Cost-benefit

I couldn't begin to calculate the hours of labour that go into the garden, especially the vegetable beds. Then there's the fixed capital cost of building the beds themselves, the flagging, the greenhouse etc. More variable would be the plants and seeds, but collectively I'd suspect it all adds up.

But the benefits..  

Obviously it all tastes better. Potatoes move from dull to delicious, carrots are crikey rather than OK. Courgettes actually have a taste, who knew.
But it's taken a while, well more than a while, it's taken the passing of Stubborn Old Nan for me to see the metaphorical roots this patch of land binds me with. I've never not once regretted not taking on the running of the farm, but, the farm will clearly never fully let me go either. For all of my adult years I've talked with Nan about what we've grown, what worked, what didn't, the why and the how. Much as I talk often with Mum when I'm in the mountains, now I'll natter with Nan as I potter round the garden. Picking fruit and cucumbers I can hear Grandad's laughing reprimand as more goes in a young boy's mouth than into the basket "worse than a rabbit that one". In the absence of any sun today I could still feel the warmth of that smile.

Priceless.