The Orchard Ecosystem

Join ELA and our host, Wellesley College, for an in-depth discussion of the Orchard Ecosystem. Farmer, writer, and organic orchardist, Michael Phillips will discuss his holistic approach to growing healthy and wholesome tree fruit and berries in this three-hour seminar. Our primary role as fruit growers is to build system health. Embracing forest edge ecology is an important starting point for biological advantage for fruiting plants. Equally apropos are fascinating ecosystem connections that keep insect challenges far more manageable. This presentation will examine dynamics like beneficial accumulators, pollinator habitat, spider allies, even how plant growth cycles suggest particular task timing to enhance these connections. Holistic methods are about deep nutrition and competitive colonization … which are enhanced by knowing stewardship of the orchard ecosystem.

Registration fee includes lunch.

Michael Phillips is known across the country for helping people grow healthy fruit. The “community orchard movement” that he helped found at www.GrowOrganicApples.com provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding. His Lost Nation Orchard is part of a medicinal herb farm in northern New Hampshire. Michael’s newest book, The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way, covers all fruits and recently received Garden Book of the Year honors from the American Horticultural Society.