JMF v CD

youllbemine

I am currently reading Jean Martin Fortier's book 'The Market Gardener'. I'm only 30 pages and enjoying it but hope to finish it on my two week holiday next week. I have also watched and read extensively all Charles Dowding content I can find.

Both operations run using two different methods. JMF seems to be following the silage tarp, min till, amend soil side of things while CD advocates for compost compost compost and very little else on the weeding and soil amendment side of things. cCD basically says there's no need to add anything to the soil. In fairness both of them are very on the biological side of things.

I am in my second year of the CD/Richard Perkins method and honestly cannot see why you would ever want to bring a tiller near bare soil similar to JMF.

I know the availability/cost of compost can be a big roadblock. But I managed to get my hands on a fair bit of mushroom compost. We created the beds on a 25 year old grass garden. Kept on top of any weeds that came through in fairness but we have minimal weeds now.

Great growth and I'm impressed with how good the garden looks as a result of this method.

Whereas if we were to have gone the JMF route... hardship is the only word I can think of. Nevermind preparing the beds but the constant 'turning over' of beds as he refers to it. That involves a lot of time, work and I believe weeds also. They use a flame weeder (could be wrong) similar to Neversink Farm also.

Overall I can see the merits of JMF's method of running things and am impressed by his profit margins. But cant help but feel he could be more profitable using the CD method!

Anyone any views on either of the above or other methods they are aware of.

I am keen to considerably expand the veg garden in the next year and am basically gearing up to sell locally a small box scheme (10 members) for 10-15 weeks in summer 2022.

Bill Hook

Haven't read any JMF but I have decided that CD suits my needs best. But as you say lots of compost is required. I have had no luck sourcing organic farmyard manure or silage so am trying to generate all my fertility on site. This led me to Iain Tolhorst (https://www.agricology.co.uk/field/farmer-profiles/iain-tolhurst-tolly). His vegan thing is interesting (not vegan myself but interested in the lack of animal inputs) but he favours green manures which I can't really be bothered with.

I have read Eliot Coleman, Richard Perkins, JADAM and lots of other stuff but they all use elements that don't appeal to me (compost teas or other complicated preparations). CD is quite relaxed and works well on a domestic scale I find.

Good luck with the box scheme!

MacDanger

Apologies if this is a stupid question but what are CD and JMF?

youllbemine

Charles Dowding and Jean Martin Fortier.

Both accomplished in the area of market gardening.

Both advocate a no till approach to market gardening but from what I can see, Jean Martin is adding a number of steps to the process that Charkes Dowding omits.

Brian from Cork Rooftop Farm hosted Charles on an Instagram livestream last night. Well worth listening to the 45 mins on their page.

They actually touched on this exact subject and Chatles basically said there is no need to till the ground whatsoever. From what I can see this seems to be the case. Jean Martin's farm could actually be more profitable by offloading their tiller and implements and just replacing with a rake while also saving time.

I basically blindly believe everything Charles says but this is because it just works.