>>13691780Some plants take more care than others. I have six 8x4 raised beds and grow mainly raspberries, blackberries, peppers, tomatoes, beans, herbs, and attempting root crops. I use my lawn irrigation system with microsprinklers so I can use the timer. That saves me from always stressing over watering and also lets me spray them down on the hot Texas summer day to cool them off a bit.
That being said, some of this shit takes a lot of time. Corn blows over, harvest periods are different for each (corn is sweet for about 48 hrs), okra will grow very large and get tough after a few days. So you really have to get your ass out there every morning/evening. I wouldn't call this 100% of my (and my girls) intake by any means but it's 40-50%, and I'm only using 4 out of the 6 beds (3 are shaded 3 are sunny).
Some high output shit for me:
-okra (4 plants gives you a ton, an entire 8x4 bed of them gave me... too much)
-cucumbers (3 plants made me about 25 tyranosaurus sex dildo sized cukes)
-the smaller/medium sized modest tomatoes (big ones crack and wildlife gets them)
-all the berries (black and raspberries) but some varieties set fruit 1st year others set fruit on 2nd year growth
-you can do well with potatoes. 10lbs of spuds can turn into around 200lbs when done but that would take up all the room but its cheap and easy.
TLDR: I'd say 9-12 8x4 beds and one person would be good. Learn to store shit, deep freezer, can, and you can last during off season. Leafy greens can handle into 20 deg range.
Also if you own a home it can allow you to be more lazy. All my lawn clippings go into the compost pile/garden beds. All the leaves, I hate raking, I mow them with the bag on the mower, dump them into the beds. Free mulch, and it composts. All my kitchen scraps, compost, no stinky trash bags. For us 2 we only have maybe 2 grocery store bags of trash a week, the rest is compost. Tree branches and twigs, fire pit for a nice night. E Z mode boy