My father had bought a small tiller many years ago (it had never been taken out of the boxes) and he just stored it. We had put it in our yard sale last year because I thought it was to small to be of any use to me. It did not sell. Boy am I glad! That little thing can dig up some tough ground!
Point is - my garden has not cost me a lot. I did till in about $100 of composted manure into the tomato patch, raised beds and watermelon patch and may be used a gallon of gas for the tiller. But I also had a great big ol' pile of home made compost (mostly grass clipping from last year) that helped the soil. Other costs were minimal seeds, fish emulsion for the seedlings and that is about it! I did spend on average about $15 each for the fruit trees.
As another Vietnam vet gardener, I am impressed with your pics. My wife is an Army brat, but her grandmother lived in Starkville, so she calls that home. Misses the figs greatly.
We planted a cherry tree five years ago and last year it looked like we were going to have a huge crops until we had a late April freeze. It got our apples, cherries, and blueberries. This year we will be in a race against the birds for the cherries starting in about 4 or 5 days. They have been reconning the tree daily but we hope to beat them with CD’s tied in the tree along with foil and probably a Daisy Model 760 pellet rifle.
We have a single blueberry bush that usually gives us four to five gallons of berries the size of the end of my thumb. It is 20 years old and is directly under a small leak in the gutter of the house. I would fix the gutter leak, but it provides exactly what we need for good blueberries.