What vegetables require the least care? This is my first summer after retiring and we hope to get about: visit friends, do a garden tour, do a bike tour, go hiking etc. All of which will take me away from the garden this summer. Tomatoes I know require a very watchful eye. So do squash with the squash bugs. Any ideas about what other veggies won't require so much tending ? Maybe herbs? Garlic is already in the bed from the fall. How about onions? I have never grown them. One possibility is I could lay landscape cloth and plant dahlias with tomato cages on top. Any ideas?
Skip the garden if you are going to be away an excessive amount of time. it will only add stress to your life.
Onions and potatoes are pretty care free after the first month when they have to be weeded. Swiss chard is very easy, and if the older leaves get tough, the plant still has younger and tender ones coming from the center. Okra--you can't kill it with neglect, and the older pods can be harvested for the seeds, and the younger ones eaten or frozen. Herbs are easy, especially ones that are in the ground and not in containers (containers need watering). Try some perennial herbs like marjoram, sage, thyme, rosemary. Even if they get leggy you can cut them back, harvest the leaves, and have herbs next year and delicious meals all year long.
Sweet potatoes? Edit for colorful peppers . They take forever and are relatively safe from underwatering and disease
We will be in Japan again from end May for slightly 2 weeks. What I do I make sure what I plant (veggies) will all be consumed before we go because I do not want to worried about them when I am away. Others like herbs … well whatever will be will be. If they survive that's a bonus, if not we just replant. Yes I totally agree with Carolyn .
Parsnips, carrots, spuds, leeks, sweetcorn, beetroot, onions, Swiss chard, brassica's as well as fruit bushes and trees. These things come to mind. I hope that you are going to have great fun this summer. It all sounds like fun.