pageta Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I want to do a vegetable garden this spring, but every past year it has always been a failure because I have small children and I don't get out there and tend to it like I should. Some years I kept up with the weeding, but I never had time to piddle around and figure out why things weren't growing or what bugs were eating them and stuff like that. DS is studying plants this spring and I would really like to do a garden again. But I don't want to do so much that I over-commit myself again. I have three children, one of them a baby. The boys will play in the back yard while I work in the garden, and I'm thinking the baby may be happy in a pack'n'play. Our current garden plot (established by previous owners) is about 35x25, I think. How much time would a plot like that take? A hour a day? More? Less? Help me out here - I really want to be successful this year. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I have a large garden and the only year it got enough attention, I mulched about 4- 6 inches thick with grass clippings til I couldn't see any dirt anywhere. That cut down 90% of the weeds and let me pay attention to things like suckers on the tomato plants. It also helped with watering because they didn't dry out as quickly and I didn't get as muddy when I worked in the garden. Then dh got a mulching lawnmower :glare: and now I can't keep up with the weeds at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We are just starting work on our garden now, for the same reasons. I think a lot of plants are seasonal, the sewing times are different so.... you might want to start small and then add until you feel completely overwhelmed! :lol: Okay, maybe stop before you get overwhelmed ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I was going to suggest starting with just a few plant varieties- maybe 5 easy growers- tomatoes, beans, cukes or zukes, parsley. basil. Or a salsa garden/ tomato sauce garden/pesto garden? Mulching between plants is really helpful- as soon as you get baby plants coming up, put clippings down. John Jeavens suggests light, spray watering once or even twice a day. We did that last year and had beans way past everyone else. Have fun! Nothing like making dinner from the garden after a day in the yard.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Not enough time, that's for sure. Weeding is easy with a hula hoe, so that doesn't take much time. I'd agree with the other posters, get some easy to grow, fairly low maintaince plants, and enlist the help of your kids. My kids pick snails and tomato worms for 5 cents each, so that helps a lot with the pest problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 25x35 is, IMO, probably going to take more than an hour a day. We can't mulch because slugs around here LOVE mulch & it just provides a habitat for them. So weeding & slug control are big issues. Getting the soil prepped, turned, etc in the spring would take probably a half day to a day or two. Depends how much you need to amend the soil. I like to prep it & then leave it for a couple weeks to see if any weeds sprout. Then weed & THEN seed/plant. If you can commit to going out every day or every 2nd day (rain or shine) & hoeing between your rows you can keep your weeds down. Unfortunately I like the look of messy kitchen gardens & hate planting in rows so I always end up with beds which are not easy to hoe.... I think in your position, I'd stick to only 3-4 varieties of plants (find out what grows well & easily in your area) and perhaps don't plant the entire thing. Section off a chunk of this large area for the kids & let them have their own garden in which they grow things or just dig & make holes & water the holes & get muddy (that's what my kids did when they were toddlers). I'd probably go with peas, beans, radishes, lettuce, pumpkins. Tomatoes are tricky here as we get blight from the rains but they're relatively easy to grow if you have a good climate. We used to have a 1000 sq ft community garden plot when dd was about 2. The first year we shared it with another couple. The next year we got our own 1000 sq ft. The following year my son was born. We kept it up for several years but in the end, it was just too much & we didn't want to spend every weekend on it. I'd say the 1000 sq ft was taking a minimum of 14h/week just to maintain. Just watering was a large undertaking..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We use the http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ method and spend almost no time gardening. The container, soil and planting prep take the bulk of the time. Once the seeds are in, we water daily, harvest daily and replant a seed here and there. We especially enjoy the no weeding bonus. This is a sustainable family garden that is easy, friendly to small places, cheap and less work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jail warden Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We have a HUGE garden and if I spend 30minutes - 1 hour M-F it keeps the weeds down. I also try to take all our grass clipping and mulch around everything I can, but even with 3 acres to mow, my garden is too big to get it all done, even by the end of the year! Good luck. I LOVE to garden. I love to be outside and it's my excuse in the summer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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