Have fun with it: garden experiments for a busy season

I'm not an expert gardener. I'm a home gardener in zone 8a with a preschooler and a full plate, and I treat every planting as an experiment: you succeed or you grow. Here are the experiments I'd suggest to anyone.

Spread your squash around

Squash vine borers are going to find some of your squash. I've stopped trying to win that fight plant by plant. Instead, plant squash in three or four different spots and sow a second round in midsummer. Whatever survives keeps you in zucchini.

Split a seed packet

Sow half in one bed and half in another, or half now and half in two weeks, and see which wins. It costs nothing, and you learn something about your own yard that no seed packet can tell you.

Scatter instead of rows

I gardened in square-foot beds for years. This year I switched to chaos sowing: put in the big plants first, then scatter a mix of carrot, lettuce, radish and flower seed in the gaps. Less soil sits bare, fewer weeds come up, and it's honestly more fun. The carrots were the best I've grown.

Sow a little, often

A short row of beans or lettuce every 3 weeks beats one big sowing that all comes in at once and then stops.

More ideas

• Plant extra. There's an old farmers' rhyme: "One for the rook, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow." My version is one for me, one for the bugs and one for the weather.
• Grow one new thing a season. Okra, a purple carrot, a sunflower taller than the fence.
• Let some go to seed. Lettuce, cilantro, dill and calendula drop seed and come back on their own. Free plants.
• Give up on a spot, not on gardening. If something fails twice in the same place, put something else there.
• Write one line. A quick note at the end of the season is enough to remember what worked.

A messy bed that feeds you is a good bed.