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Practical handbooks for gardeners, homesteaders, and small-scale farmers who want to grow abundant food using the biointensive methods popularized by Jean-Martin Fortier in The Market Gardener.

The Grower’s Guides from the Market Gardener series currently includes six focused guides, with 5 more to come,  covering soil health, garden planning, tomatoes, root crops, fruiting vegetables, and essential garden tools. Each book translates decades of real-world growing experience into clear techniques that work at a human scale.

Whether you’re tending a backyard garden, building a homestead, or growing for market, these books offer practical knowledge to help you grow healthier crops while caring for the living soil.

Browse the guides below to see which crops or growing skills you want to master.

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Series Sample

Many growers choose to build their library of Grower’s Guides at once. We offer several ways to bundle the books at a discounted price.

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Many growers begin with one or two guides and gradually build the full series.

Series Sample

Bundles

Start with a single guide—or build a complete growing system. Each book focuses on one crop or essential growing skill, making it easy to learn what you need and apply it right away.

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New to the Grower’s Guides?

Many growers first encounter Jean-Martin Fortier through The Market Gardener. The Grower’s Guides from the Market Gardener series expands on those ideas through focused handbooks that explore specific crops, tools, and planning strategies.

If you’re new to the series, many growers begin with:

  • Living Soil for building healthy, productive soil systems
  • The Well-Planned Garden for crop planning and seasonal organization
  • Tomatoes for mastering one of the most widely grown crops

From there, growers often explore guides on tools, root crops, and fruiting vegetables to deepen their growing systems.

Principles Behind the Grower’s Guides

The Grower’s Guides from the Market Gardener series is rooted in the philosophy of biointensive market gardening—an approach to food production that focuses on producing high yields in relatively small spaces while maintaining healthy soils and ecological balance.

Core principles include:

  • building fertile, living soil through compost and crop rotation
  • producing abundant harvests in small spaces through efficient garden design
  • working with ecological processes rather than relying on synthetic inputs
  • creating resilient growing systems that improve over time

These principles form the foundation of Jean-Martin Fortier’s approach to regenerative, human-scale agriculture.

Who These Books Are For

The Grower’s Guides are written for people who want to grow food more skillfully and sustainably.

They are especially valuable for:

  • market gardeners
  • homesteaders
  • small-scale farmers
  • regenerative agriculture practitioners
  • backyard vegetable gardeners
  • growers interested in ecological food production

Many readers use these books to improve soil health, increase harvests, and build efficient growing systems in gardens of all sizes.

author Jean-Martin Fortier

The Grower’s Guides are written by Jean-Martin Fortier, farmer and author of The Market Gardener, one of the most influential books in the global small-scale farming movement.

Drawing on decades of hands-on experience at his microfarm, Les Jardins de la Grelinette, Fortier has helped thousands of growers learn how productive gardens and farms can thrive at a human scale. The Grower’s Guides translate that experience into practical tools that growers can apply directly in their own gardens and farms.

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Questions Growers Often Ask

Biointensive market gardening is a method of producing vegetables that focuses on maximizing yields from relatively small areas of land through careful crop planning, close plant spacing, and healthy soil management. The approach prioritizes ecological practices that support long-term soil fertility and resilient growing systems.

No. While the series draws on Jean-Martin Fortier’s decades of experience as a professional market gardener, the books are written for a wide range of growers—from backyard gardeners and homesteaders to small-scale farmers.

Many growers begin with guides focused on foundational topics such as soil health, planning, or widely grown crops like tomatoes.

Yes. The series is rooted in ecological and regenerative growing principles, including soil health, biodiversity, and reduced reliance on synthetic inputs.

Absolutely. Many biointensive techniques—such as efficient spacing, soil building, and succession planting—are especially useful for gardeners working in raised beds or small backyard spaces.

The Grower’s Guides from the Market Gardener series builds on the methods Jean-Martin Fortier introduced in The Market Gardener. Each guide explores a specific crop or aspect of growing, offering practical techniques growers can apply directly in their gardens or farms.

Growing Knowledge for a Regenerative Future

Small-scale agriculture has the power to nourish communities, strengthen local food systems, and restore the health of the land.

The Grower’s Guides from the Market Gardener series brings together the practical knowledge Jean-Martin Fortier has developed through decades of farming and teaching growers around the world.

Whether you are growing food for your family, your community, or a local market, these guides offer tools and insights to help you grow with confidence while caring for the living soil.

Explore the series above to discover the guides that match the crops and systems you want to grow.

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