Nice.
drying tomatoes is not that hard. I tried it the first time last year and they were awesome.
did that with the many cherries we have each year squeezing the juicy interior between two fingers and they dried in no time.
as for spacing between plants, I also look at nature for advice. imitating nature makes more sense to me and plants seem to be happier close together rather then spaced like soldiers. they actually mutually help among them under the surface and visually, like you said, it is way nicer.
thank you for sharing. enjoy Spring !