Holistic Orcharding with Michael Phillips

After reading Michael Phillips' book The Holistic Orchard several times, I decided to buy his video titled Holistic Orcharding. The video is priceless in that it is a five hour show-and-tell masterpiece on how to develop a living ecosystem in your own orchard. Michael Phillips is not only a great writer but also a great teacher. His grafting and pruning demonstrations are detailed. In this video, he also reveals his field-tested strategies for growing apples and other tree fruits . In addition, there is much to be learned from Michael about how to avoid spraying harmful and expensive chemicals in the orchard. I intend to use his video as a step-by-step guide which I will review each season before taking on each task in my orchard. It is one thing to read his book from which I learned a lot, but it is yet another to actually watch Michael do it.

I have read and re-read Michael's books and really enjoy his genuine love for his trees and fruit. Periodic quips of humor keeps you reading through and actually developing an understanding of how his wholistic treatments successfully suppress bad pests and fungus, but not all of them. The addition of the video leaves me with enough confidence to think that I can actually do the as a newbie. I am working over seas and plan to return to the US, buy land and get after it using his methods..When I do I'd like to see his operation and meet the man that has been so inspiratiohnal to me.Allen Snelling

Wow! The detail in this book is phenomenal. Great index and the segments of the book for each individual fruit (tree and shrub) are set up well. The book is a bit too heavy to read for any long length of time in bed. Essential reference book. He also has a 5-hour DVD set which we've ordered but have not viewed yet. Great tips. We also love the Back To Eden video (www.backtoedenfilm.com) and The Permaculture Orchard (www.permacultureorchard.com). Using all these tips we've structured and cared for our own 60 fruit trees and counting!

Very informative DVD and clearly presented. Viewing this DVD on organic orcharding provides the details necessary to begin planning and preparing for a orchard project. The DVD is thorough with excellent visuals of the actual process. The great thing about having this DVD is that it can view numerous times. If you are not clear on a specific technique, you can go back and view that section of the DVD again.

I bought this dvd for my husband's birthday as he is now 2+ years into his own orchard. I admit thinking the dvd price was too high but I'm glad I bought it; he told me "I did really good!". I would highly recommend this dvd to those new as the orchard hobbyist. He covers a lot of topics and explains things in a slow, well laid out format and the filming is good.

I enjoy all of Phillips books and youtube videos and this video was no exception. I give it a 4.5 STARS because it left me wanting more. I figured I would have no more questions after watching this $$ video but I still do.

I've only watched one section so far, but I am impressed with the thoroughness with which he explains how to do things. I, too, thought this DVD was expensive but thought it would be worth it. From what I've seen so far, I'm sure it is.

Excellent material. I first checked this out at the library, but found it so valuable that I bought my own copy so I would have it available anytime. Single best resource I have found on organic fruit growing.

It was very informative for myself as I don't have a lot of experience with fruit trees and have been learning as I go. Would have liked more information on other fruits as it was mostly about apples.

product is well presented and very informative.