Starting a market garden

So a series of unfortunate events is propelling me out of my lackadaisical approach to playing in the dirt and into seriously pursuing market gardening.  I've thought about it, I've got a slew of half-read books, but I haven't ever put a plan together and executed it.  And now I need to.

I have about 1/2 acre fenced, but so far only about 1,650 square feet of that is semi-prepped and ready to be planted.  My chicken run is 624 square feet with a 64-square-foot hoop coop.  The rest is mostly grass, and I have a 10x16 shed in the front (it's not wired).

There's a local nonprofit market that's pretty cheap to sell at.  The organizer recommended silver queen corn, rattlesnake beans, okra, tomatoes, yellow squash, and purple hull peas as crowd favorites and said that strawberries, carrots, turnips, fennel, lima beans, English peas, and butterbeans would also be welcome.  I was considering peppers and zucchini as well.  I also keep reading that oyster and shiitake mushrooms, salad greens, and microgreens sell really well.  Plus it's fall, and I wanted to try growing a fall crop while I'm sorting out spring/summer.

Do any market gardeners here have words of wisdom or warning as I embark on this?  How many hours per day do you put into it?  Should I start with just mushrooms and one or two other crops in my existing space and expand once I've actually generated some income?  Or has anyone gone for broke, set up an full-scale operation in one season, and had success?  For me that would look like a real greenhouse/potting shed, a prep/storage area, and removing sod on around 1/4 acre, plus soil amendments.  Right now I have no specialized tools, either.  I break ground with a broadfork, and use a hoe when needed.  

My other big hurdle is fencing and critter control.  I have about 1,025 square feet of garden fenced in with 2'-tall 1/2" hardware cloth, and the other one is 4'-tall 2x4 welded wire fencing.  Bunnies get into both, although the fences were more to keep the dogs out, who like to dig and steal my plants.  I'd love to hear what other people do.  Is an electric fence worth the cost?  Do the stinky critter repellants from the feed store actually work?

I appreciate any advice, feedback, critique, etc.!

when I grew crops and sold at farmers markets, a very knowledgable and successful old timer told me that its best to grow whatever you can to bring to markets, you want to have a display that will get peoples attention "fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and dancing girls" that's what the old wise man told me. if you can grow long stem flowers and miniature sunflowers and lots of herbs along with your vegetables it can increase the amount of people that will come to look at what you have under your pop up canopy. I did very well with big bunches of basil and rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano, dill and others. and no one else had fresh herbs at the markets I attended.. and also if you fill some flats with small pots, like little peat pots and can sell live herb and vegetable  and flower plants too.

one thing good about adding herbs to your offerings is whatever does not sell fresh you can dry and bottle and sell dried herbs. there are not many vegetables you can dry and still have a product to sell.

Great idea about the dried herbs Bruce!

You are asking some of the same questions and struggling with some of the same issues that I've had over the years. From what I've seen the successful small scale producers are those that have a location where the customers come to them. Also when I say small scale I mean as compared to industrialized operations, those I am familiar with are still much larger than my gardens.

One of the biggest issues with growing and transporting to a market is that produce is a perishable product, extremely so in fact. Take a tomato for example. Your pour you heart and sole into growing it and when it is ready to sell, it's ready to sell. A few days later it's unsaleable at any price.

I've visited lots of markets and found it quite common to see large  boxes and crates, hidden behind the tables often with product of Mexico on the side. I know of a number of market "sellers" who attend large auctions of such produce and then put it out on tables at a local market. The one market I know of that banned that and enforced it was reduced to crafts like candles and baskets.

Two exceptions to the non-profitability of fresh food that has to be transported and can be produced on small scale are eggs and honey.  And they both, the honey more so that eggs do not absolutely have to sell immediately. You can take them home and try again another day. Actually when I produced eggs I had a group of customers already lined up so didn't have to mess with marketing.

Also from observing the local markets I found that the most profitable crops  are not necessarily food, or at least not primarily food, but instead decorations. These alas have the advantage of appealing to a wider customer base. The two big ones are ornamental corn and ornamental gourds or pumpkins. These also have the advantage of not quickly spoiling and the corn at least can even be sold on line and mailed. Here for example sweet corn, for all the effort it takes to grow and transport it and the fact it spoils in a day or two sells for maybe $4.00 a dozen where I can sell dry ornamental corn at $5.00 for three ears or $20.00 a dozen.

I also do fairly well with spring transplants, tomatoes, cabbage and so on. Along with those I sell quite a lot of tree seedlings which I start from seed and basically for free. Perennial flower starts sell good and also cheap and easy to produce and so do what I might call specialty plants. For example the woman here sells the heck out of hen and chicken plants. A project for me this fall is to expand her mother plant garden so she doesn't run out. The vegetable plants may be a somewhat of an exception but all of these also have the advantage of not having to sell in a day or two, you just take them home and try again another day.

Another marketable but not especially profitable crop for me is not vegetables but vegetable seeds. Again they keep a long time and can also be sold on line.

If I was going to try to produce some fresh food type product I think I would focus on just one, maybe two at the most and I would work hard to have the first and the best of it year. I don't know what it would be but something comparatively easy. Probably something perennial like maybe asparagus or strawberries.

The nonprofit market requires produce to be grown in the county or adjacent and only by the grower or a relative, for what it's worth.  Do people cheat?  I don't know.  It's twice a week and 5 minutes from my house.  I think they do require that most of what you sell be produce, so that could be a downside.  And I could consider farm stand hours at some point, though.

My concern about eggs is I live in a neighborhood, and don't want to be a nuisance.  Honey might be interesting; I feel like I'd need to work up to that one.

Great point about herbs!!  

What about a heavy duty tiller to break up the turf and then go no till after that?  Is that reasonable?  I'm not sure how else to break it up.  It's St. Augustine, Bermuda, and crabgrass.

First check your cottage industry laws, you may need permits and a certified kitchen if you do any pre prepped stuff including dried things. (and eggs are almost always subject to more regulation) Also check you are allowed to grow to sell on your property, sounds strange I know but I have heard of people having issues.

How large a vegetable garden have you done before? 1/4 Acre is a good amount to start with, if you're going to be going full time 1/2 should also be fine, even though it will be very weedy the first few years. It does depend on what you grow however, a 1/2 acre of salad greens, peas, radishes, turnips and green beans would take 2 people possibly 3 whereas 1 acre of squash would take less than a person.
Have a look in your local shops, do they stock lots of salad greens/baby leaves? If they do great plant lots, if they don't then don't base your income plan on them, I cannot sell bagged salad at all, it's just not a thing here.

As to what to start with, I find that people like the stands they shop at to have some variety, but the more things you do the harder it gets. so In my opinion you should aim to have a minimum of 6-8 things at every market.
No the smell repellents do not work, get the fencing sorted before you put out a buffet for the rabbits.

Time, it's very very season dependent, when my strawberries and peas are both in production I spend 4 hours each day JUST picking them, I still need to plant, weed and harvest other crops plus markets etc. so for me time goes something like this
May 4-5 hrs per day
Early June 4-5hrs
Late June 12+
July 12+
August 4-5
September 1-2

These are 7 day weeks there's no such thing as a day off in season as a one man band. I do one market and have a stand, the stand takes a huge amount of time as it needs constant checking, things do not last long refrigerated so there can never be much out on it at a time. I would really recommend getting a fridge if you go with a stand.

Starting your first market garden can seem quite intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be so difficult, as long as you break it down into smaller steps.
1. Do Your Research
2. Find Some Land
3. Plan Your Crops and Production
4. Prepare Your Soil
5. Plant Your Crops
6. Maintaining Your Crops
7. Harvesting
It’s best for market gardeners to try and find in-demand products that fetch a high price and are currently under-served in the local market. Although pretty much any crop can be grown. It’s best to avoid crops like corn and wheat though, which large farms are already supplying lots of at low prices. Of course, it will depend on your local area. The name “market garden” gives a good clue that you should be listening to what your market is asking for, and then supply that.

Emily,

If I were starting a market garden I would first consider the advice that I received from the organizer:

The organizer recommended silver queen corn, rattlesnake beans, okra, tomatoes, yellow squash, and purple hull peas as crowd favorites and said that strawberries, carrots, turnips, fennel, lima beans, English peas, and butterbeans would also be welcome.  

Though I would visit the local nonprofit market to see for myself what is selling and if everyone is selling the same things, do they all sell out?

If that is where you want to sell your market garden try to think of some things you can grow now to get started.

Start small with things you are familiar with.

One of our members, Tracy had a successful Market Garden.  Here are some of her threads that might give you some ideas:

https://permies.com/t/62783/permaculture-market-garden

https://permies.com/t/56720/permaculture-projects/garden-fence-finally-finished-rainbows

Emily Smith wrote:What about a heavy duty tiller to break up the turf and then go no till after that?  Is that reasonable?  I'm not sure how else to break it up.  It's St. Augustine, Bermuda, and crabgrass.

Hey, I do not have any experience with the market side of things, but thought I might have some info to share on the gardening part. I have cleared about a quarter of an acre of "farmland" on my property, and it was my hope to be able to manage it without tilling. Turns out, that is quite difficult, especially starting from established weeds and grass!

I would highly suggest you get yourself a tilling implement of some kind. If there are tall weeds, run a mower or string trimmer over it before you try and till, or you will just make a stringy mess. Also, timing is key. If the ground is clayey, it needs a couple of dry days before tilling it, and if you are turning under weeds (or someday cover crops) then let it decompose for at least 2 weeks before you plant - which is to say: till in advance of your target planting date.

Tilling basically turbo-charges the decomposition process that is always happening in the soil - so if you till too much and do not add fresh plant matter, the soil will get depleted over time. My experience with tilling is that it lets you clear such large areas so fast that it becomes too large to manage except by more tilling. I am working on breaking the cycle by slowly setting up permanent beds, using mulches, and possibly by simply removing the crop residue in the summer and replanting the next crop directly without needing to till. (Lots of weeds just sprouted up where my beans had been, so I am testing using my propane torch to burn them down- not exactly sustainable farming, I know).  It is all a work in progress, but Tilling with a rototiller is a chore, and you will likely not want to do it long term if you can help it.

So I would say; start with tilling. Youll want to research what cover crops work well in your climate/for your planned cropping regimen, and then slowly start doing research on how to switch to no-till. Sheet mulching works pretty well out west (we also have droughts to deal with, and it helps with that too), and if you can get a good rotation going, and can keep the soil fertility up with compost and other amendments, you can possibly transition to permanent beds that basically never get tilled or turned, or anything. It requires you have good soil, and will keep you busy with hand-weeding, but it is a lot less heavy labor. Anyway, good luck, and post some pictures and/or start a thread about your adventure in market gardening!

Skandi Rogers wrote:
No the smell repellents do not work, get the fencing sorted before you put out a buffet for the rabbits.

This is what's tricky right now.  Electric net fencing is very expensive but the most elegant solution, and anything permanent would make it difficult to maneuver a tiller or two-wheel tractor and also basically create a maze of fences.  I'm working inside a fenced yard to begin with.  I could look into refencing, as well, maybe.  That would also get pricey.  What I'm reading is cottontails only need about 24" or so to deter them from jumping.

No major updates -- looking into loans and grants, planning soil tests, and looking for a two-wheel tractor.


Adding pictures!  Hopefully they upload properly.  Two existing garden areas, our chicken setup, and the plot I want to make the "main" garden.

Awesome Emily! Keep sharing your progress!

Thanks, Scott!

So the newest development is the business licensing people require a license to sell to the permies, and they won't give me one unless I'm operating on at least 10 acres... which in my area could go for $75k-$150k.  Yet the nonprofit farmer's market lady said I didn't need one, so I'm confused.  I'm looking at the next county over (15-20 minute drive for me), but overall, my options are:
a) give up and keep mowing my yard/find a real day job
b) focus on a kitchen garden
c) sell without a permit at that one nonprofit farmer's market (at what risk, I'm not sure)
d) (somehow) buy land in the next county and farm it remotely
e) sell my house and move... somewhere.  Land values are high all around, and I can't pick up and go just anywhere.
f) something I'm too blind to see??


Before all of that went down, I was leaning toward focusing on salad greens, carrots, and maybe one or two other crops (oyster mushrooms?!), and selling to local restaurants as well the markets.

Not for the first time, I'm wondering if this just a crazy pipe dream I can't pull off.  It's not like I have a beautiful garden right now.

That sounds very strange I would try to find local farmers groups and see what they say about it. Here if you go and ask the state they will tell you you need to be licensed and inspected, what they don't tell you about is we have "barn door" laws which allow small producers to sell without any of those issues.

One detail to consider is how much money you'll actually make.  After expanding the gardens, buying all the stuff, putting your time in, buying a new place, etc.  Will you be making $100 a market or $500?  If it's $100 would your time have been better spent at a workee job?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that market farming isn't a quick/easy buck.  It's lots of hard work.  Even after putting in the hard work it might just not be worth the money earned.

Sorry to be the devil's advocate or a downer but it's worth doing the math...

Mike Haasl wrote:One detail to consider is how much money you'll actually make.  After expanding the gardens, buying all the stuff, putting your time in, buying a new place, etc.  Will you be making $100 a market or $500?  If it's $100 would your time have been better spent at a workee job?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that market farming isn't a quick/easy buck.  It's lots of hard work.  Even after putting in the hard work it might just not be worth the money earned.

Sorry to be the devil's advocate or a downer but it's worth doing the math...

No, I appreciate that.  The goal isn't to be rich, for sure.  My current situation is that I work two part-time jobs (both usually about 12 hours/week each) and am a single parent with kids learning at home (they're older, thankfully).  I want something I can do at home or from home, that doesn't require computer work (at least not 100%), and that I could potentially bring my kids into or at least pause without guilt, instead of feeling like each moment I'm choosing between work and kids.  And also if I'm turning my brain to mush, I want it to be for something that's mine.  One job I'm ok with and would keep, but there will never be more work there and it's 100% internet dependent).  The other job is mentally taxing, I'm occasionally on call without pay, and replacing its income is my floor for net profit from a market garden... so for my current property, about $6k/year from 12 beds ranging from 25' to 50' long (so $600/growing month).  If I could manage that, maybe scaling up would be easier.  That was the idea.  Now, idk.

Other options might be oyster mushrooms or honey, but again, if the 10-acre requirement applies to those, I'm back to square one.  I did ask in a local FB group, but I'll see if I can find people who are actually selling at markets or to restaurants.

I helped out at a local farm for while. They did markets and had a CSA box, too.  

The wo popman told me before they started they did a tonne of research. She said they spent months hanging out at grocery stores watching what people buy, listening to people complain about prices or selection or whatever. This gave them an idea of what to grow and how to price. You've already been given an idea of what to grow, but maybe it would be a good idea to hang out at the market and listen to people. Maybe you'll find out people are hoping to find something no one there ever has.

I'd hang out there to get to know the sellers, too. They can help you figure out the behind the scenes stuff. Maybe someone could use some help at their stall in exchange for some illuminating chit chat.

Mike Haasl wrote:One detail to consider is how much money you'll actually make.  After expanding the gardens, buying all the stuff, putting your time in, buying a new place, etc.  Will you be making $100 a market or $500?  If it's $100 would your time have been better spent at a workee job?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that market farming isn't a quick/easy buck.  It's lots of hard work.  Even after putting in the hard work it might just not be worth the money earned.

Sorry to be the devil's advocate or a downer but it's worth doing the math...

As one who has spent the last four years building a market garden, I think the statement above sums up the reality of a one person market garden. I feel like you will have to charge a premium for your crops to make enough profit to afford inputs and to live. That typically means the big city, or farmers markets where the big city comes to shop on the weekend. It took me four years to build my soil and the infrastructure to run a market garden, but I am finding it difficult to find avenues to sell. Ultimately I will likely end up at a farmers market many miles away closer to the big city where I have to pay a fee to have a booth. There just isn't a lot of extra money for booths, marketing, gas, compost, etc...

I have so much to add but want to go back through this thread and add my 2 cents to several outstanding comments by others when I have a little more time.  

Emily Smith wrote:
So the newest development is the business licensing people require a license to sell to the permies, and they won't give me one unless I'm operating on at least 10 acres... which in my area could go for $75k-$150k.  Yet the nonprofit farmer's market lady said I didn't need one, so I'm confused.  I'm looking at the next county over (15-20 minute drive for me)...

There's no need to buy the land. You can likely find some land to lease quite cheaply within a reasonable distance. If you decide you need to farm 10+ acres either for legal reasons or to make enough profit, leasing will make far more sense.

I find it hard to believe that you can't legally sell food grown on less than 10 acres, but I don't live in your state or county, so anything is possible.

I highly recommend this free book. Despite being published before 1900, it is very relevant to today's market gardener. It's on Steve Solomon's site of free books.
Steve's site: https://soilandhealth.org
Download this book: https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/0302hsted/030219marketgarden/marketgarden.pdf

The author, Peter Henderson, was a highly successful market gardener near New York City in the late 19th century. He talks in detail about what works, and what will cause you to fail.

Key elements are location (you must be near your customers), soil (it must be good soil and you must add fertilizer, which at his time meant manure), and personal management (you can hire labor, but you cannot hire a manager and still make a profit). While some of the details such as costs and pricing are out of date, the general principles are not.

Again, look into leasing good land in a good location.

Christopher Staley wrote:As one who has spent the last four years building a market garden, I think the statement above sums up the reality of a one person market garden. I feel like you will have to charge a premium for your crops to make enough profit to afford inputs and to live. That typically means the big city, or farmers markets where the big city comes to shop on the weekend. It took me four years to build my soil and the infrastructure to run a market garden, but I am finding it difficult to find avenues to sell. Ultimately I will likely end up at a farmers market many miles away closer to the big city where I have to pay a fee to have a booth. There just isn't a lot of extra money for booths, marketing, gas, compost, etc...

I don't think there's any question that the hard part of successful market gardening is the marketing, not the gardening!  While gardening is work, there is a lot of information available on it, and many people have a lot of gardening experience.

But you cannot just create a garden and say "I'll figure out the marketing later" or "I'm sure my customers will find me."  The marketing is what requires the effort, and is less familiar to most people who want to grow and sell food.

(The same is true of larger-scale farmers.  Those who just want to grow food and let someone else do the work of selling usually find that either they fail, or that "someone else" is making all of the profits.)

Gosh Cathy that is so true!  I will say this.  It's hard to market without products, so they will go hand in hand.  Also, there can be changes that you will have to roll with.  For example, you may start a market garden and next thing you know a pandemic happens and what once was is no longer.  

Edit:. I just wanted to add. I know everyone had to deal and adapt with the pandemic.  In my case, I live in a more rural area with a lot of small towns nearby frequented on the weekends by people escaping the city. The restaurants in these towns were a bit more upscale and more likely to buy local produce.  This dryed up just as I began trying to market.  Hopefully we can slowly get back, but I'm sure everyone has had to adapt their marketing a bit lately.

After laying out beds and paths and measuring both those and my existing beds, the actual growing area is more like 1,874, with a potential for 2,235 after extending a few beds and creating a few new ones.  That's 24 beds varying from 13' to 43' long and either 30" or 48" and 18" paths for the most part, with a few 4' paths for better access.  Over half of these beds are new, though, and I'm still wrestling with breaking ground and forming the beds/paths.

I rented a rear tine tiller from Sunbelt.  They didn't have the beefy 13hp hydraulic tiller.  Instead, I got one with something between 8-10hp.  I'd heard magical stories about rear tines and how they would break sod and till the dirt at the same time without a ton of muscle from the operator.  This did not do that.  So whether because it didn't have enough power to do it or because those stories are lies, I currently have a relatively shallow till job that will require my dad's front tine to complete (hopefully!).  

I'm left wondering if I could possibly invest in a BCS and then rent it out to area homesteaders (there is no place around here that rents two-wheel tractors) to justify the one-time use of the tiller and/or plough attachments (the tiller seems to disturb the soil less than a plough).  The plan was to get it tilled the first time, then use something less invasive to incorporate amendments (harrow? rake? tilther?).  I can't do it with a broadfork/shovel; it's too much for me.

Emily, how is your garden going? I am considering doing something similar, but not sure if it will work out this year. We just moved to a new property, and entirely new climate as well, last year. I'm just planting as much as I possibly can, and if I end up with extra, I will try the local, free farmer's market 15 minutes away, and/or a roadside honor booth and advertise on social media. We will see... I do have the luxury that we are getting by on my husband's job, so if I can bring in some money it would be extremely helpful, but we will get by (barely) either way. I'm very grateful for the financial wiggle room while I learn to garden in this brand-new climate, though. I have homeschooling kids too, so I want to do something that allows me to stay home with them.

I've been creating new beds by chopping the sod up with a good, heavy, grub hoe from Easy Digging. then I sit down with my hori hori knife, and chop it a bit more and remove pull out all the grass bits and rizomes. It is time-consuming, and working with the hoe is a real workout, but it gets the job done, and I am getting much more fit doing it this way, so that is a plus!

I recently read a book from the public library "The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables" that gave me a lot of interesting insights. I will never farm the way that they do (lots of mechanization, row covers, etc), but it was still an extremely helpful book to read. My main take-away from it is that if you are going to have a successful market garden, you need to figure out the most efficient ways to do things, and eliminate wasted time and effort, because otherwise you are going to burn out and/ or not make enough profits to be worth your time. There are actually quite a few books out there on market gardening that I've read over the years; your local library probably has some of them, and all contain useful info to help you fine-tune your goals and strategies.

An interesting bit of advice I got from the Lean Farm book, was for new farmers to just focus on one or two crops per growing season, and learn to do those really well. I planted heaps of extra tomatoes, in addition to my other summer veggies, because I figure I can dehydrate or can extras for home use throughout the year, if I don't find a market for the excess. And also because I love growing tomatoes.

Here in Texas (and probably in Georgia too) there is a fall growing season as well, so if by chance I sell most of my extra tomatoes and don't have any to preserve from my spring garden, I can probably grow some more in the fall to preserve for winter. I'm going to try and plant a lot of greens this fall, interplanted with garlic, to grow through the winter, both for home use and possibly to sell. Here in Texas, I can dehydrate kale and sell it as kale chips too, without a certified kitchen, under the cottage industry laws here.

For me, renting out heavy machinery sounds like a major headache and stress. The only way I would consider doing something like that would be if people hired me to come and till for them, which I would no way have the time or energy for. I wouldn't want to have other people using my expensive machinery, and possibly breaking it. I tend to stress about things like that, though.

Please pardon if I didn't read carefully enough.  Emily, did you ever figure out your license issue?

Have you seen this publication?  http://agr.georgia.gov/data/sites/1/media/ag_marketing/the-farmers-market-guide.pdf
See page 5. #4 Manage the regulations - page7

I think another valuable resource for learning about the process is other sellers at farmers markets.  If you think they might feel they don't want to help "the competition," go to a market in another town.  Just make sure they are instate sellers who are dealing with Georgia laws.  Make sure they aren't running a huge operation selling at multiple markets.  

As for what will help you make a profit or at least break even the first year, when you are at your local market, look at what is selling.  Ask other market goers what they are unable to find that they would like.  Is there a large number of other ethnicities and do they have to travel to other markets to get the vegetables they use?  I have a market farmer friend and we live in an area with a large Hmong community, but many of them grow their own gardens and share/barter within their community; so cross off that idea.  There's a small store offering natural products and some organic produce, but they are unable to get some of the more perishable produce very easily.  My farmer friend found this out and was able to grow what that store owner would come to the market to buy at pre-agreed upon discount price and he does not offer that on his stand.  But he also found out there are several large senior living apartment building within walking distance of the market.  He bought an ad for $25 for a whole page in one building's monthly newsletter and talked with employees and residents and learned many of them want to be able to cook basic organic vegetables and few were into some of the more "exotic" ones.  They understand the time and money that foes into certification for organic and will accept his word of honor to provide non-certified organic.  He has also started talking to the social events director about providing some free or low-cost cooking classes for some of the less used produce that is convenient in easy to prepare meals.  His wife is an avid cook and baker, so that brings that idea full circle.  Be creative!

Many farmers are going no till by simply building raised beds.  They don't have to be structures, but building up rows with top soil and compost.  I do have a friend who decided to do intensive planting in 12" raised beds (he did use wood) and is sort of following the square foot method.  He has 16 4x8 beds and most are for single product but he also adds in companion planting and some cut flowers for the market.  He has a great plan where is does succession planting and also no bed sits empty very long as another crop goes in right behind the last.  He also does have some sort of rotation in there but the whole plan blows my mind.  I think he was a wiz kid and also is very adept at using spreadsheets.  Anyway,  there are tons of books available through your local library and sometimes they can get books from colleges and universities.  All I know is, Georgia has one of the best cooperative extension services in the country with lots of research going on in the field of agriculture at many levels of higher education.  A lot of that gets filtered down to the agents and there are many programs that are able to share that valuable information in a way that makes it applicable in the field, literally.  And don't think that is all too much for you.  The agents are there to help and there are many programs to help small, and very small, farmers, even sometimes financial assistance.  Please do check it out.   https://extension.uga.edu/  there's probably an office for your county, as well as statewide resources.

Finally, check out this book:  Square Foot Gardening High-Value Veggies: Homegrown Produce Ranked by Value, Paperback – March 15, 2016, ISBN-10
1591866685 or ISBN-13-978-1591866688

I am seriously envious of your growing zone 7b or 8b?
I am in 3b  

Very Best of Luck!!
Mary