What can i do to reduce the amount of time i spent working in my garden?

Question

i am always so busy working in my garden i never have time to enjoy it. what can i do to reduce my labor time?

Answer 1

I know how you feel. Or should I say I KNEW how you feel. I lived on the end of an out-of-the-way cul-de-sac. In the spring I'd get cars coming by every day just to check out my yard. I enjoyed the attention, but after a few years I started feeling the pressure not to disappoint. It got to the point where if my family wanted to spend time with me they came out to "visit" with me in the garden. The only time I saw my pool was when I was fussing with the plants that surrounded it. It was time to do something to free up some time to enjoy my work. I made some simple changes and managed to cut my garden time in half. These are some of the steps I took.

1st. I installed a good agricultural grade micro-drip system with automatic fertilizer injector. Electric valves on a good, easy to use automatic irrigation controller. The controller was a modular design. I could program it at my desk & just walk it out to the garage & snap it into the pre-wired wall mount & I was done.

2nd. I started using larger, colorful, low maintenance perennials & shrubs in the outer areas, away from the house. Lots of salvia, ceanothus, rock rose, penstemon, verbena, westringia, nandina and the like and went heavy on fields of hybrid repeat blooming daylilies in shades from cream to deep plum.

3rd. I buried the entire property under 6 inches of mulch. Some areas got as much as a foot of mulch.

Suddenly I had time to be a parent volunteer in my son's kindergarten class. Time to see the pool from the inside. Time to go back to school & get my Masters Degree... in fact I had time to get two Masters.
I was spending 50% less time in the yard, and the traffic still came every spring.

Just a few adjustments in your normal way of doing things can really save you time in the garden.

Answer 2

It's not a true garden unless you consider working in it enjoying it.
Don't look at it as a chore. I sit or knee while I pull weeds. I talk to everyone and see who is choking out whom. Some of them yell for more water than the others, so you can't just set the sprinkler on them.
Some of them die before the first frost and that is sad for me and the remaining ones. Some will ask for more mulch. They get colder at night than some of the others.
They laugh at me when I chase the moles. They cover their heads when the dog runs in between them.

This is why, to me, fall is the most depressing time of year. I know it won't be long and my flower friends will depart for the year. But we just start looking forward to next spring and who we can add to the flock......................I hope this helps you. I know some people feel guilty because they spend too much time in their garden when they feel they should be doing something else. You give this some thought. Happy Gardening to You..............

Answer 3

If you are asking that question now, then you've waited too long to get started or you are trying to do too much at one time.

I've found out the hard way that its best to take small areas at a time, say each year and perfect that. Once one area is established then go to the next. I went at it really hard last fall to identify the areas in my yard that I wanted to garden in. since I had to do everything myself, I knew that I had to plan and deal with the fact that some areas would be bare for a while. I determined the most important and started on those. No I sit and relax in the area that I have established and that gives me time to see and plan what would be the most complimentary for the next area to focus on next year. That has greatly reduced my labor time and I have friends over who also like gardening and they give advice as we sit in the well established area. I've also found I get rootings from them (or I give rootings to them) and that keeps the cost down.

Answer 4

Set aside a certian time of the day to work in the garden and sit back and relax and enjoy it the other part. Plants won't go crazy over night, if they are fruit bearing plants, I would harvest early in the day, just because of the heat.

Answer 5

initiate your day without work with a superb cup of chamomile tea. Then ask your self what's it which you savour doing, or the place do you savour going? Now take some outing for you. we've all been there , i be attentive to what rigidity can do, so i'm asking you are attempting to get with somebody it quite knows you properly, and initiate looking after you. walking, or taking section in one in all your sought after video clips, or your sought after human beings, additionally try examining Psalms interior the Bible locate some thing that touches you Luv, and then merely enable circulate and loosen up.

Answer 6

Get rid all your annuals and go with perennials. Wild flowers - Rebecka's, Daisy's, cone flowers bloom from early summer til fall. Hosta's and Lillie's are great too. All these plants are drought resistant and will allow you to holiday without wilting. Contact me for some gardening chat. All i have to do to my garden now is watch it grow........

Answer 7

Try not to be such a perfectionist. Allow yourself so much time to garden and that's it. Have company over for ice tea, sit outside and enjoy your work.

Answer 8

I once read that when gardening work becomes too cumbersome, then things must be out of balance in one's life.

Answer 9

well you could that black tarp over the planted areas and then let whatever plant you want stick thru it so that will cut out 97% of your weeding and of course only water with drip irigation on a computer timed watering system
then of course you could also get other family members to help out

Answer 10

Put lots of mulch around theplants. If you use pinestraw, it doesn't break down for 2 years. Put it thick so it will block the weeds.