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biinaboo

Time per size?

15 years ago

I'm wondering how much time I'll put in each week. I'm expanding the garden by more than half and I have no ideas. In total it'll be 4, 4x10 raised beds, a 9x12 squash patch and a 3x40ish strip along a fence line for herbs and vining veggies.

How big is your garden and how much time do you put in per week?

Comments (5)

  • 15 years ago

    Your garden sounds about my size except I don't have the large squash patch. How much time I spend on regular maintenance depends more on what's being harvested at the moment. When pole beans and small fruited tomatoes are ripe, it takes a while to pick it all. That is the bulk of the "weekly" time I spend in my garden. The rest depends:

    What have you got in between your raised beds? Is it something that will have to be weeded/mowed? If it's covered with mulch, plastic, rock or something else to keep the weeds down, you've eliminated that maintenance.

    Weeding inside the beds depends on how weedy your dirt is. I started with sterilized compost, and had almost no weeds to pull the first year. When I started adding my own compost, I've got more. But with soft earth and intensive planting, even that is minor. No more than 15 minutes a week, I'd say.

    Huge issue: Do you have to water by hand? I have a drip system on all the beds except for 3 wine barrels. Standing around the garden with a hose can suck up a huge amount of time. So much so that I won't plant a garden bed without having some sort of automatic watering system.

    The only other amount of time I spend out there is about an hour a week either spraying/searching/picking for pests or fertilizing with a watering can.

    So, I guess if you eliminate harvesting from the mix, I spend only a couple hours a week on the garden. I walk through it daily, though, inspecting plants and seeing how things are doing. I don't consider that work, though!

    Also, I'm assuming you're only talking about regular maintenance. Planting, staking, pulling out old plants, those are chores I can spend all day on, but those are "project days" and only come a few times a year. That also depends on what you plant. I can put a few cabbage plants in the ground in about 10 minutes. Peas take longer because I've got to set up the trellis, plant each seed by hand then cover the whole thing with netting to keep the birds out.

    Here's a pic to give you a gauge on how much space I'm working with:
    {{gwi:9086}}

  • 15 years ago

    After some labor this winter, I have 278 square feet of raised beds. I expect it to save me time over last year even with the same basic growing space.

    In late winter, one solid day of labor will handle hauling and spreading compost and amending the soil.

    In early spring, a maybe 3 hours a week succession planting, mulching heavily and weeding. Spring doesn't last long here.

    Then once it's time for the summer garden, a few hours to get everything in the ground, and the rest is mostly waiting. I usually spend about 15-20 minutes a day after work weeding, bug picking, tending and harvesting. It's too hot in the summer here to be in the garden much, but like Loribee said, my stroll through the garden after work isn't "work" -- it's therapy.

    Fall is a bit busier at first, but once the summer remnants are cleaned up and fall crops in the ground, it's mostly just harvesting until late winter when it all starts over again. It's a good time for soil tests and planning for the next year.

  • 15 years ago

    My experience is in line with Lori's and Nicole's. I just might add that, in my case, gardening is not only fun and therapeutic but also addictive. My original 220 square feet keeps on expanding:)

  • 15 years ago

    I hear you ladies!!! My afternoon strolls to peek end up being weeding and whatnot. I Iike our form of therapy.

    Loribee, that picture is beautiful!!! So nice and neat. I figured I'd make teepees from bamboo stakes. How do you like using the netting? My hose bib isn't terribly close but I don't mind dragging it out. I do have the parts for drip irrigation so I might put it in place for really dry periods and just hook up the hose and let it be when needed.

    I plan on splitting 1 bed into 2 varieties of corn (sweet and popping). I'll start 2 beds with spinach in half and replace them with toms once harvested and warmer. The 4th bed will have a few teepees of peas in half. All three beds will be mixed with onions, carrots, parsnips, beets and celry. The squash patch will have acorn, butternut, pumpkin, sunshine and round zucchini. The fence strip will have scarlet runner and Kentucky wonder with a mixing of herbs (basil, parsley, oregano, thyme). I want to squeeze in a couple sweet bells too but might just do those in 7 gallon pots so I can extend the harvest in the sunroom come late season. I almost forgot the potatos. I'm going to try my hand at 3 varieties (purple, yellow and russet) in straw. I've read a few articles about this method and figured it's worth a try. I gave my whole harvest last year to the vole. Nasty little bugger. I'm going to put down a layer of hardware cloth under my compost layer and then pile it up with straw. As the plant grows taller, I'll add another layer to the raised bed and fill it with straw.

    Any holes in my plan?! I've never had a garden this big. I love the planning period. I just don't want to over extend myself so I can actually follow through. :-)

  • 15 years ago

    Thanks, biinaboo! It sounds like you're going to have a lot of fun enjoying your expanded space. And the best thing about vegetable gardening is that it's seasonal. If it's more than you can handle, you can scale back the following year. Or if you're itching to do more, you can do what I did and start buying half-barrels. LOL