Garden experiments

Hi, what gardening "rules" or experiments have you done, that go against tradition and what was the outcome? I have planted watermelon and tomatoes in the same raised garden bed. So far no problems and they seem to be growing just fine.

Good experiment with the tomatoes and watermelon. I've never planted them together purposefully, but did have a tomato volunteer with a watermelon and they did just fine - a matter of directing the watermelon a bit to ensure it didn't strangle the tomato.

Excellent question / topic. I would say that I've tested out most of the rules over the years. The biggest "rule" that I continue to break is spacing. I find that I'm usually planting things a lot closer together and most seem to do just fine. I've also been playing around with planting a few more items in shade (such as tomatoes) to see what happens with them. So far they do produce, just not as quickly. The plant does last longer though because of not getting fried in the Arizona summer.

Any other "rules" you are breaking?

I do have a trellis set up for the melons to grow up and over the tomatoes. I also have sunflowers planted to create some shade. I have 8 varieties of tomatoes in 4 different spots in the yard to figure out which variety does best in which spot. I'm still figuring out the gardening as we just bought this house a year ago today. So I am making a lot of mistakes learning as I grow. At first I was just so anxious to plant things I literally threw seeds everywhere. Now I'm being more intentional and planned but still a bit chaotic. I have my dwarf lemon planted with Greg's mist flower, poppies, calendula, zinnias, thyme, oregano and hollyhocks surrounding it. In the west facing full blaze AZ sun...They all seem to be doing ok 🤷‍♀️ backyard is free for all experiment until shade fills in with new trees and front yard is more rules based.