the joy of gardening?????

My entire life I have been taught the importance of having a garden. As a kid I resented having to move rocks, pull weeds and work in the garden. It was not fun - it was a chore. I hated it! I was thrilled when we didn't have a garden to work anymore.
As a married woman and mother, I just never wanted to have a garden. (I take that back, I have wanted one - just never wanted to do the work).

I loved eating fresh veggies straight out of the ground as a kid. there are few things tastier than eating that fresh carrot, or peas right out of the pod. I loved being able to do that as a kid. But I hate the work.

Now I have the space, the land and everything ready and I am cringing at the idea of all the work that is needed for me to start a garden. My neighbor Christy, is always bringing over fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, etc... from her lovely garden and it is oh so yummy. I want to have that too!

not only that but as the economy gets more and more fiercely unpleasant, the necessity of a garden becomes more apparent. In order to save money on shopping - I really SHOULD get my garden going.

I have been lucky enough to have purchased a home that the previous owners have been gardening fanatics. it was part of the reason we bought the home. Fruit trees are everywhere. The yard is already planned and had things growing in it waiting for us. Our first year here we had lettuce, garlice, cilantro, grapes, peaches, plums, apples, figs, pears, jujubee, persimmon, and some things I have no idea what they were growing everywhere. We were so excited! we love the yard and all the hard work the Jensen's had done to make it amazing. But we have come to the conclusion that they indeed did a lot of HARD WORK!
so today 3 1/2 years later - we do not have any more lettuce, some of the fruit trees are dying and the garden area has 6 foot weeds all over it.
It's depressing.

we felt impressed that this was the right home for us and we bought it. But we have had to work hard to keep up with the bills. between 3 businesses, 5 crazy kids and other responsibilities - we wonder, how does one have the time for a garden. no really, I want to know. do you have a garden and how do you keep up with it if you also have other businesses you run in order to pay the bills.

We have given a few attempts at it. we get out there and weed and think we are ready to plant and then we go out a week later to see all our work was for nothing. I am so depressed. I had pulled and pulled weeds like mad for a few weeks and we took a little break. I was thinking it was time to prep the soil and went out to see the weeds had all come back.

I will admit - we do not have a ton of money to purchase gallons of weed control and such. the reason we need a garden is because it is getting tough to buy produce. anyway - I am just overwhelmed about the idea of doing this garden. i wish I could afford to hire someone else to come and take care of it for us. I am exploring many options on how to care for a garden on limited time. but everything I read says - get ready to spend a lot of time and effort in getting your garden ready for planting. ouch...

still looking for the joy!

ideas anyone?