What gardening "rule" turned out to be completely wrong on your property?

One of the biggest gardening myths I believed for years was that you had to till your veg beds. It was standard advice from any gardener. Then I started watching Charles Dowding’s YouTube videos on no-dig gardening. The more I learnt about no dig/till, the more it made sense, so I decided to try it in our veg garden.

Since switching to no-till, my plants are healthier, yields have improved, soil is (surprisingly) easier to work, and I’m spending far less time preparing beds. More worms too.

It made me realize how many “rules” are just habits we never question. Now I’m curious - what gardening myth or advice turned out to be completely wrong in your garden? What did you stop doing, or what worked even though you were told it wouldn’t?

I’d love to hear your experiences.

Plant spacing and rows have been my biggest change up from our neighbors. My gardens looks less and less like a veggie garden every year as I allow volunteers to pop up while planting stuff closer together. It keeps out weeds and helps shade the soil to prevent the sun from stealing all the soil moisture. As a con it dose make harvesting some things a bit more challenging in the deeper beds. So my new beds are only 2 feet wide so its easy to see into the jungle to find the ripe veggies.

I used to take online gardening advice for specific USDA zones as gospel but have more recently learned more and more about utilizing microclimates. Techniques such as sun scoops and frost pockets can help you push the zone and grow things that might not normally grow in you area.

I have benefitted from making as much texture in the landscape as possible, as opposed to seemingly everyone else around who makes a flat garden. Hills, ridges, hugelkulturs, they drain and aerate the often waterlogged soil while encouraging diversity and fertility, and the ditches between them work to soak water into the ground.

This topic reminds of the saying  "The problem is the solution."

Bill Mollison said, "The Problem is the solution. Everything, works both ways. It is only how we see things that makes them advantageous or not."

https://permies.com/t/162022/permaculture/Solution

Plant spacing was mine. I used to measure everything out religiously, exact distances on the seed packet, neat rows, the lot. Then I started just cramming things closer together and letting them compete a bit. Yields went up, weeds went down because nothing could get light, and I stopped losing moisture to bare soil between rows. The seed packets are written for monoculture farms, not backyard beds.

I know this thread is a bit old, but I'm curious if anyone has experimented with companion planting and noticed unexpected benefits or issues. I've been trying it out, and while it's supposed to deter pests, I find that some unexpected plant pairings also lead to more flavorful veggies! Anyone else have surprise results?

My biggest adjustments come when I change locations and climates....quite a few "rules" that applied in the previous location didn't fly in the new one.  For instance in California, most mulch was a hard no, especially using paper or cardboard.  It never breaks down....readable type on stuff after three years, it's a fire hazard, and it becomes a habitat for huge numbers of pests like earwigs, millipedes, and snails.  I learned to put my organic matter into, or under, the soil.  And of course when I lived in Bangladesh, you make a plastic cover over a seedbed not to keep the cold out, but to keep the rain from washing them away! Drainage and raised beds are essential for most ordinary veggies.

Yes, my carrots have an oniony, beet sweet smell now. And my tomato’s basil savory scent gave a chef friend of mine 10 minutes of sniffing my fruit before he said a word.  Then he just “what are these”? The companion planting really has many possibilities.

"Full sun" recommendation for most trees and vegetables means it's a spot with full afternoon shade at my location. Even some cultivars of full sun classics like grapes and figs struggle in my conditions.
It looks that the full sun is the Midwestern or West/Central European sun.
I have noticed that morning shade/afternoon sun will have the same effect like full sun - I have transplanted my blackberries and roses from full sun to morning-and-noon shade location. They got more frequent irrigation. They got scorched the same as in full sun location. I may try to transplant them again to 90% shade spot.

I need to use this translation for vegetables:
full sun = afternoon shade
partial sun = complete shade
shade = not for me

Some trees would gain from having half day shade, but it' not an option for me.