I recommend a book by Ruth Stout: The no work vegetable garden. She was a proponent of permanent mulching to decrease the work of gardening. That in addition to gardening in wide rows should greatly decrease the amount of space you'll need to devote to gardening, thus decreasing your work load. An other thing you might consider is: how much, and what kind of vegetables do you actually eat? How much goes to waste or does not get harvested at it's prime? If you evaluate your needs instead of planting to fill the space, you may find that you need far less space and less plants. An other book that might help you is "The square foot garden" Again, the concept is grow only what you'll eat in only as much space as required.
