli, onions, carrots, green beans, blue berries, squash and even my grape vines.
 
They have no limits.
 
Long

[keith44]

I use mine for carrots, radishes and onions.  Really you can plant anything you want to there.  It is a great way to start an early crop, or grow a crop that has different ph needs than what you normally grow.

[Winter Hawk]

My Mom had them, she raised everything in them.  They were about 18" apart so she could lay a plank across between them to sit on for weeding, etc.  I think Dad made them out of 2" x 12" lumber screwed together on the ends.  They varied in length but I believe averaged about 12' long and 4' wide.  I'm thinking of doing the same with our garden now.

The plank she sat on had cleats at the ends to keep them from sliding off the bed side boards.  We poured concrete between the beds so we didn't have to weed there.    The beds for pole beans had a post in the middle at either end, a 2 x 2 across the posts and wire run from one side of the bed, over the 2 x 2 and down to the other side of the bed.  The plants climbed up the wires, and were easy to remove at the end of the season.

-WH-