@bobm wrote: FYI ... 2 weeks ago my wife baught 3 nice and ripe pinapples from a local small grocery store that specializes in fruits and vegetables ... price 3 for $6. The only labor that I had to throw in was slice and dice them and enjoy.
If you think about that, you could do the same with all of your vegetables, fruits, and flowers, then you would not have to garden at all. You could spend your days watching TV.
Jackb ... after a lifetime of laboring in my garden and orchard , I finally got the message. When one adds up the true cost of seeds / starts, land, addatives, fertilizers, compost, amendments, pesticides, herbicides, equipment, and / or their substitutes and your time , plus the price of pain killers, chiropractor , back and knee braces, straw hats, etc. , one's cost outstrips what one can just go and buy at the grocerystore and/ or farmer's markets. The only thing that I now do is in high value crops, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, elderberries, bearberries, that I can then convert to liquors, deserts , canned / frozen goods, etc. ... This year's berry crop , in addition to snacking or for desert fresh off the bush / vine, I have frozen in our freezer, 20+/- lbs. of blueberries, and 45 +/- lbs. and counting of strawberries ready to convert into pies, jams, jellies, or liquid refreshments.
My elderberry crop was just picked clean by bluejays within just an hour yesterday morning while I wasn't home.
