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.

Sounds like a great approach, similar to what I did when I first moved to Arizona.

Even with so many years of gardening, a lot of mistakes will still be made in a new space, simply because the conditions are different.

For shade, might I suggest castor beans. It of course depends on your situation: if you have pets or small children, I would not recommend them as they are toxic. They can provide quick shade and help the space. Doesn't seem to take much to get them to grow quickly, and they get through the heat relatively well. I have some that are in full west sun that are thriving just fine and made it through a few summers.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'm not familiar with castor bean so I appreciate the tip. No kids and the dogs are backyard only, so this sounds perfect for my front yard. My husband's surprised me with some AZ native wildflower seeds, which I'm pretty sure it's not the ideal time for planting but gonna do a little test spot with some to see what happens.

Castor beans are not for everyone, but just thinking that if you are needing some fast shade and get some plants growing - just a thought and something to consider.
Wildflowers though sound even better. It is getting a bit late in the season at this point for planting, though I'm always about testing things and seeing if an experiment will work. Otherwise wait to see if we have the monsoon this year, that would be a great time for the wildflowers.

Not that anyone asked, but so far the tomatoes with the melons are going hood. Unfortunately, a squirrel like creature stripped them clean last night before I could harvest anything 😭 I got a bunch of leafless plant nubs of tomatoes, melons and pumpkins now. I only know this cause I saw it in my garden yesterday afternoon and the dogs chased it off. Went to water this morning and wow that guy had a feast.

"squirrel-like creature" made me laugh 🐿️😂 but I hope you can beat it to some tasty harvests! 🤞 We've had such bad rodent issues this year too 😭

I was liking the sound of castor bean until I read about the issues for folks with asthma like me 🫤 I've been looking for fast biomass plants myself and aside from the moringa I've also come across Leucaena leucocephala, aka the river tamarind - one of the lead trees from Southern Mexico and Central America.

This is a subfamily of mimosa, so they're legumes which fix nitrogen and are known for being one of the fastest biomass trees for building soil, forage, even for lumber. Sounds like they grow insanely quick!

I know the Texas permaculturists talk about tepeguaje, which is their local lead tree (different species) in the same genus. I assume they plant it for similar reasons.

Just like moringa they will die back to the roots when frost comes, so they'll never become a true tree in our climate unless you fully protect them from frost. but if you need shade quick for just one year, or want a lot of biomass with nitrogen for chop and drop, they sound to me like they fit that bill.

Haven't tried yet, but I plan to and will report back.

Good luck against that critter! I'm doing more fence work today to help with ours lol 🫪

I'm glad you mentioned that asthma, spect,the next door neighbor's kid has it, so I might skip that. I only saw it from behind as it ran off and I've never actually seen one before. It was fat like, well fed cat size. I'm interested to hear how your experiment goes.