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You work all day. You come home tired. You still want to grow a few vegetables. That is not a strange thing to want. But you do not have time to baby plants. You do not have time to read long instructions. You just want food that grows without you thinking about it too much.
I have been there. I forgot to water my first garden for a whole week. Everything died except a few things. Those few things taught me something. Some vegetables do not care if you forget them. Some vegetables grow anyway.
Let me tell you about those vegetables.
I will start with the one that surprised me the most.
Green beans.
I planted green beans one year and then left for a long weekend. I forgot to ask anyone to water them. When I came back, the beans were fine. The leaves were still green. The soil was dry but the plants looked happy. I picked a handful of beans that day.
Green beans do not need perfect soil. They do not need plant food. They do not need you to tie them to sticks unless you buy the climbing kind. Buy the bush kind instead. Bush beans stay low to the ground. They do not fall over. They just sit there and make beans for you.
You push one seed into the dirt. About as deep as your first finger knuckle. Then you walk away. That is it.
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Swiss chard is hard to kill.
I am not saying that to be funny. I really tried to kill some swiss chard once. I left it in a pot with no water for eight days. The leaves went soft and droopy. I thought it was dead. I gave it water anyway. The next morning the leaves were standing up again.
That is the kind of plant a busy person needs.
You do not have to pick the whole plant. You just pull off the big outside leaves. Leave the small inside leaves alone. The plant keeps making new leaves from the middle. One swiss chard plant can give you food for four or five months.
It does not get many bugs. It does not need special dirt. It grows in a pot on a balcony. It grows in a corner of your yard. It just wants a little sun and water once in a while.
Radishes are fast. Too fast almost.
You put the seeds in the ground. You water them that one time. Then you forget about them. Twenty five days later you look down and see red circles pushing out of the dirt. That is the radish. It is done. You can eat it.
I planted radishes once and forgot to mark where I put them. Two weeks later I saw little green leaves in a row. I did not remember planting anything there. Then I pulled one up. A radish. A perfect little red radish.
That is a good feeling for a busy person. You did almost nothing. But you still grew food.
Radishes do not need fertilizer. They do not need you to thin them out unless you poured the whole seed packet into one small spot. Even then, they will still grow. They will just be crowded. Crowded radishes are smaller but they taste the same.
Bolting is when a plant sends up a flower and stops making leaves you can eat. Lettuce does this very fast when the weather gets warm. But kale does not.
Kale is slower than lettuce. But kale stays good longer. You can plant kale in spring and keep picking leaves until winter. That is a long time.
I do not do anything special to my kale. I put the seeds in the ground. I cover them with a little dirt. I water them maybe twice a week if there is no rain. Sometimes I forget. The kale gets a little tough when it is dry. But after it rains again, the new leaves are soft.
You pick the lower leaves first. Leave the top part alone. The top part keeps the plant alive. Never take all the leaves off at once. That will kill it. Take two or three leaves from each plant every time you visit the garden.
Carrots take longer than radishes. But they also take less work.
The hardest part about carrots is the seeds. Carrot seeds are very small. Smaller than a grain of rice. They are easy to lose. They are easy to wash away if you water too hard.
So here is what I do. I make a shallow line in the dirt. I sprinkle the carrot seeds along that line. I do not cover them with dirt. I just pat them down with my flat hand so they touch the soil. Then I water very gently. A soft mist if you have that setting on your hose. If not, use a watering can with small holes.
Then I wait.
Carrot seeds take a long time to wake up. Sometimes three weeks. You will think nothing is happening. You will think you did something wrong. But do not dig them up to check. Just keep watering once every few days. One morning you will see tiny green threads in a row. Those are your carrots.
After that, you do almost nothing. Water when the soil feels dry. That is all.
Summer squash. Zucchini and yellow squash.
These plants grow huge leaves. The leaves spread out and cover the ground. Weeds cannot grow under those leaves because there is no light. That means you do not have to pull weeds around your squash. The plant does that job for you.
Plant squash seeds in a small hill of dirt. A hill just means a mound. Not a big mountain. Just a raised bump. Put three or four seeds in each hill. Then water.
The seeds will grow fast. Too fast maybe. One day you have little baby plants. Two weeks later you have giant leaves everywhere. Then you see yellow flowers. Then you see tiny squash under the flowers. Then three days later you have a squash as big as your arm.
Pick squash when they are small. They taste better that way. And the plant keeps making more. If you let a squash get too big, the plant slows down. So pick them early. Pick them often.
Asparagus is different.
Most vegetables die at the end of the year. You have to plant them again next spring. Not asparagus. Asparagus lives for ten years or more. You plant it one time. Then every spring it sends up shoots. You cut those shoots and eat them. Then the plant grows into a tall fern. The fern dies in winter. The next spring, new shoots come up again. By itself. Without you doing anything.
But you have to be patient the first two years. The first year, you do not pick any asparagus. You let it grow into a fern. The second year, you pick a little bit. The third year, you pick as much as you want.
After that, you just wait for spring every year. The asparagus knows when to come up. You do not have to remind it.
Asparagus does not need much water. It does not need plant food. It does not need you to cover it in winter. It is very tough. It can handle cold and heat and dry soil. That is a good plant for a busy person.
Not every vegetable is good for busy people. Here are some to skip.
Tomatoes look easy but they are not. You have to tie them to sticks. You have to pinch off the little side branches. You have to water them almost every day when it gets hot. And bugs love tomato plants. You will find big green worms hiding on the stems. If you do not have time to look for worms, do not grow tomatoes.
Corn takes too much space. One corn plant gives you one or two ears of corn. To get enough corn for one meal, you need twenty or thirty plants. That is a lot of watering and a lot of weeding. Not worth it.
Cauliflower is too picky. It wants cool weather but not too cool. It wants warm weather but not too warm. It stops growing if the temperature changes. Even people with a lot of free time struggle with cauliflower.
Onions are cheap at the store. Growing them from seeds takes six months. Growing them from little bulbs works okay but you have to keep the area very clean of weeds because onions do not like competition. Just buy onions.
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I know you are busy. I know you have tried growing things before and they died. I know you think you do not have a green thumb.
Forget about green thumbs. That is not real.
What is real is picking the right plants. The low maintenance vegetables for busy gardeners. The ones that do not need you every day. The ones that forgive you when you forget.
Start with green beans and radishes. Those are the easiest. Plant them this weekend. Water them when you remember. See what happens.
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