aesthetics or functionality?

Steve and I are finally putting in a veggie/fruit garden. We've been talking about it for a few years now, so I'm excited to finally get it in. The problem is that we can't decide on aesthetics or functionality. So I'm asking all of you...which would you pick?

One option is to make 2 triangles. They look super cool. I could walk in-between them to harvest and I could separate the items a bit better. The bummer is that the total footage would be smaller, the beds would be harder to make and harder to put up and draw back a border of chicken wire.

The other option would be to make a simple, but large rectangle. It would hold tons more, would be easier to make, easier to border and did I mention hold a tone more? The only 2 problems would be that it would be harder to harvest the middle of the bed, not too bad...but harder, and the biggest thing is that it wouldn't look as cool as 2 triangles. It's the bigger option which truly is best...but it just doesn't look as cool...

what do y'all think,
aesthetics or functionality?


Well, a couple hours later and I read this from a gardeners blog....but why do I still want the aesthetics??

Last year we designed, built, and grew our first vegetable garden in our new home. The garden was made of two large beds that were subdivided into 3 smaller conjoined beds in an "L" shape. Unfortunately the vegetable garden design was built more around aesthetics than around function. Since then I've realized something: When designing vegetable gardens think function first aesthetics second.

Comments

SnoWhite said…
I vote for food production -- functionality :) But that's just the practical side in me...
mine's in a rectangle. the best thing i did was to put lanscaping fabric down first too to keep the weeds down and to keep the soil moist and warm. the first few years i didnt have the landscaping fabric and last year was the first year.. it made me realize i should have done it a long time ago. :)
ShannaKay said…
a great book to look into is the "square foot gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. has planting charts and great recommendations :) i would totally go for the functionality of a garden.

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