Full Time Worker? How to Grow Veg at the Weekends

Posted on 05. Feb, 2011 by Tracey in How To Grow Veg

I’m a firm believer that whatever your lifestyle and working times, anyone can find time to grow vegetables.

The main excuse I hear is ‘I haven’t got enough time’. So how much time does it really take to grow your own vegetables? Personally I would say as much as you want it to take up.

If you are short of time and want convenience, the best place to start a plot or growing in containers is at home.

The beauty of growing your own vegetables at home in your front or back garden, is that you rule the timekeeping. You might be just watering your new seedlings for 5 to 10 minutes one day or spending 30 minutes sowing some new seeds, its literally up to you.

How to Fit Vegetable Gardening into your Busy Schedule

Time

It all about time management..

I work full-time, 8am to 5pm which only leaves weekends to grow my vegetables or so I thought when I first started my vegetable plots. Once you start sowing seeds and see some seedlings appear above the surface of the soil, I can guarantee you will find extra time to ‘just pop down to see how they are doing’.

I’ve now found 5 – 10 mins in the mornings before I leave for work to water my plots especially in the summer and of course ‘to see how things are doing’. If I’m feeling lazy in the morning, I’ll simply water when I come home from work instead.

If I want to relax or see family at the weekends, I’ll save up the seed sowing and sow a lot of rows in one go and do a bit of maintenance all in the space of a couple of hours. Of course you could easily spread the time out and by doing so, trying out successional sowings, where you sow one row each week (or every couple of weeks) and it will keep you in supply of salad leaves, radishes, spinach etc throughout the summer.

Growing Veg Timings

How much time does it take to:

Check on your plots – Quick: 5 mins, Slow: 10+ Minutes
Sow a row of seeds (on a 5ft long row) – Quick: 15 Minutes, Slow: 30 Minutes
Water 3 raised beds with a 7 litre watering can – Quick: 10 mins, Slow: 20 mins
Look for slugs and pull off dead leaves – Quick: 5 mins, Slow: 10 mins
Thin out seedlings in a row (5ft long) – Quick: 15 mins, Slow: 20 mins
Harvest Carrots, Cabbages, spinach, etc – Quick: 2-5 Mins, Slow: 10 -12 mins

Important Things to Consider

Watering

Compost and Tools

Unfortunately the watering of plants cannot be left too long especially in the summer. If I have sown seeds in the ground or pots, during spring and autumn I tend to check one day in the week (morning or evening) and then at the weekend to see if it needs watering again.

In the Summer, you will need to check every day or every other day as the heat will evaporate the water quicker and your plants will become stressed if they dry out.

There are a number of products on the market to help with watering like:

Soaker hoses – these are soft hoses made of porous material that allow water to seep through them at a slow rate. They can be fixed up to a water butt or with a timer on an outside tap and can be laid on top of the soil around plants.
Drip Watering Kits – These drip water by positioning drippers near the plant stem or roots and can be fitted to a waterbutt or tank.
Water Slice – These can be placed in the bottom of pots to absorb water and release it when needed to the plant roots.
AquaPod – helps if you have quite a few containers to water, it has its own tank and drip feed system which is very effective.
Easy to Grow Irrigation Pots – these are great for water loving vegetables like tomatoes, chillis and cucumbers

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