Initial setup costs are significant, but most are exactly that — initial and not recurring. You don't need to buy compost and mulch and starting pots each year — you can build up your own compost, get spoiled hay and straw for free, use your grass clippings, and make paper pots or reuse things as Nancy suggests.

When you compare costs, compare your veggies with organic local produce at the farmers market, not regular supermarket stuff.

Check out Ruth Stout on lazy gardening with permanent mulch and no tilling; I think you'll find her amusing and practical.

It's true hay and clippings will have weed seeds… but if you make the mulch layer deep enough, the weeds will mostly be squashed.

Also, there are space-saving varieties of some usually sprawling veggies — bush-type zucchini and so on. You get more butternut flesh per square foot of garden space than you get pumpkin, and it makes even better pies and is also good mashed and in soups and such.