How do people with full-time jobs manage perfect gardens?

When I watch videos of people with these amazing gardens, I always wonder… how do they do it while working full-time? A few questions for fellow gardeners:

  1. Is gardening your full-time job?
  2. How big is your garden (acres, raised beds, containers, etc.)?
  3. How much time do you spend each week maintaining it?

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@Koa
I feel this. If someone’s got a ‘perfect’ garden and a massive social media following, I always wonder what’s just outside the camera frame. Maybe they do have a flawless setup… or maybe they have a whole team behind the scenes.

Or maybe you just need to buy the ‘must-have’ product they’re promoting. :joy:

Either way, happy gardening! Your day one won’t look like someone’s day 100, and honestly, learning is half the fun!

My mom had a solid 0.25-0.5 acre garden, depending on which house we lived in when I was a kid. She worked a full-time job, came home, showered, ate dinner, then spent every evening out in the garden until dark. Weekends were full-on gardening days.

As a kid, I thought she just loved it, but later I realized she was doing it to help put food on the table. We ate a lot from that garden.

So yeah, a great garden takes a lot of time and effort. Definitely not something you perfect in your first couple of years!

The biggest factors in my garden are time and experience. I have five shrub/perennial gardens, most of them over 10 years old. That’s key—established plants don’t need as much maintenance.

Spring is the busiest time (April-June for me, zone 6A). That’s when I handle planting, mulching, fertilizing, and pruning. Once that’s done, it’s mostly weeding and watering.

Biggest lesson? Get to weeds early. I know exactly when the worst ones sprout, and if I pull them fast, I barely have to deal with them the rest of the season.

Once summer hits, I spend maybe a few hours a week on maintenance—watering if needed, keeping things trimmed, and mowing. The workload definitely depends on how well you prepare in spring.

A lot of effort goes into setting up a productive vegetable or balcony garden—watering, pruning, end-of-season cleanup, etc.

That said, you can decide how much effort to put in. Some people go for a perfectly curated, structured look… I just let my herbs grow wild and enjoy my chaotic tomato plants. :herb::tomato:

I always wonder how many of these ‘perfect garden’ people work from home, are stay-at-home, or have landscapers doing the grunt work.

My uncle used to do landscaping for the ultra-rich in Naples, FL, and let’s just say… a lot of ‘self-sufficient’ gardeners have a crew handling the heavy lifting.

My garden looks amazing sometimes, like complete chaos most of the time, and absolutely awful when pests or weather ruin everything.

I work full-time and have chronic illnesses, so I try to spend 5-10 hours each weekend maintaining things. My setup: raised veggie beds, fruit trees, berry bushes, flower beds, and about 1/3 acre of lawn.

Long-term goal? Replace as much lawn as possible with native shrubs/perennials to cut down on mowing. Unfortunately, that currently means more mowing and weeding to clear out the grass. :sweat_smile:

Also, I’m always amazed by people with fancy wooden trellises and garden structures. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to build a halfway decent arbor for my grapevines for two years. Lumber is so expensive!

I have about ¾ of an acre. If I spend a few minutes a day keeping up with things, it’s super easy. But if I slack off for a couple of weeks? Absolute jungle. :joy:

I have a ¼ acre garden and spend about 5 hours a week on it, more in spring and summer or when I’m working on a big project.

That said, I work from home and don’t have little kids, so I’ve got a bit more flexibility!

Never actually timed myself, but my garden looks great… until mid-June, when I start slacking. :laughing:

My biggest tip? Mulch, fertilizer, and good soil make everything easier. If you can improve your soil, your workload goes way down.

Also, get a shuffle hoe if your soil works with it. Cuts weeding time in half!

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