A Market Farmer's System for More Vegetables in Less Space

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J.M. Fortier, a Quebec-based organic farmer who has worked roughly two acres for 25 years, describes the core of his bio-intensive home garden method in a new book called In Your Garden. The system starts with permanent, standardized beds — a 30-inch growing area with 18-inch paths — that are never rototilled. Instead, a broadfork (a two-handled fork with long tines that you push in and rock back) loosens the soil deeply without destroying its structure or killing earthworms, which Fortier says is the essential first step because compaction is the number one enemy of vegetable growing.

Crops are spaced so their leaves just touch at about three-quarters of their mature size, forming a canopy that shades out weeds and holds soil moisture — both of which reduce the need for hand weeding. Between transplanting and canopy closure, a stirrup hoe (a blade on a long handle that moves soil as you walk, cutting weed seedlings before they establish) handles cultivation without kneeling. Fortier also makes a strong case for cover crops — a mix of hairy vetch and winter rye sown into empty beds in fall — followed in late spring by chopping the growth down and then covering the bed with a black opaque tarp for three to four weeks (a technique called occultation), which kills the cover crop and feeds its biomass to soil microorganisms, leaving a clean, biology-rich bed ready to plant.