[d--b]

People don't do it because each hour you spend in your garden is an hour you could have spent doing something else. The problem is not that you have to spend half an hour a day to do it, the problem is that it takes weeks of spending half an hour a day to get anything. And as a beginner, there is a good chance that you're going to screw something up.

A lot of people prefer spending half an hour a day learning italian, or rock climbing, or whatever...

[jasondozell]

It’s not half and hour a day. More like an hour a week. If you don’t enjoy the process of gardening you shouldn’t do it. Over-engineered robotic solutions for small plots are never going to make much sense.

[GVIrish]

Nah it doesn't take anywhere near that amount of time to raise some produce. Maybe a half hour total per week, if that.

Some stuff is easier to grow, some is harder, but for example I barely did anything on my strawberry patch this year other than picking them when they got ripe. I'd say I spent maybe 15 minutes a month on the strawberries.

Now if you're trying to grow a lot of stuff then the time investment might increase but most backyard gardens don't take up that much time once you've planted everything.