Just a quick tip on your tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and sugar snap peas– these are varieties of plants that are recommended to be grown “vergtically” by the SFG originator– Mel. I believe the technique for the vertical trellis is described on his website. If not, it is definitely laid out in his book. These plants are recommended to be put on the north side of the garden boxes so they don’t overly shade the rest of the garden.
There’s also good advice in the book on when to start seeds indoors or when to plant transplants and seeds in the garden itself to help keep on track with the seasons.
I’ve also heard about strawberries taking more than one season before they hit full potential. (note– asparagus takes about 2 years before you’ll have anything to harvest.) To link that with your financial comparisons — some investments take a long-term approach and cannot be judged by short-term flux. Perhaps ‘riding it out’ will be more profitable in the long run. It’s up to each of us to decide what risk we are willing to take in keeping the investment in hopes that it will perform well later or removing them to make room for other ‘better performing’ investments.

good luck with this upcoming year! I look forward to seeing more on your progress!

I just did my first SFG also! Try using a trellis of some kind for the squash and for the snap peas. I put mine caddy corner in one corner where I plan on planting snap peas. Last year I did cucumbers on a plastic tomato trellis near my deck and had the vines sprawled up on my deck. It was awesome to walk out on my deck and pick cucumbers for our dinner salad as I was grilling!

I have heard that strawberries need two seasons to establish and perform well, btw.