That doesn't really count all the money and/or time required to get the garden into that productive state. I've spent a lot of time and money on mine. And I don't mind that, I love working on it and it is both decorative and productive. But everything grown in my garden would have been a lower overall cost to me if I had a house with no garden at all.

For example, you listed those free items of compost etc. I also make my own and get freebies wherever I can. But when we moved here the ground was in a poor state so we have paid quite a bit for extra soil compost and mulch. We could have purchased a house with a great existing garden and mature trees - did view one, but then the house itself needed a lot of work. One way or another its expensive. Another example, I could get a lot more free/cheap material if I had a trailer. Suitable second hand trailer around here would be $1000 to $6000. That's a lot of supermarket vegetables.

I think it's still important to note that it's not a constant for everyone. I too like the previous commentor got to save money albeit with a lot of initial backbreaking work for a small garden. I think most could with a lot of work, some stingyness.

I had shit soil when I started too (long story but I overpayed for it to prevent cracks due to a shit foundation)

I ended up getting great soil from a tomato & peppers nursery/seed selling business i had helped out before. They were moving and i helped em out with that again and they have to refresh their mix once every few years anyway or they can harbor diseases that can fuck up their year. I also got a bit of forest soil which was probably not allowed (it's within close distance and i hauled 3 baskets for every new plant i put down) and then a bit of additional soil from a nearby cellar being dug which was shit but i had to raise an additional bit of garden regardless of whether it held veg or lawn. Additionally I got a few trailers of free horse manure that I scouted local 2ndhand sites for because there's too much manure in this country I'm in. I used my dad's trailer who needs it regardless for a lot of other stuff he does. I got some free seconhand fencing mesh for peas to grow on. Cut bamboo my neighbour couldn't get rid of to support it all and some other plants. I now have a secondhand plastic greenhouse. I still don't have plastic for low tunnels yet but anticipated late frost by simply putting cut plastic bottles over my plants.

The only thing I actually spent on was a few cheap tools, seeds and a few rare herbs/berry bushes & 2 small fruit trees. Oh and last year I had to spent on water due to persistent draught but this year I catch water from the shed and wood storage into some free secondhand IBC vats.

Since then I think I've more than paid back for the help I've been given with the amount of veg I've given away. It has cost me boatloads of time to get started tho but...I've really enjoyed it. My daytime job programming keeps me sitting still away from the sun otherwise.

Certainly we get help from our neighbours, and they've also let us use their tools and trailer on occasion. We've done less for them, but I have made them a lot of coffee. Still, if we hadn't spent money we wouldn't have got nearly as far with our available time.

>we have paid quite a bit for extra soil compost and mulch

Literally the opposite of what permaculture is about. Redirect your food waste! Make your own compost! Mulch with cardboard & newspaper!

I didn't say I was doing permaculture. I know what it's about. We certainly incorporate bits of it, for example I do make my own compost and I do mulch with cardboard and other available materials. And we built a hugelmound. However, I'm not going to give up my job or fart around for 10 years to get things done when we can make a call and get a truck load of mulch. Plus the company that we buy from takes greenwaste and turns it into mulch and compost, so apart from the commercial component it's not that different a lifecycle, just a different scale.