In these times of tight budgets and rising food costs backyard gardens have become a great way to help make ends meet and provide better food. Vegetables from our own gardens are more likely to get used soon after harvest meaning they will be fresher and have more nutrition than those that have been trucked in from elsewhere. But, the time it takes to have a successful garden can often feel overwhelming with our busy lives. Luckily we live in times we have a great deal of information available to us that can save us time, labor and money. Here are some I have successfully used for several years.
The beauty of these techniques is they do in fact save a lot of time and labor making it easier and leaving me time to do other things including enjoying life. It has also made my garden very productive and my food bill much smaller. Here in the northwest, where it doesn't get terribly cold, I produce about 80% of my vegetables year round in the sunny south facing side yard of my city lot.
So if you also belong to the work smarter not harder school of life read on and please, if you have any other ideas share them. I am always looking for new stuff to try.