How much time for gardening?

How much time do you have (allow yourself to have?) for gardening?
SFG appeals to me because I get to spend more time actually in the garden, not weeding or tilling or other things I consider not fun.
But as a woman in my mid 40s, I have SO MANY other responsibilities . . . full time job, kids, husband, kid activities, plus my other hobby of papercrafting.  I love my garden, but with my kids getting bigger and having more places to take them to, I don't feel like I have the energy or time I used to have to devote to my garden.  My poor tomatoes have been hardening off on the back patio for almost 2 weeks now, and I'm struggling to find the time to get them in the ground with their protective wall o waters around them.
So, how do YOU manage your gardening with the rest of your life????

kamigh wrote:How much time do you have (allow yourself to have?) for gardening?
SFG appeals to me because I get to spend more time actually in the garden, not weeding or tilling or other things I consider not fun.
But as a woman in my mid 40s, I have SO MANY other responsibilities . . . full time job, kids, husband, kid activities, plus my other hobby of papercrafting.  I love my garden, but with my kids getting bigger and having more places to take them to, I don't feel like I have the energy or time I used to have to devote to my garden.  My poor tomatoes have been hardening off on the back patio for almost 2 weeks now, and I'm struggling to find the time to get them in the ground with their protective wall o waters around them.
So, how do YOU manage your gardening with the rest of your life????

I'm retired, with no other responsibilities, so I can spend all the time I want in the garden. When I was in your circumstances, I only did house plants -- lots and lots of houseplants.    I tried a few veggie containers outside a couple of times and failed miserably. I applaud your efforts. My only suggestion would be to get Hubby and kids involved. If they only give you an hour a week, it could make a big difference. Good luck.

Kamigh,  Refresh us on what you have garden-wise.  How many beds, how far from the house and hose bibb?  What do you grow?  Do you have an automatic drip system for watering?  Are the beds set in the lawn area?

I don't envy anyone who is a mother today.  It seems like kids become the focus of life in the family.  So many sports and school activities.  What are the ages of the kids?  Even a 2 year old can help pull little weeds out of the beds once it's demonstrated.  If your husband will support this, have the kids "give back" to you.  You take them here and there, do cooking and laundry, help with homework.  They can help a bit in the garden.  Maybe 15 to 30 min per week?  If your gardening helps recharge you physically and mentally, it may be worth engaging their help.

Back to your original question, I would say 15 minutes of summer hand watering with the hose wand.  There are seasonal events like starting seeds, adding more compost, cleaning the beds for winter.  I announce to my husband, in advance, of what is coming up garden-wise.  That may mean, the same big pot of soup for 3 nights in a row.  Or getting horse manure and Starbucks used coffee grounds.  Getting down or putting up the seed lights. I hope you find a way to continue gardening, even if it means a smaller garden.

In order to keep me from retiring early to tend to may garden, my boss let me work 4 days a week for the same pay as 5 days per week.  Worked out just great because I had a day when everyone else was at work or at school so I got a ton of gardening done every Friday.

I finally retired and now I putter in the garden full time.

OK, I have done this.  I started 4 years ago.  Have 3 kids, teens to early 20s.  High schoolers were competitive swimmers with one of them being very gifted and requiring lots of time and resources....I still work lots.  More than 40 hrs/wk every week.  All of my gardening activity is weekends.

That being said, your garden can be your sanctuary.  Really do need to know how many SF you are tending?

I started out with re-purposed wondow boxes(still going strong!!!) They were filled with MM, and my favorite veggies .  Died and gone to Heaven!  This thing is amazing!  Just so nice and easy, the MM, the weeds, just a total game changer. 

Tell me more about your sitch 

You'd think that with working from home, I'd have plenty of time. NOPE! I have the same struggles you do, Kamigh. And I don't have kids!

For me it gets down to making time for what's important to me.

I agree - the garden is my sanctuary. A time to get away from the phone, the computer, & everything else!

I find it is more of a scheduling and planning thing than a time thing.  Being relatively inexperienced at managing a garden, I make plenty of mistakes.  Particularly given my bizarro world planting schedule of Southern California compared to northern midwest where I grew up.  

Waste huge amounts of time struggling with mistakes in scheduling.  For example, I ordered the seed a couple days ago from an ebay seller for what I hope will be the Italian Long Hots talked about in another thread.  The site linked here for them sells transplants but not seeds, they don't shipped the transplants until April.  That's late for me.  Either way, I should have probably started the seeds a month ago.  

That said, my potato bed I planted, on time around Christmas is doing wonderfully.  It's only a 2x2 by 2 foot high tower I originally planned for doing the potato tower thing but planted regular Yukon Golds in it.  Grand total effort put into that box including planting over the three months is about 30 minutes.  I planted, I've water two or three times when I thought felt dry down a little bit.  We'll see how the potatoes do.

Other time consumers really come down to dealing with an animal digging up the beds and destroying most of my plantings.  Now the bed is behind.  Cascading time problem is what it makes.  When it happens, I'm still learning better compensating behaviors on what to plant.  If I lose my melons, I want to replant, even if it is too late or really a doomed to  failure event instead of looking at it and realizing I should plant radishes or salad or some other every short crop because in 60 days it will be the ideal time to start the next season crop in it.

Anyway, a long rambling post, in which I'm trying to say, the time commitment to water, weed and observe your beds for problems is really quite small once you've got the working schedule for your squares down for your area.

A properly timed set of peppers or tomatoes is really six months of very little work if you do the little up front work at the right time.

sanderson wrote:Kamigh,  Refresh us on what you have garden-wise.  How many beds, how far from the house and hose bibb?  What do you grow?  Do you have an automatic drip system for watering?  Are the beds set in the lawn area?

Sooo . . .  that's part of my problem.  Just last year, I put in my DREAM garden.  Six 4 x 8 beds, one 4 x 4 bed, and two 2 x 10 beds (for my flowers). That's 208 sf for veggies and another 40 sf for my flowers.  I have drip irrigation in PVC grids that I built myself, hooked up to our sprinkler system so they are on a timer.  I had this all professionally installed on a 4" bed of crushed granite to help with weed and lawn invasion.  
I have my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants started.  I purposely built the garden big so I don't have to use all the beds all the time - some can be left for staggered planting (like my new idea for waiting until late summer to start squash).  Texas weather is so different than many places in that I'm already behind with a lot of stuff.  No lettuce, no peas, no cole crops . . . woe is me!  
 
I think that since I lurk on here almost every day at lunchtime, and I see how much other people do, I feel like I'm not doing my beautiful garden justice with some of my efforts this year.

kamigh wrote:Texas weather is so different than many places in that I'm already behind with a lot of stuff.  No lettuce, no peas, no cole crops . . . woe is me!  

I'm in Redding, CA -- similar weather to texas and Arizona -- I grow dwarf curly kale all year long.  Our mild winters don't make it flinch, but the amazing thing is that it actually thrives during our 4 months of triple-digits every summer. The plants last until I cut them down, which is after they're a year old and almost 3' tall. Never bitter or tough and never bolt. I've never seen anything else like it. 

When my kids were very young, I had to stop gardening for a few years.  With a working wife, long commutes, and all of the demands of raising young ones, I just did not have the time.    Even now, with my kids away in college, I don't have alot of time to devote to the garden.  So I take shortcuts.   For example, I don't start my own seedlings indoors.  I buy transplants from a green house.  I don't make most of my compost.  I buy it.  I don't carefully water my plants, I grab the hose nozzle and spray the garden in the morning before I rush off to work.  Not the best situation, but it's a compromise.

Also, your garden is twice the size of mine!

Wow, kid!  You have a lot of real estate!

Yes, I gardened with three little kids, and a job, and a DH who really does not like gardening.  So it was my thing, my place, my refuge.  The kids had about a 4x4 of space apiece to plant and dig in. One day after school in May we would stop at a greenhouse and I would let them buy some plants.  They also got to start some inside.  No judgement if they let things die. We have a short season up here.  In the spring I was not available on weekends for much of anything besides gardening until that was set.  The rest of the year I could accommodate but spring planting time they accommodated me.  Now the kids are grown and I am in school but the routine is much the same.  In the rush of spring I garden as much as possible. The rest of the growing season I harvest as needed. I don't need to do much else. Last year I bought plants but missed my preferences in tomatoes.  I have soaker hose on an automatic timer, somethings need more but they at least get that much.  Mulch is a great friend.

You posted some gorgeous photos of that dream garden in the past.  Don't let that perfection of infrastructure make you feel like you have to be the 'perfect gardener' to match.  Set your self the goal of 'Good enough'.  Make the garden a place where it is ok if you don't get it done on time etc.  If you don't get the cole crops in on time, sprinkle some annual flower seed and plan your fall cole crops.  And remember you can always solarize a bed if needed, even if the need is for you to cut back.

Also it helps to have a garden planner to play with during lunch break at work. I use one online.

yolos wrote:In order to keep me from retiring early to tend to may garden, my boss let me work 4 days a week for the same pay as 5 days per week.  Worked out just great because I had a day when everyone else was at work or at school so I got a ton of gardening done every Friday.

I finally retired and now I putter in the garden full time.

Someone who really appreciated you.

Reminds me of an office where I worked, and my contract said I had to work six weeks notice if I wanted to leave, not the usual two weeks that most of our office workers had.  I remember feeling appreciated when I started, but it sure back-fired on me later on, especially as they were the days when it was easy to move from job to job.

Turan, you have a good outlook on gardening.