There. I’ve gone and done it. I’ve ripped out my nicely laid semicircular brick garden path in my plot.

In its place I have begun a straight-as-an-arrow path. A perpendicular walk will cut the plot into four nice and tidy quadrants. Ripping up bricks, laying them down. I’m actually quite excited about it.

I didn’t start off last Saturday with this grand rearrangement anywhere on my to-do list. Sure, I thought about it back in January, toyed with the idea of going back to basics. I had been meaning to put pencil to paper and sketch out this year’s garden, arranging the lettuces here, placing the carrots there. But the idea tickled the back of my brain and stayed there.

When the meteorologist predicted sunny skies and 70F (in March!) for the weekend, I just had to get out into the garden and plant something. So, I took my bag of gardening tools and my packet of spinach seeds and headed out for my community garden plot. And that tickling little thought slammed full-speed into the front of my brain. A naked plot of earth. If I wanted to make a new path, it was going to happen then and there.

Benefits of a straight garden path

Why move a perfectly good and interestingly shaped path? Two reasons. First, the water source happens to be directly across from my plot. Walking down the semicircular path, some plant was always getting whacked with the hose as I made my turns. Now, straight up and down the path, no one gets hurt.

And my second reason: orderliness. Before, my veggie garden never had any rhyme or reason. I planted a few tomatoes here, I squeezed in some squash over there. Problem is, you dont just squeeze in squash. If you do, it squeezes out whatever you planted it near. I am not doing that again.

So, to restore order, or rather to implement some order for the very first time, I’m planting in rows. This new arrangement will help me keep to a plan of succession planting. Rows of spinach will be replaced by rows of peppers to be replaced by rows of winter greens. That kind of thing.

It’ll also help me pay closer attention to how the crops are progressing. A willy-nilly layout was, frankly, distracting. Rows will help me focus and assess if one variety is performing or producing more and better than another.

Companion planting in rows

Planting in rows doesn’t mean complete and total separation of the crops. I will certainly take advantage of the shade cast by tomatoes for growing some mid-summer lettuce that doesnt like the heat and intense sun. And I’ll do some other companion planting, as well. I’ll make adjustments as the season progresses.

The new plan does require me to move my strawberries, which are growing randomly throughout the garden. And I have yet to figure out how to plant around those two monstrous rhubarb plants. However, I have some time. Last week’s 70 and sunny has been replaced with this weekend’s 20s and sunny. That’s New England for you.