Making money square foot gardening

 I have worked to start an urban farm for the last three years.  At first, I sought to create a profitable farm with the side benefits of having good food to eat.  I soon realized that my community was pretty urban farming averse so I spent the time doing research, blessing friends and family and at the same time eating really good food!

One of my first efforts was to become a certified "Square Foot Gardening" instructor.  I had been using a hybrid of the Square food garden method for a few years.  It had been amazingly successful with much less work from my previous gardening, so I set about trying to do square foot on a large scale.  My gardens did amazing! 

If you want to be successful the very first year you plant.  Square foot gardening is a great way to get started.  Start by reading the Square foot garden book.  Read the whole book don't just skim through it.  And pay close attention to where he has you put your gardens.  This is the lazy man's way of successfully growing vegetables.

I invested a significant amount the first year buying all the ingredients for the boxes and the boxes themselves.  If you want to be consistently successful the very first year, using the Square foot ingredients for your soil is a must.  (1/3 compost from 5 different sources like cow, chicken, bat, worms, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 peat-moss) Many people will tell you that perlite is just as good as vermiculite but don't believe them!  Perlite floats and tends to wash away and make a mess and really it isn't as attractive over all.  Potting soil or topsoil from your nursery will not give you the same results.  If you can't afford all the ingredients, just use compost as suggested in the book.  Start making your own compost right away, you will need it for next year!  

Square foot gardening is hands down the best system I found for beginners and being successful year after year.  However, take the time before you plant to put in an automatic watering system.  If you do it yourself, they are not too much more than the investment you already made in set up and if you want to be a lazy gardener,  (the only kind worth being in my opinion) then take watering off your plate from the very beginning.  If you run soaker hoses down the middle of each row you are set to go!

But the question is, can you make money?  I'm still on the fence about that.  I wasn't able to test the theory where we lived.  I did have takers for an urban CSA but the investment in soil and boxes was big and I am more and more leaning towards a regenerative lifestyle which square foot doesn't address.  Making my soil instead of mimicking how nature establishes healthy soil seems counter productive and very expensive in comparison.  My thoughts so far are, yes, you can make money, you certainly can be successful and building soil fertility takes years where as Square foot will grow wonderful veggies the very first year! But I'm looking into ways that are more sustainable and less expensive up front.  If you have any new ideas let me know.