The Market Gardener’s Toolkit

The Market Gardener’s Toolkit is an educational documentary in which small-scale organic farmer, educator and author Jean-Martin Fortier shares the tools and techniques used on the highly productive 1.5-acre farm he runs with his wife Maude-Hélène.

From soil preparation to strategies on dealing with insect pests, discover how this micro-farm manages to generate $150,000 CAD in sales annually – without the use of a tractor or any heavy machinery.

Filmed over an entire growing season in Quebec’s beautiful Eastern Townships, The Market Gardener’s Toolkit offers an unprecedented insight into the daily operations of the farm, from seeding to transplanting, from weeding to harvesting.

Fortier takes you through the following subjects and demonstrates a variety of tools and techniques :

• Greenhouse and nursery
• The permanent bed system
• Standardization for efficiency
• Bed preparation with the minimal tillage approach
• Compost, fertilization and crop rotation
• Green manures
• The bio-intensive system
• Transplantation
• Direct seeding / Seeders
• Irrigation
• Weeding / Flame weeding
• Plastic and organic mulches
• Insect control
• Harvesting

No matter the scale of your project, whether a small urban farm or a full-scale commercial market garden, this film will offer valuable information and help make your operation more efficient and profitable. The emphasis is put on low-tech, high-efficiency tools and techniques, with an aim to produce more with less work and less capital investment.