A garden can be productive without every inch being assigned a purpose.

Ground that has not been given a job is doing work anyway. The rough corner, the patch left long, the bit behind the shed: these hold insects, shelter, seed and a place for things to happen that you did not plan. A garden managed to the last inch is more effort and less alive, and the effort shows.

Leave somewhere alone this season on purpose, and mark it in your head as deliberate rather than neglected. A yard square is enough. Then watch what turns up there over a few months. You will spend less time and the garden will usually get more interesting, not less.