Gardening for Busy People

Have your Garden & Eat it too!

Most of us are so busy these days, yet we also still want fresh healthy produce.

Is it possible to have both?

When you’re busy it helps to make your garden as maintenance free as possible. It also helps to choose crops that don’t need frequent harvesting or baby-ing. Here are some gardening tips for busy people that still wish to garden.

Mulch mulch mulch!

Mulching is an amazing way to reduce the weeding time you need to do in your garden. By reducing the amount of light that can get to the weed seeds below they won’t germinate. It also helps to build fantastic soil and has better water retention for less watering.

Source: Fix.com Blog

Source: Fix.com Blog

Choose your Crops Carefully

Some crops need harvesting frequently like beans, peas or baby tomatoes. Other crops you plant once and wait for 3-5 months for them to be ready. Choose crops that need less fussy care, most of the greens are easy to grow whereas tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn benefit from a boost every couple of weeks. Don’t over plant your crops too (or if you do share the harvest as you’re likely too busy to preserve).

Fix has a rough idea of how many plants/person below and I’ve talked about it before in ‘Can you grow enough food to feed a family?’

In my garden planning book I also discuss growing food for the busy household.

Hire a gardener or trade for weeding

While it’s not ideal to have to pay someone to weed your garden because it’s not cost effective, sometimes if you get too busy and you’d still like a garden (& fresh food!) this is an option.

Better yet is to work out a trade with someone! Whether you’re trading babysitting time, some of your crops or even your work skills, trading is a wonderful and old fashioned way to create community.

Original article and pictures take http://www.familyfoodgarden.com/gardening-for-busy-people/ site