The Orchard Book by Wade Muggleton

I give this book 9.5 out of 10 acorns.

I was drawn to this book by the beautiful cover, which shows a lovely picture of the traditional orchard as a place for old beautiful trees, abundant fruit, wild plants, and many forms of wildlife.

What sets this book apart from others on the subject is that it focuses both on the home-scale orchard, and the larger field orchard. The author’s experience begins at the small home garden scale, and then moves to a 1 acre field orchard scale, so he has experiences with the many intricacies of both types of orchards of interest to homesteaders and permaculture people. This experience adds a lot to the book.

The Orchard Book has a permaculture focus, which is lovely to see. It looks at the many benefits of orchards, from helping pollinators and other wildlife, stabilising soil and improving water holding capacity, as well as tasty local fruit.

The book deals with cool temperate climate fruits - anything that will grow in most of the UK, much of the USA, and the colder parts of Australia.

The beautiful photos throughout the book illustrate the different types of orchards. I especially like the look of the old orchards with huge trees, with sheep grazing underneath to add fertility while keeping the pasture mowed.

I enjoyed the big focus on apples in the book, explaining why (and how) apples are grafted rather than grown from seed, and the history of different apple varieties. A shocking fact is that 75% of the apple varieties grown in the UK are of only two different types, when there are actually thousands of named apple varieties.

There’s also plenty of information on pears and plums, demystifying the different types, and helping to select the right varieties, with pictures of some interesting old ones. Cherry, quince, medlar, apricot, peaches, nectarines, figs, vines, mulberries, citrus, and service trees are also looked at.

Chapters such as ‘what do you want from your orchard’, ‘exploiting your space’, and ‘making your planting plan’ help us to design an orchard to suit our needs and available space, with the right rootstock choices, along with integrating poultry, choosing a site, field orchard layouts, and places for fruit trees in the home garden. The discussion about what to plant in the space between trees is very helpful - refreshing to read for anyone overwhelmed by the possibilities of forest gardens. Training fruit trees to various shapes, such as stepovers, cordons, and espalier is also covered.

Instructions are given in other chapters for grafting your own trees, how to convert an existing tree into a variety of your choice, and how to find a good fruit tree nursery. The best way to plant fruit trees is covered, along with how to prune, mulch, and observe the orchard over time.

Surprisingly, the biggest management issue in an orchard is actually the grassland rather than the trees themselves, and information is given about the various ways to manage the grass, including grazing animals underneath the trees - which animals are suitable choices, and how to protect the trees from them, along with options for managing the grass without animals.

A chapter all about enjoying the harvest includes helpful information about how to tell when fruit is ready to pick, along with creative ideas for preserving, from the easiest method of cold storage without electricity, through to processing into juice, cider, vinegar, and dried apples, and ideas for selling and sharing the surplus.

There’s a chapter all about working with wildlife, and how to establish and encourage habitat in the orchard for birds, pollinators, frogs, toads, and other helpers.

Whether you want to grow a few small fruit trees in the backyard, or to have a larger orchard similar to the traditional one on the cover, I’d recommend this book.