Pruning Fruit Trees

Grow your own apples, figs, plums, cherries, pears, apricots, and peaches in even the smallest backyard! Ann Ralph shows you how to cultivate small yet abundant fruit trees using a variety of specialized pruning techniques. With dozens of simple and effective strategies for keeping an ordinary fruit tree from growing too large, you’ll keep your gardening duties manageable while at the same time reaping a bountiful harvest. These little fruit trees are easy to maintain and make a lovely addition to any home landscape.

This is the grown up version of the funny little pruning book Kath Irvine cobbled together a few years ago. A bit of a cringe, in hindsight, but that little book is what got her here. That and Fern Publishing. Together they've gone over and over her writing. Every word has been weighed up. Order and structure and tense challenged. They've walked the line between tidying up her terrible grammar, and retaining her quirky ways. Pruning Fruit Trees has been a big extra to life. The house is super dusty and please don't look in the oven, but it's been worth it. Her focus is on helping beginners, but she also hopes to give experienced pruners new eyes for trees. Calm trees is her overall aim. A less is more approach to cutting with a focus on training as well as pruning. This doesn't mean wild, woolly things that need ladders compact and productive are my guiding lights.

Lee Reich provides a valuable guide to uncommon fruits and berries, which add an adventurous flavor to any garden. Though names like jujube, juneberry, maypop, and shipova may seem exotic at first glance, these fruits offer ample rewards to the gardener willing to go only slightly off the beaten path at local nurseries. Reliable even in the toughest garden situations, cold-hardy, and pest- and disease-resistant, they are as enticing to the beginner as to the advanced gardener. This expanded sequel to the author's celebrated Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention offers new fruits, new varieties, and new photos and illustrations to entice the reader into an exciting world of garden pleasure.

In this practical step-by-step guide, gardening teacher Kath Irvine shares her wealth of knowledge from more than 20 years of helping Kiwi gardeners design, build, grow and maintain their own productive edible gardens. Kath's sage, hands-on, often humorous advice steps readers through everything they need to know to grow great produce at home, including garden design, tools and equipment, seasonal planting advice, soil fertility, seed-saving basics, managing pests and diseases, and how to incorporate organic and permaculture gardening methods into any home garden. While documenting a year on her own property, Kath shows how you can successfully produce bountiful crops throughout the seasons to provide a steady, daily harvest with minimal wastage. The book is illustrated with hundreds of stunning photographs and helpful hand-drawn illustrations that share clever design concepts and planting plans for gardens of all shapes and sizes. Kath is the perfect guide, and this easy-to-understand, comprehensive book is ideal for gardeners at any skill level, from beginners setting up a new garden from scratch, to intermediate trouble-shooters, to advanced green-thumbs seeking deeper knowledge.

2015 Reprint of 1944 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Long considered a classic, this work simplifies and clarifies the technique of pruning. Amply illustrated with detailed drawings, it provides all you need to know about the art of pruning. Most trees are covered; including Almond, Apple, Alligator Pear, Avocado, Berries, Cherry, Feijoa, Figs, Grapefruit, Grapes, Guavas, Lemon, Lime, Loquat, Nectarine, Olive, Orange, Peaches, Pear, Persimmon, Pecan, Pineapple, Plum, Pomegranate, Prune, Quince, Walnut and others.

An illustrated guide to planting over thirty fruits using natural methods; with gardening basics; and pruning, pest control, and harvesting tips for each fruit.

Fruit trees are delicate and need specialized care, especially when they’re planted in an urban environment, which comes with its own unique challenges. Whether you want to plant a single fruit tree or an entire orchard, this book will show you how to save time and money and be successful right from the start. A professional orchardist, Susan Poizner guides novices and experts alike through every step of the process. She describes which key elements are necessary in site preparation and offers a basic overview of the anatomy of fruit trees. Susan also explains how to select trees and covers critical concerns, such as cross-pollinating versus self-pollinating trees, bare-root versus potted trees, and whether the fruit will be for eating, cooking, or canning. Thorough instructions are provided for planting and staking, as well as pointers on how to care for both young and mature trees. From assessing soil to selecting the right fertilizer, from pruning trees to choosing the proper tools, and from boosting biodiversity to preventing pests and diseases, no leaf is left unturned. This vast wealth of knowledge is accompanied by illustrations and color photos, along with inspiring stories of orchards and tree farms.