Books for the Orchard Enthusiast

A number of books offer insightful teachings on everything from pruning to heirloom varieties. Here we will be offering some favorites, reviewing others, and keeping tabs on what lies ahead. Certain out-of-print classics can be found online.

You can place an order directly for many of these books right here at the going cover price. This is yet another way to help support the Holistic Orchard Network. Shipping is free by Media Mail, or you may upgrade to Priority Mail for $5 for one book, $10 for two or more. Books by Michael will be inscribed directly to you as an added bonus (do tell us who else if it's a gift). Thanks for building your orchard library with actual fruit growers!

Our Orchard Books: The Holistic Orchard The Apple Grower Tree Fruit Field Guide Fruit, Berry, and Nut Inventory Old Southern Apples Attracting Native Pollinators

Use the buttons below to order your books online. Or, if you prefer, fill out our paper order form and send a check or money order to:

Holistic Orchard Network
859 Lost Nation Road
Groveton, NH 03582

If the book is by Michael, please remember to tell us
to whom you would like the book inscribed.

We're pleased to announce. . . Michael's next book. . . being The Holistic Orchard. Printed copies will be in hand sometime by the end of 2011. Order your pre-pub copy now and get ahead of the curve!

The Holistic Orchard

Growing Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way

Michael Phillips
$40

Many people want to grow fruit but lack the insight to be successful orchardists. Growing tree fruits and berries is something anyone with passionate desire can do -- given wise guidance and a personal commitment to observe the teachings of the trees.

The Holistic Orchard demystifies the basic skills everybody should know about the inner-workings of the orchard ecosystem, including soil biology and organic health management. Detailed insights on grafting, planting, pruning, and choosing the right varieties for your climate are also included, along with a step-by-step instructional calendar to guide growers through the entire orchard year.

Michael Phillips completely changed the conversation about healthy orcharding with his first bestselling book, The Apple Grower, and now he takes that dialogue even further, drawing connections between home orcharding and permaculture; the importance of native pollinators and beneficial allies; the world of understory plantings with shade-tolerant berry bushes; detailed information on cover crops and biodiversity; and the newest research on safe, locally-inspired solutions to pest and disease challenges.

click for extensive online edition

Anyone wanting to grow healthy apples should really begin with the book that helps make the sharing on these networking pages possible:

The Apple Grower

A Guide for the Organic Orchardist

Michael Phillips
$40

Michael Phillips' apple book has been a modest success, selling 30,000 copies since its initial publication by Chelsea Green in 1998. The exciting news is that this classic orcharding book has been fully revised and expanded! This time around The Apple Grower comes in full color with many practical charts and surprising new features.

As one friend said, The Apple Grower is a full-fledged college course on holistic orcharding in its own right, and certainly worth every penny of its $40 cover price.

This definitive guide to growing apples wisely, naturally, and with gentler impact on the earth covers all the cultural points of apple growing. Michael's personal voice and clear-eyed advice have already made The Apple Grower a classic among small-scale growers and home orchardists. In fact, anyone serious about succeeding with apples needs to have this updated edition on their bookshelf.

You can order a signed copy of The Apple Grower direct from Michael online by simply clicking the button below.

Tree Fruit Field Guide

Art Agnello and other respected experts of the Northeast
$32

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but to a tree fruit grower, a picture can save thousands of dollars. A new book, Tree Fruit Field Guide to Insect, Mite, and Disease Pests and Natural Enemies of Eastern North America, contains over 500 color photos to help you identify pests and diseases that are causing damage in the orchard, as well as beneficial insects, spiders, and mites that should be honored. Actual size drawings of each insect helps seal the deal in figuring out who's who. This is the guide to figure out "points of vulnerability" of each insect and when fungal and bacterial infections can be held at bay. You can expect all 238 of these heavy duty pages to hold up through a lifetime of use!

Fruit, Berry, and Nut Inventory

Seed Savers Exchange
Paperback Edition
$24

Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory is a must-have reference for all home fruit growers and community orchardists who care about the rich diversity of fruit, berry, and nut varieties offered by mail order nurseries in the United States. This comprehensive "catalog of catalogs" is now available in its newly updated fourth edition, which lists 280 nurseries offering nearly 6,000 varieties of fruits, berries, and nuts. The brief descriptions of each will help you keep straight what to add next to your own growing collection.

The fruits, berries, and nuts available today are the result of centuries of collection and amateur development, further refined by the world's finest breeding programs. Growers and breeders have developed regionally adapted varieties with superior taste, disease resistance, and countless other virtues. Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory opens the orchard's gate and invites us to discover them.

Old Southern Apples

Creighton Lee Calhoun
Hardcover Edition
$75

A book that became an instant classic when it first appeared in 1995, Old Southern Apples is an indispensable reference for fruit lovers everywhere, especially those who live in the southern United States. Out of print almost from the start, this newly revised and expanded edition now features descriptions of some 1,800 apple varieties that either originated in the South or were widely grown there before 1928.

Author Lee Calhoun is one of the foremost figures in apple conservation in America. This masterwork reflects his knowledge and personal experience over more than thirty years, as he sought out and grew hundreds of classic apples. Illustrated with more than 120 color images of classic apples from the National Agricultural Library's collection of watercolor paintings, Old Southern Apples is a fascinating and beautiful reference book. In addition to A-to-Z descriptions of apple varieties, both extant and extinct, Calhoun provides a brief history of apple culture in the South, and includes practical information on growing apples and on their traditional uses.

Attracting Native Pollinators

Eric Mader and the Xerces Society
$30

Bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, flies, and some beetles pollinate more than 70 percent of flowering plants, but North America's native pollinators face multiple threats to their health and habitat. This informative guide offers a complete action plan for protecting these industrious orchard allies by providing flowering habitat and nesting sites. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs and dozens of specially created illustrations, Attracting Native Pollinators is divided into four sections:

• Pollinators and Pollination explains the value of pollinators, and includes informative chapters on the natural history and habitat needs of bees, butterflies, flies, beetles, and wasps.
• Taking Action provides comprehensive information on ways to help pollinators and on creating nest sites and safe foraging areas. It includes guidance on conserving pollinators in all kinds of landscapes: gardens, natural areas, farms, recreation land, even ecoroofs.
• Bees of North America provides help with identifying the more abundant and important bee species, and supplies detailed profiles of more than thirty commonly encountered genera.
• Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Landscape shows how various kinds of land, including urban gardens, suburban parks, and farms, can be enhanced to support diverse pollinator populations. Sample planting designs and fifty pages of illustrated plant lists facilitate selection of the best plants for any region.