Time poor but rich results

I'm fortunate to be able to say I've never had much trouble when it comes to growing things - a green thumb? Maybe I suppose, but I mostly put it down to having a passion for it, which began as a young kid thanks to my parents and because I grew up in the country, and the fact I've spent time to learn along the way, sometimes from my failures. Not much in my garden dies unexpectedly nowadays; I've had failures and buggered things up from time to time but mostly things go to plan and as per the lifecycle of my plants; things die when they're meant to and not before...generally.

Whether it's flowers or fruit and vegetables, I plan and strategise what goes in and when, engage in companion planting, and use organic methods rather than chemicals to support and protect my plants mostly; the results I get are pretty good and I get a good level of satisfaction from the planning, planting and nurturing of my plants and, of course, looking at and smelling flowers and eating my fresh produce as well. One area I've found challenging over the years though is the time aspect though.

All the planning, planting and nurturing takes time and time is, I'm sad to say, a commodity I have in small supply. Sure, I have the same 24 hours in each day as the next person but with all the things I have to fit in...well, I'm usually time-poor so can sometimes be found gardening at the oddest of times like really late at night.

Like every grower I'm anxious about the weather.

It's too hot, too cold, too frosty, too rainy, not rainy enough, too much sun, not enough sun...too humid...blah blah blah...but in truth the biggest concern I always have is finding the time to do what I have to out there and I sometimes get worried that I'll leave it just a little too long and my crop will be ruined; It's especially devastating when my tomatoes don't come out perfectly for instance, I can't stand eating store-bought tomatoes!

Fortunately, so far in the current planting, things are going along ok. I'd like a little more sun, it's been warm to hot but a little too humid for my tomatoes, but generally everything is coming along nicely I'm happy to say.

In this post you can see some of my current vegetable garden plantings: Bananas, pineapples, carrots and potatoes.

OK not really, none of those things are in these images at all! I've got a nice selection overall though, things I'll use over the summer like capsicum, tomatoes, cucumbers, many others and herbs, fruits and so on. Most I'll eat and some I'll trade with others for things I don't have or grow like milk, eggs, honey and mushrooms; I'm lucky to have a good network who likes to barter and trade for produce and skills within the group, I'm happy to see things are going well though as my time-poor lifestyle is, to my shame, causing me stress due to a little neglect when it comes to my garden. I work hard at it though and the results show...unless they do not.

Do you have, or have you ever had, a group of people around you who like to trade and barter produce, products and skills? It's a really cool way to make use of excess produce and the skills we each have and it feels a lot better than simply going to the supermarket chains and handing over cash for what we need. Feel free to tell me about it in the comments, about your current garden, or any other general comments you may like to make.