I spend an average of about 20 hours per week in the garden. I am planting tomatoes and will put in a few more rows of beans, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupe, etc. over the next 2 weeks. My garden is 3/4 of an acre in size.

From a lot of years gardening and putting up the produce, I can guarantee that you can't do all that needs to be done and still visit grandkids. My suggestions would be to limit what you plant, set aside 2 weeks in mid-summer specifically for visiting grandkids, and look for a less demanding job.

DarJones

I'm not spending even 1 hour per week yet. It's simply too wet. It's raining too often right now. The good news is, one of the models are predicting the PNW and SW BC will be getting below normal precipitation for May June and July. I suspect August and September will follow suit.

I'm really wanting to go till up my 50x90 foot area so I can have it ready for my pumpkins, squash, broccoli, etc.

I'm going to have it all nice so I can also do long row covers in the fall to grow lots of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc. I also want to greatly expand my Garlic yield from the 70 hard-neck plants I have growing right now.

Never know when I might want to start selling them. :)

It is a poorly posed question. Selected crops are nearly care-free, other crops need a lot of fussing. Drip irrigation saves a lot of time. Constant mulching saves time, although planting is more work and the growing season is delayed. For minimal work, while covering the whole year, I suggest potatoes, garlic, chard, collard, beans, cardoon and butternut squash. I find that turnips, planted in mid summer, also give little weed trouble, because turnip seeds germinate at higher temperatures than most weed seeds.

Depends a lot on how stuff is preserved, I reckon, and crop choices.

Dry beans are a lot less time than freezing or canning green beans, for example. Storage cabbage is less than kraut. In a cooler climate, irish potatoes are less work per pound than sweet potatoes, and the reverse in a warm climate. If one will settle for walking onions instead of seed-grown bulbing onions or scallions much effort is saved. Self-sowing kale vs starting collards or cabbage in flats and setting out.

Especially if one has plenty of space the less time-consuming choices can be made.

Most of my vegetable garden is in boxed-in raised beds. I find that after the initial flurry of activity in the spring, that everything settles down nicely in June & July.

Maybe 1-2 hrs of weeding, hilling, thinning - all very easy w/fluffy soil in the raised beds. Maybe 1 hour of watering - 2 hrs if we have *very* hot & dry weather. In August, of course, things pick up with harvesting.

For three years I was my elderly mother's primary caregiver, which meant abandoning the garden for weeks at a time. We came through, though I didn't put up nearly as much stuff. Grow lots of winter squash, which can just sit there until you pick it. I also found that my guy did not miss an ear of sweet corn tho he'd let other things go unpicked. I was surprised at how long beets, bulb fennel and kohlrabi stood in the garden, waiting for me to return from 700 miles away. Keep planting when you can, and you'll always have something coming in.

pnbrown & planatus make good points.

Keep it simple & grow low maintenance crops that are less fussy. I find that in my climate, that a lot of crops need to be harvested & processed just when I'm gearing up for a new school year. I don't have time for that! So, I'm growing a lot more potatoes, dry beans, soup peas, winter squash, beets, carrots, onions, garlic. Less of time sensitive crops like green beans and slicing tomatoes.

KISKIF = Keep it Simple, Keep it Fun. (and put your DH to work too!)

Are all the grand kids visits already cleared with the parents and tockets bought etc?

As several people have suggested, it's timing more than time that matters. Some crops have to be picked at the point of ripeness [melons, peas], others can sit and wait for you [carrots, winter squash]. Plan accordingly.

When you can harvest, you'll probably be picking more at once, so be sure to have somewhere to store it to keep it all fresh until it can be eaten/processed.

You can often find family members or neighbors who will harvest for a share of the produce. Helpful weeders are not only rare but can sometimes do more harm than good. Mulches can be a solution.

GREAT suggestions, you guys. I hadn't thought of the "choose your crops wisely" idea -- will definitely take it all to heart. And planatus, it was very comforting to hear that you went through similar years and it still worked.

Yes, I've heard horror stories about letting kids help with weeding! Having them help harvest sounds much less risky.

Mindy, tickets not bought yet, as I just got back from one baby, will want to see her again soon (grand children only come around once, and this is most likely the only one for my son and daughter in law) and the other two babies are coming around Memorial Day and Sept 15, so all is up in the air about actual arrival dates and what they'll want from me and when -- so keeping it all a bit loose.

Lots of winter squash, lots of mulch, carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, greens, dry beans . . . I'm there!

More suggestions welcome. This has been great -- so glad I asked my "dumb" question :)

Yes, I dislike broccoli and corn, and I like collard and potatoes. Same reasons as others have given. I also dislike things that get sick, goodbye zucchini and cukes, hello tromboncino. It also helps a lot to garden with friends, we are three families, and two will leave on vacation in early July, no problem at all.

Yeah, broccoli and corn are like trying to be there at the right moment to catch a falling plate.

The math problem: If fusion power spends 20 hours a week to work 3/4 of an acre, and elisa has 1440 square feet or .033057 of an acre (minus the potato field, which I'll figure separately), and they both have equal work loads, then how many hours a week does elisa need to work?

I was not good at math.

There is fixed overhead, of course. Fetching wheelbarrow, sprayer and shovel out of the shed is the same work for big and small gardens. Why not do just potatoes this year? Then you can travel at leisure.