Trev,
Thanks for posting this. Some of the answers are downright poetic, while all hint at the core of the matter - far too many people measure absolute financial returns these days versus the real returns of a healthy lifestyle
After being away from gardening for a number of years, I'm ferverently returning to it with our mountain place. Typical of our endeavors, we've adopted a large approach - our cleared garden area is 50 x 200, that includes room for berries, asparagus, artichokes and such. We also have a separate orchard area with thirty some odd trees and plan next to put in a couple acres of grapes. Since we just cleared this past year, we have several years of serious work ahead before we can get the soil to optimize. But, even with this year's modest yields and weeds that want to take the land back, I can't seem to get enough of it.
Personally, I find tremendous satisfaction in it, especially in nurturing all the plants from seed in the greenhouse in late winter and growing perennials, but gardening is clearly hard work and not cheap or all that cost effective if measured in financial terms alone.
My summary take on the issue would be if the weeds, dirt, bugs and weather cause you more stress than they relieve than there may be better time investments on your list.
But, how does one put a price tag on satisfaction and balance?
Best,
Sabi
