A Review of "The Orchard Book" - by Wade Muggleton

I have always thought how wonderful it would be to have my very own library filled to the brim with all types of garden related books. A secret oasis, where I could escape and read to my heart's content. There are three types of gardening book which appeal to me - depending on the reading mood I am in.

First there are the huge coffee table type books that are brimming with stunning garden photography, Then, there are books that tell the story of one particular garden and the people connected with it. Finally there are the garden books which are filled with technical information on how to accomplish all manner of tasks, and look after many individual types of plants.

The book I want to share with you today falls into the last category, and is full of pictures and information on how to plan, plant, and maintain an orchard. The title is simply "The Orchard Book", and the author is Wade Muggleton.

I was first attracted to this beautiful book by the stunning illustrations on the cover designed by Sarah Robinson. These illustrations depict an established orchard of trees, which are full of bright red apples surrounded by wildflowers, birds, bees and dragonflies. Before you even open the cover of the book, you can already visualise everything that the perfect orchard can and should be.

Wade Muggleton has years of experience in permaculture, and has a collection of over 130 different varieties of fruit tree. He has appeared on Gardeners World, opened his garden for the National Garden Scheme, and given talks and training in various orchard related subjects. In "The Orchard Book" Wade shares all these years of knowledge with the reader, and makes what can be a very complicated subject much easier to understand.

You may think that an orchard is a lovely idea, but that it's not feasible for you, as you don't have a spare field available or a huge empty plot. However, right from the beginning, Wade makes you realise that anyone can have an orchard if they open their mind and listen to his advice. An orchard will fit in the smallest of back gardens, or a tiny allotment, and this book will show you exactly how to accomplish that.

In fact, Wade Muggleton himself started off with a mini orchard in his back garden, before he went on to build on that knowledge by expanding his orchard on to a much larger field type scale. He has 32 fruit trees in a back garden that measures just 12 by 24 metres in size. In his field orchard, he has 130 trees, which include some very obscure and rare apple varieties, which are found in only a handful of places in the world. In the UK,we have lost maybe 90% of our traditional orchards but, after touching on the past history and evolution of orchards, this book encourages us to look forward and focus on what we ourselves can now create.

There is a list of many different reasons to grow your own fruit, from freshness, carbon reduction and biodiversity, to simply enjoying the peacefulness and mindfulness of spending time in the oasis that you have created. Growing your own fruit opens up a huge choice of varieties which simply aren't available in local shops or supermarkets.

The book gives a background into the history of apples, and then goes on to list and recommend many different individual varieties. Some I'd heard of before, such as "Granny Smith", but others were more unusual and dated back hundreds of years. I decided that if I planted my own orchard, I would choose "Pitmaston Pineapple" which originated in 1785 and has a honey and musk taste. "Winter Banana" sounded appealing too, and even more so as it can be picked right up until Christmas. I realised that you really must do some research, at the outset, into the varieties that would suit you.

Once you decide that an orchard really is for you, Wade recommends that you take the time to look at your site and consider it in detail from plot size, aspect, the number of trees you want, the time you have available. Taking the time to do this at the outset is a good investment, as it will make sure the end result works well for you. There are many pictures of Wade's own private garden orchard,and explanations on how and why he chose the layout and trees - so there areplenty of ideas and inspiration to help.

As I read through the book I started to learn about "rootstock" and how this is fundamental to your orchard. Rootstocks are all known by different letters - an M111 rootstock is for large trees with good anchorage, whereas with a semi-dwarfing rootstock, you can have trees which will never necessitate you using a ladder in order to pick the fruit. Rootstock is the key to having a manageable sized mini-orchard and the next important consideration is cost, as trees can be extremely expensive to purchase.

Wade has the perfect solution to cut down costs when purchasing trees, and this is to graft your own on to very reasonably priced rootstock,collecting cuttings from friends and other enthusiasts. The book contains very detailed information on rootstock and grafting and shares many secrets of the commercial nurseries enabling you not only to save money, but also learn and get satisfaction from that new found knowledge and skill.

The book also touches on biodiversity and the benefits of companion planting, as well as using a range of different fruits to cut down on diseases, as well as describing the benefits of wildlife and other crops going hand in hand with an orchard. There is another chapter devoted to many other types of fruit tree such as pears, cherries, apricots, peaches and medlars.

There are over 2000 varieties of apple tree, and yet our supermarkets carry maybe 6 or 7 well known varieties, many of which originate thousands of miles away. Granny Smith is from Australia, Golden Delicious is from the USA, and Braeburn is from New Zealand. Wade recommends putting some effort into research and finding heritage varieties which originate close to you, and then trying to plan these, so that you get a constant succession of fruit through the seasons. He also explains how important shelter is to protect your trees from wind damage, and several solutions are discussed together with their merits.

One of my favourite chapters in the book is about the various suggestions on how to grow smaller trees in a small garden type plot. I found it fascinating to learn about the various forms such as stepovers, cordons, espalliers, trees grown over arches, dwarf and standard trees. One really clever idea was two different varieties of apple grown over a metal arch, which can be taken away once the trees are established, leaving a most stunning apple archway. I decided this would be top of my orchard list followed by step over apples grown on the outside boundaries of my cut flower beds.

Just as I thought I'd had that epiphany moment about rootstock, varieties and form, and in coming to the realisation that a varied orchard really was within my reach, Wade finished off with the best suggestion of all - the family tree. This is one tree which you can graft with many different varieties of apple, once you have mastered the skill. Wade has a family tree with seven different varieties of apple growing on it, having added different varieties over the years. I knew at once family tree was what I would one day aspire to - I just had to master the art of grafting first.

Towards the end of the book, there are detailed instructions on how to plant a tree, the pros and cons of staking, and the magic ingredient of mycorrhizal root powder. There is also a whole chapter on what to do with the grass that grows beneath a tree, and how best to manage this, as well as what to do with the produce from juicing and fermenting, to just sharing with your local community.

The many reasons for pruning are also discussed, together with information on what tools you will need, and how best to achieve the results you want. There are also arguments for Summer rather than Winter pruning, and what the benefits are. The book doesn't just tell you how to do these jobs, it goes into detail about why you need to do them, and so gives you a very clear understanding.

Not only does an orchard give you pleasure and fruit, but it also provides a precious habitat for many of the other species around it, and Wade describes how toads, frogs, bettles, bees, birds, fungi and a multitude of other flora and fauna have been attracted to his orchard giving them a protected habitat and us the joy of creating that very special place.

I would thoroughly recommend Wade Muggleton's Orchard Book - it's a fascinating and interesting read.