STARTING A MARKET GARDEN FROM SCRATCH: Small Acreage Farming using the SPIN Method - Part 1

STARTING A MARKET GARDEN FROM SCRATCH: Small Acreage Farming using the SPIN Method - Part 1

We are starting a market garden(Small scale farming) here on our small farm. We are going to use the methods of the urban farmer Curtis Stone, & the market gardener Jean-Martin Fortier. Which is SPIN gardening or SPIN farming. Which stands for Small Plot INtensive farming or small plot individualistic gardening. Basically is growing high yielding crops that you can get multiple harvestings from & that have long growing seasons, that also germinate very quickly in a very small space.

And so we are going to try & start this small plot market operation here on our small farm, & treat our small area as if we were actually in an urban area, & run it very similiar to an urban farm would run.

I know we are going to have lots of experimentation with what crops we plant, & also know we are going to have some failures as well, & so that is why I wanted to start this series from the beginning. Just in case another small farmer or homestead was interesting in doing this same thing, so they could watch us either be successful or either fail at this, & they could learn from our mistakes & also our accomplishments.

So in this YouTube video, we are going to try & remove all the weeds we can from our small garden plot, & then we are to start soil preparation. I am also going to remove all the weeds in the perimeter of the small market garden, bc I do not want the seeds to blow into the market garden & contaminate it. Just trying to be as proactive as I can in trying to have a weed sterile planting bed as I possibly can. After I weed the perimeter beds, I am going to cover that area with an organic weed barrier by using cardboard. I love cardboard bc it works, it's free & it will break down & become a soil amendment. After I get the cardboard weed barrier down, I am going to run the weed torch around the fence area, then I am going to go ahead & till the garden. Trying to get it prepped for the high yielding cash crops in the next few weeks. After that we are going to use a black tarp or silage tarp to cover the newly prepped market garden, & that will smother out any more weeds that I have.

The silage tarp will stay down until our first planting, which will be a month or so away. We still have to get our mixed greens planted in the seeds trays, & get them sprouted & going. Which will take around 4 weeks. After that, we will uncover the organic garden beds, & use the flame weeder again to make sure there are no more weeds, & then prepare our actual planting beds. We will roll out a weed mat at that point, & plant the market crops in the weed mat to further to try & suppress the weed pressure in the garden.

So this is the first step in our Market Gardening Journey using this small plot intensive method & I hope you come along with us & hope y'all enjoy this video!!

Thank you
Cog Hill Farm - 2017