Rooted.

When we first bought our house I thought 'hurrah I can now have the vege garden I've always dreamed of!'.

The first thing I did was pull out three magnolia trees, which apparently isn't allowed in my corner of the world, but as they were replanted in another corner of the world I'm sure Council wouldn't have minded too much.  These trees were replaced with a mandarin, feijoa and tamarillo tree, as well as a lemonade tree and a lime bush.

I dug up loads of grass to create a space for vegetables and over the years I've grown potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peas, beetroot, rhubarb, courgettes, apple cucumbers and beans.

This year it struck me.  The money I was spending on seeds/seedlings was not in fact being repaid in produce.

Yes the papers bang on about how much money you'll save if you grow a garden, and I grew a garden, but the garden did not really grow much in the way of vegetable.  Even after I forked out a goodly amount of money on fertiliser and spent more money on a compost bin in the hopes of adding more nutrients to the soil.

This year the tomato plants in one part of my garden yielded three tomatoes.  The beans gave me all of six beans.  The courgette - two courgettes.  The apple cucumber - four cucumbers (which I could have bought for $2 at the local grocer and the seedling cost me 3.49).  In fact the only plants that have thrived are the rhubarb and the tomato plant - which sprung out of nowhere in the middle of my flower garden.

As for the fruit trees?  After 3 years the tamarillo has five tiny fruit hanging off it.  The lime has one lime.  The lemonade failed to fruit at all.  The feijoa is finally fattening up.  And the mandarin is weighed down.  So two out of three plants may in fact end up paying for themselves and then some.

So what's a girl to do about it?  A girl who hopes to sell her home in the coming years so she can buy a larger home to house her (hopefully) expanding family?

I'm saying 'phooey' to the vegetable garden and planting flowers which if anything will make the house look more presentable and less hotchpotch.  My garden will be an ode to cosmos and impatiens.  Cosmos - 2.49 a pack (and self seeding) and impatiens FREE from my lovely neighbour.  The added value to my home, to be determined.  The added beauty?  Priceless.

Impatiens ... with a touch of weeds.