Part Time Gardening

I only garden part time- there's too many other things to do.  Lawn needs to be mowed, other blogs to write, full time job, beer that needs drinking and food that needs grilling... You get the picture.

I'm also urban, or nearly so.  Technically we live in a suburb of Bufalo NY, but our neighborhood has small yards.  My 1600 sqft house, 360 sqft garage, and 90 foot long driveway take a chunk out of the property.  Subtract the trees out back and the front yard my wife likes as grass, and we have about 1800 sqft left for lawn and garden out back.  Grandkids need grass to run in, so we garden in a few hundred square feet.

I'm cheap too.  Annuals cost too much every spring, and often fade in the heat.

With limited time to invest, efficiencies are required.  Ornamental beds need to be (mostly) perennials, or re-seed themselves.  Everything has to grow well in my zone (Zone 6).

Any perennial I plant gets a two year probation- if they don't adapt, or require too much work, they get replaced.

Annual ornamentals have to grow without any supervision- throw the seeds on the ground and walk away.

Veggies are another story- one of the reasons I like to streamline my ornamentals is so I can spend the time REQUIRED to have nice veggies.  They need to be sprouted, and pampered, and trellised...

At the same time, I search for efficiencies there, too.  How to water less.  How to control weeds without weeding.  That sort of thing.

Another factor in efficiency is sufficincy- minimum chemicals.  Grow your own compost.  Collect rainwater- I can't collect all the water I need (yet) but every little bit helps.  Maximize water efficiency.

I'm not the only one, there are others out there, probably a LOT of others.  Lets do this.