I have lived all but two years of my life on a farm or in farm country, so I have planted plenty of vegetable gardens and fruit trees. There are no two ways about it, having a garden and fruit trees is a lot of just plain hard work! Fighting those little furry abominations called gophers that eat the exact same stuff I like is an added chore and the best way I have found to fight them is to plant the tree root balls inside a protective wire cage to keep them from the inner roots, but that is only practical for the trees since the cost of the hardware cloth is far too high to plant corn and beans in. You can't shoot the gophers very easily, either, because they rarely come above ground in daylight, although when I have seen a plant stem start to wiggle or the gopher mound start to move when they bring up a load of dirt I have taken out a few with my .30-06. With the right projectile it will stir up the ground deep enough to kill a gopher when hitting just close to one. But that bothers the neighbors I have now, though, so I just try to trap the critters. Birds take their toll in my garden, too, but I use netting to keep them out plus I am a bit more forgiving of birds because I like watching them fly and I like listening to their calls and songs just before first light.
All that hard work in the garden and orchard is pretty much forgotten when the first harvest of the season is taken. That incipient garbage that the supermarkets sell in their "produce" section resembles real home garden fruits and vegetables the same way that a photograph of something like an original 99% condition Colt SA, 1894 Winchester model 94, or a new-in-the-Cosmoline CMP Garand is the same as actually owning and shooting one!
There is nothing on earth that will compare to a big dinner plate full of home grown Illini Chief corn on the cob, Kentucky Wonder string beans, Detroit dark red beets, Burbank new potatoes, and hotdog-size Zucchini squash that have all been cooked just enough, with a side of sliced Beefsteak or cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumber for a salad, and tree-ripened Santa Rosa plums or Ventura peaches for desert. I usually dab my corn and beans with butter and put on a pinch of fresh ground black pepper. A nice slab of charcoal grilled elk, venison, or grain-fed beef is the best way to finish it all off.
Okay, that does it, I’m hungry now, bye!