Two years ago I decided to play around with the way I planted my vegetable garden. I designed a simple diamond pattern for our small patch, with a central diamond in the middle and then expanding outwards. Just a lot of triangles, really. I staked it out and used twine to map out the pattern. This was a little excessive, but I need visual help sometimes, and it kept things straight and orderly, and helped me to keep track of where I was planting things. As you can see from the top picture, the pattern looked really pretty when the garden was coming in! Later on in the season it was harder to see unless you really looked closely, as the plants grew big and bushy.
This year I am going back to this 2009 plan, on request of my oldest, Jason, who thought it was really pretty. I look forward to seeing the little seedlings popping up in a pretty pattern. Vegetable gardening doesn't have to be utilitarian, play around with different designs. You don't have to plant in long straight rows, try square foot gardening or a french potager style. Add flowers to your vegetables as well, planting nasturtiums and marigolds not only looks pretty, they help control pests in the garden. A row of sunflowers on one side of your garden is spectacular and also acts as a wind screen later in the season. My uncle plants his cucumbers at the foot of his sunflowers, and they climb up the sunflowers as support and are cooled by their big shady leaves.
Try something creative in your vegetable patch, there is beauty to be found even among the beans!
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