Pavel314 wrote:
Yesterday evening I spread two 28' x 28' bird nets over my raspberry
patch. There were only a few berries last year but this year it looks
like I'll get about a quart. During the process, I realized that I was
struggling out in the heat to install $50 worth of bird netting to
save about $5 worth of berries. Not a great one-time investment, but
next year the patch should really start bearing and the netting will
be well worth the investment.

Paul

Small scale growing has problems of cost effectiveness when compared to
supermarket prices, especially when you are starting out. If you factor in
the other benefits and pleasures that eating your own produce provides it is
much more worth it. If you can increase your scale moderately so that you
multiply your production using the same fixed overheads and if you can learn
to recycle and reuse instead of purchasing your inputs the financial balance
comes back into your favour.

The way to do this is to provide for more than one family (unless you have a
large one already), to learn to preserve your abundant crops and to sell or
exchange the rest locally. This is probably not possible if all you have is
a balcony but if you have 50 sq metres of soil in a sunny spot it is.

If in doubt give it away. I often give surplus veges to neighbours without
expecting anything in return, however things come back to you. Last year
one fixed my car (which would have cost several hundred dollars) and refused
to take any money.

David