I gave my garden up a few years ago. Too much work. For me it required being a slave to the garden. I put in peach trees where the garden was.
I still experiment with a few pots / containers on the deck. Other than that…it is trees.
Seed catalog 1919
Normally we do have a veggie garden. But this year we lacked the labor to get it done.
Consider getting some EarthBoxes for easier gardening. There is a high initial startup price for folks on a budget, but they pay off over time (time saved and yields are great).
I consider it to be a proud servant 
. And yes, we have a full scale vegetable garden and eat our produce whole winter long.
That’s my goal. I’ve started with the trees, and continued clearing. I should be completely done clearing by next spring. Lots of rocks/boulders and stumps.
I used to think I wanted 20 acres. Now I’m thankful for just having 2. Though, I must admit, I’m not doing much at all in the heat. That’s for young men.
This year I just had container cucumbers, onions, and watermelons.
Same here! I use to work of 0.15 acre located on 7 different levels, there I had garden, trees, berries. Now I have 3 acres (though sun exposure could be better) and I am really started to feel the size of 3 acres. Thinking about a scooter or motorized cart I can seat on 
to move from site to site. Making sheds near each site and hunting for unwanted garden tools to have them in proximity for each site.
I like to look at it from another angle. As humans we are bound to certain physiological needs, food being near the top of that list. We can either produce/gather most of that food ourselves, or we can outsource that job to other people. If we outsource that job, then we become slaves to a different system to earn the income to purchase that food. I view producing as much food as I can as liberating rather than enslaving, but I realize that probably mostly comes down to mindset.
In reality most of us can’t produce all of our own food needs so a hybrid system is probably better. We produce some food ourselves and the rest we outsource to local producers who we can have more of a community relationship with. That approach requires an adjustment to the kind of food you eat and the seasons in which you eat it.
That’s not my reality yet so please don’t take that as preaching, just sharing thoughts. This is a goal I’m working towards little by little. The current roadblock personally is living somewhere that grows millions of acres of food but oddly enough doesn’t have a local food culture. Aside from some small farmers markets here and there. Most of which have very few produce vendors and a whole lot of craft vendors. I envy those of you that are already living in communities with thriving local food systems. It’s a lot tougher to rebuild when it’s gone.
I grow tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets… that gives me all that i desire out of tomatoes.
Next year i am going to grow some vegetables for pollinators… as i am somewhat obsessed with bees and other various pollen collectors.
I am going to grow carrots and broccoli just for my personal enjoyment of watching bees and butterflies etc. Both have pretty amazing flowers that the bees love.
The next garden plant we are getting is Muellin. When the heat drops some I do want to put a few Pumpkin/squash hills out. And some Jarradales and Butternut types. Seminoles.
We grow vegetables in a few raised beds and community garden plot. Besides the one time planting, initial 2 weeks of fertilizing we have to visit the plot once or twice week to harvest the produce. Our biggest time and effort saving came after moving to drip irrigation.
1/4ac vegetable garden. The orchard is wonderful, but we can’t eat just fruit, and the fruit is also harvestable only for a short time per crop. I plant the veggies strategically so there’s always at least two or three things coming in (and going to market to pay for my garden). In our area we can even grow a fair amount in winter. We do a lot of canning and drying and stuff too, to stretch out the seasons even more.
I stop trying to “work” about this time of year and just let the stuff go wild. I enjoy starting plants and getting them in the ground, but I’ve got no ability to plan ahead for space. so it’s a crowded mess, impossible to harvest without a jungle adventure of climbing over and under
the work comes a lot earlier for me with spraying, BT, nematodes, all that to prepare for season. I let a good number of plants get eaten to satiate some of the insects if they arrive.
there are fruit trees in there too. apples, pear. in among the jungle. they seem ok with the situation. they do a little better than the trees I’ve got outside the garden, probably because they do get more water, fertilizer, and attention in here.
I got to clean out that bird bath today. it’s getting a mess. the feeder is right there and they throw seed down into that water.
I don’t weed much. I pull up mallow and pigweed/amaranth, but I let the purslane take over. I love the stuff to eat, so it gets free reign, along with chicory and dandelions.
a lot of stuff comes back from its own seed year on year. dill, orach, arugula, radish. sometimes garlic too if I miss any and the bulbils fall.
I also have winecap under the mulch in a third of the space I’ve got. every year I spread it a little more. I would like it to be all through the entire garden.
spraying the trees and keeping up with them is about as much work as doing the veg plants, for me, with the exception of starting them off. but I enjoy that part.
chaos.
I am a pretty lazy gardener. i still get food from the garden, despite that.
Hi Everyone, I am newly registered on this forum but have been reading intensively here for a couple of years. This is the first forum I have ever joined because it is one of the best out there. I have learned so much from you all.
I am in zone 6B (not sure I trust the new zone designations yet, still think I am 6A) in very southern Indiana close to Louisville, KY. I have 15 acres, 9 open and 6 wooded and a small pond, maybe 1/2 acre size with channel catfish that I feed and which have become my pets. I also have 2 snapping turtles (Snappy Sue and Snappy Sam) which come right up to me when I feed the fish and gobble up the floating pellets also. I think they would almost eat out of my hand, but not gonna test that theory. 
Anyway, back to gardening.
I do have a food garden as well as fruit trees, bush fruit, and brambles. I have been planting vegetables for far longer than fruit trees, but when we moved out here to the country from Louisville, I thought I might as well try my hand at fruit since I had the space. Growing veggies is FAR easier than growing good fruit in my opinion, but I am learning.
Most years I grow tomatoes, peppers (bell and hot), cucumbers, eggplant, pink eye purple hull peas (I am originally from Alabama and have to have my southern peas), green beans, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, sweet potatoes, parsley, basil, dill, and onions. Sometimes I try my hand at cantaloupe and watermelon with varying degrees of success. I do can and dehydrate and freeze food for long term storage. I also have pear, apple, peach(died on me this year), romance bush cherries, mulberry, pawpaw, wild persimmon, and 2 jujubes which I planted this year and am so thrilled about. Also added gooseberries, honeyberries, goumis, and currents this year, as well as more varieties of blackberries and my first raspberries.
Sorry to write a book, but my veggie and fruit plants are near and dear to my heart and my husband’s eyes just glaze over when I try to talk about my garden, although he makes a valiant attempt to look interested! I am sure that some of you know what I mean. 
Just planted some summer squash seeds hoping I have missed the vine borers and will be able to get some September and October squash. Vine borers make me really hate growing squash, and virtually impossible unless I start spraying some insecticide of sorts which I don’t intend to use.
Oregano is another one the bees and wasps swarm for. I have some second-year (flowering) carrots next to my oregano patch this year, that’s like Disneyland for pollinators.
Yes…i have been trying to figure out what im going to do with a couple of my older garlic beds… adding Oregano and Basil… they look fairly easy. Currently my bees are tearing up the Joe Pye Weed… as well as some early Goldenrod… my Asters should bloom next. I tried some flowering onions but they werent that interested in them.
I have borderless raised bed veggie garden… 12 ft x 40 ft.
I grow okra squash peppers tomatoes mostly.
We have been having keto fried okra squash onions several times a week for over a month now and the okra normally continues until early Nov.
It is amazing how fast it grows… have to pick it every other day.
I have found basil to be very easy in this area of the country (southern Indiana). I just find a few small empty spots scattered among my veggies and scratch up an area, toss a few seeds and water. Some always come up and the deer leave them alone even when they are gnawing everything else to the ground. If you are already going to do basil and oregano in your previous garlic beds, it might be nice to add a few more pollinator friendly herbs such as thyme, chamomile, dill…… This would give you a nice herb garden and the pollinators a variety of blooms and bloom times. Of course, this would all depend on the space in your previous garlic bed.
Well, that is great if you have the time and interest. I don’t really like gardening…just want the food. But can’t get anyone to do the work for me. Same as cooking. I don’t like cooking, but if I want to eat…gotta cook.
I have every interesting work I do and don’t like being taken away from it. It is not like it pays me either. I have to pay to do it.
Like that purslane!
