"AndyS" wrote in message
ups.com...

TQ wrote: From my own experience of keeping a garden for the past 30
years, there/s
enormous satisfaction that comes from eating something homegrown. You
can
grow a lot of food in a relatively small area without a whole lot of
effort
if you do what needs to be done when it needs to get done. The value
(to
coin a phrase) comes from enjoying the fruits of your labor.


Andy comments:

Well, I am getting about a cucumber a day, which I use witha
tomato
and some lettuce to make a big saladfor dinner while I watch Stargate
SG1.
.... My wife asked me to let
her have a couple cucumbers to give her sister down the road, to
show her what comes out of my garden...

No way, I said. If she needs cucumbers, I'll give her a couple
bucks
to go to the store and buy herself some..... I figure my garden
cucumbers probably cost me a couple dollars and an hour of labor
apiece, and there's no way in hell I'm going to give them away !!!!!

It may not make financial sense, but it makes good emotional
sense....


I plant 10' -12 ' of row in bush cukes every year. The average daily yield
over the 30 days they typically produce is just under three. Some years,
I/m still picking two or three every other day on day 45.

I get plenty to eat, plenty to pickle, and plenty to give away.

Burpee seed pack cost: ~$2.
About a pound of fert for side dressing: ~$0.12.
Fungicide once a week for about eight weeks: ~$0.50
Electricity to pump well water for irrigation, as needed: $0.25

Yield: ~80 cukes

Cost / cuke = $2.87 / 80 = $0.04