Join holistic orchardist Michael Phillips at the Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, November 19, from 1 – 4,  for an intensive program on growing all kinds of fruit in the back yard. Successfully growing fruit for your family becomes straightforward when you narrow the big picture down to getting the basics right. Harvesting sunlight through smart pruning is what renews fruit buds. Fungal disease becomes manageable with wise variety choices and enhanced soil biology. Even major insect challenges can be resolved safely when you perceive who, what, and when. All sorts of fruits—from apples and pears to peaches and cherries and onward to berries—make for a diverse home orchard planting. Confidence to integrate tree fruits into your landscape begins with embracing biodiversity and knowing how to steward system health. This program will be useful for both backyard growers as well as small-market fruit growers with a focus on growing healthy organic fruit. Michael’s new book The Holistic Orchard, published by Chelsea Green Publishing, will be hot off the press and available for sale at the lecture.

Michael Phillips is known across the country for helping people grow healthy apples and understand the healing virtues of plant medicines. Information about the “community orchard movement” he helped found is available at www.GrowOrganicApples.com and provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding. His Lost Nation Orchard has two acres of trees and supplies local families with many varieties of organic apples. Michael was honored by Slow Food USA to receive the first Betsy Lydon Ark Award for his work promoting healthy ways to grow fruit.  The fee to attend is $45, and you may register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org.