Growing your own food from scratch is time-consuming. Balancing household chores and family commitments can make adding full-time gardening feel overwhelming.
However, gardening doesn’t necessarily mean compromising your responsibilities. With simple strategies, you can kickstart your home-grown haven without the time-sucking maintenance most gardens require.
Limited Time? Opt For Low-Maintenance Crops!
One of the best strategies for aspiring gardeners with limited time is opting for low-maintenance crops. By handpicking easy-to-grow plants, you can cut the time spent on back-breaking maintenance but still enjoy a bountiful harvest.
Choose Microgreens
Microgreens rank among the most nutritious yet straightforward plants to grow in your garden. These babies can grow anywhere—even right next to your kitchen counter!
Did you know that microgreens germinate in just a matter of days? So, instead of spending months maintaining your garden, you could be picking fresh greens within weeks!
How’s that for time-saving?
Radish, Lettuce, Spinach
If you love salads as I do, you’ll be glad to know that your favorite salad ingredients are easy to grow, too! Radish, lettuce, and spinach are all low-maintenance crops you can plant in a snap.
You can harvest a radish plant multiple times in one growing season. Spinach is another must-have in the garden for its nutritious qualities, and it only takes approximately 60 days to be eaten.
Lettuce, my leafy favorite, grows incredibly quickly and allows harvesting weeks after planting the seeds. You can even grow them in containers for more convenience!
Courgettes, Squashes, Patty Pans
Courgettes, patty pans, and squashes are all great garden companions for their trouble-free nature. Plant the seeds, let it sprout and vine, and watch the produce grow—easy as ABC.
Patty pans will be ready for harvesting in as fast as five weeks. Courgettes grow best in pots, but you can also sow them outdoors in a warmer region.
Having one or two of these plants is plenty. They stay productive for weeks, providing enough stock to get you through winter.
Chilies and Herbs
As surprising as it sounds, chilies and herbs don’t require as much care as other spices. You can grow them outdoors but they’re more than willing to be where they’re most needed: inside your kitchen.
Herbs and chilies aren’t selective and can grow beside sinks, windowsills, and bright counters. Simply place them inside suitable pots and enjoy the freshest harvest within 60 to 70 days.
If you adore Indian cuisine, then you’ll surely love this.
Practical Tips For Busy Gardeners
Efficiency is a must for gardeners with extra busy lifestyles. Luckily, there’s no shortage of tips to help minimize the busy work of growing your food.
Here are some of the best ways to make the most out of your garden with minimal effort:
Consider No-Digging Gardening
Gardening with no digging? Is that even possible?
Yes, it most certainly is! Unlike typical gardening methods, no-digging avoids breaking up, turning, or lifting the soil.
Instead, you’ll be making garden beds by adding compost or organic matter to the area you want to farm. You then plant directly above the fertile soil to produce healthy plants.
There are several advantages to no-dig planting. For one, it doesn’t disrupt the natural ecosystems in the soil, which means improved soil health.
Keep Your Favorites Close
One superb tip I learned when gardening with less time is to keep your favorites close. Put simply, you want to have your most needed plants as close as possible to care for them better.
For example, if you mostly eat salad and greens, you want to grow these crops near your home. Plant them beside your door or inside your house—anywhere you can quickly visit.
Mulch Your Garden Beds
If keeping up with fertilizing, watering, and weeding requirements is difficult for you, then I’d highly recommend mulching.
Applying mulch is a simple solution that resolves most of your gardening problems. It conserves water, provides healthy nutrients for plants, and suppresses weed growth.
By covering your beds with organic matter, you can recycle your kitchen waste to good use, reduce your carbon footprint, and contribute to your environment.
You’ll be hitting multiple birds in one stone!
Final Thoughts
Can you imagine something more satisfying than eating food you worked hard for? Me neither. But it can be back-breaking and time-consuming, too.
That said, with the tips you learned above I’m certain you can enjoy a better gardening experience without compromising any of your commitments!
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.