Organic Weed Control with Jean-Martin Fortier

By Jean-Martin Fortier
Published on April 9, 2015
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Hand-weeding is tiring and time-consuming. Instead, focus on cultivating weed-free plots from the start, and organic weed control becomes a much more reasonable goal.
Hand-weeding is tiring and time-consuming. Instead, focus on cultivating weed-free plots from the start, and organic weed control becomes a much more reasonable goal.
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"The Market Gardener," by Jean-Martin Fortier, is a compendium of Les Jardins de la Grelinette's proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods, with low-tech, high-yield production ideas that focus on growing better, rather than growing bigger.

Local organic agriculture depends on innovative ideas for its success, and The Market Gardener, (New Society Publishers, 2014) by Jean-Martin Fortier, is full of low-tech, high-yield methods of production proven on the grounds of Les Jardins de la Grelinette. From organic weed control to systematic crop growth and realistic marketing plans, Fortier explains how he and his wife have made a good living on only 1.5 acres of cultivated land. The following excerpt is from chapter 9, “Weed Management.”

You can purchase this book from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS store: The Market Gardener.


Too many growers consider hoeing to be a treatment for weeds, and thus they start too late. Hoeing should be understood as a means of prevention. In other words: Don’t weed, cultivate… Large weeds are competition for both the crops and the grower. — Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower, 1989

As the laborious task of transplanting the seedlings into the garden begins to wind down, another job raises its head: weed control. Anyone who has grown a backyard garden knows all too well that vegetables can quickly disappear in a jungle of weeds. So how do you keep a one-acre garden weed-free? And can it be done effectively using hand tools?

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