The Home Orchard Handbook A Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Fruit Trees Anywhere

Quayside Publishing Group released a cool new book promising that anyone anywhere can grow fruit trees. Many of us in OK would challenge that assumption after losing so many fruit trees over the decades. But, one characteristic gardeners have in common is the endless desire to keep on trying.

Whether you are an experienced gardener or not, there is a lot to learn about growing fruit trees in a state where Mother Nature is so fickle. This book is unique in its approach since the authors' goals are unusual.


One of the authors is Cem Akin, the executive director of the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. Akin's bio says "Cem has created charitable programs and planted thousands of trees on five continents - in jungles, deserts, and in between." Jungles and deserts both? Intriguing.

The other author is Leah Rottke, a landscape manger specializing in arboriculture.

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation is a big deal that most people have not heard about.

The non-profit FTPF plants trees where they will serve communities, including homeless shelters, drug rehabilitation centers, low-income areas, reservations, hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.

Their goal is to plant 18-billion fruit trees around the world - 3 for each living person because their goal is to feed people nutritious food for years to come.



Barnes and Noble $18.



Now for the book's contents. The chapters are Fruit Tree 101, Site Selection, Plant Selection, Planting, Irrigation and Fertilization, Pruning and Weeding, Prevention, Troubleshooting and Controls, Enjoying the Harvest, Beyond the Home Orchard.

There are plenty of creative ideas such as planting 3 peach trees in the same planting hole, making a privacy fence out of equally spaced fruit trees and building raised beds to avoid bad soils or planting areas.

Also, the authors provide information on

tree selection, root pruning, planting, staking, mulching, watering, etc.

Overall, this is a detailed, encouraging, well presented and fully illustrated book that will help anyone who wants to grow fruit trees to help the environment, feed themselves and the planet's hungry and malnourished.

It's full of heart and made me feel that well, maybe, I'll try planting more fruit trees again once this drought ends.

"The Home Orchard Handbook: A Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Fruit Trees Anywhere", 192 pages, 8 by 10-inch softback, 300 photos. $25 from the publisher and under $20 from online retailers.