Best fruit gardening books according to redditors

On My Shelf:

Nonfiction:


[where there is no doctor] (https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-No-Doctor-Handbook/dp/0942364155)

[where there is no dentist] (https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-Dentist-Murray-Dickson/dp/0942364058/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0942364058&pd_rd_r=P7QG34TNRGWWJ4VG3CES&pd_rd_w=zUT5r&pd_rd_wg=bQSPa&psc=1&refRID=P7QG34TNRGWWJ4VG3CES)

[emergency war surgery] (https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-War-Surgery-Survivalists-Reference-ebook/dp/B007FH3S8C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111178&sr=1-1&keywords=war+surgery)

[Seed to Seed, a seed saving book] (https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111210&sr=1-1&keywords=seed+saving)

[mini farming] (https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1602399840&pd_rd_r=QYQGAKY6D2PJX21W5DBC&pd_rd_w=ZSjVd&pd_rd_wg=MKw9N&psc=1&refRID=QYQGAKY6D2PJX21W5DBC)


[square foot gardening] (https://www.amazon.com/All-Square-Foot-Gardening-Revolutionary/dp/1591865484/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1591865484&pd_rd_r=NW7HBPKNFJ2J8JYTR22M&pd_rd_w=kMSVD&pd_rd_wg=v6qzT&psc=1&refRID=NW7HBPKNFJ2J8JYTR22M)


[Ball Canning Guide] (https://www.amazon.com/All-Ball-Book-Canning-Preserving/dp/0848746783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111296&sr=1-1&keywords=ball+canning)


[Steve Rinella's Big Game] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Hunting-Butchering-Cooking/dp/081299406X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111322&sr=1-1&keywords=rinella+guide)

[Steve Rinella's Small Game] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Hunting-Butchering-Cooking/dp/0812987055/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0812987055&pd_rd_r=HSSM813BSWTXN5Q77P1R&pd_rd_w=j1UjP&pd_rd_wg=OWNY6&psc=1&refRID=HSSM813BSWTXN5Q77P1R)

[root cellaring] (https://www.amazon.com/Root-Cellaring-Natural-Storage-Vegetables/dp/0882667033/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111429&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=root+cellarig)

[country wisdom and know how] (https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Wisdom-Know-How-Everything-Harvest/dp/1579128378/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111470&sr=1-3&keywords=country+wisdom)

[timberframe construction] (https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Timber-Frame-Craftsmanship-Simplicity/dp/1612126685/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111553&sr=1-9&keywords=cabin+construction)

[Ham radio -tech] (https://www.amazon.com/ARRL-Ham-Radio-License-Manual/dp/1625950136/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111593&sr=1-1&keywords=ham+radio)

[ham radio general] (https://www.amazon.com/General-Class-License-Manual-Amateur/dp/1625950306/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1625950306&pd_rd_r=12TE98J0V80PC5Z8PMNJ&pd_rd_w=EfgM9&pd_rd_wg=jqqg2&psc=1&refRID=12TE98J0V80PC5Z8PMNJ)

[The FoxFire Series ] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Collection-Anniversary-Editions-Anniversay/dp/B00MRH3RYU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1492879953&sr=8-4&keywords=foxfire)

Also pickup up books on useful skills: raising rabbits, welding, different random construction books.

Fiction:

[Lucifer's Hammer] (https://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hammer-Larry-Niven/dp/0449208133/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880068&sr=1-1&keywords=lucifers+hammer)

[One second After] (https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880115&sr=1-1&keywords=one+second+after)

[the martian] (https://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025/ref=pd_sim_14_41?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0553418025&pd_rd_r=D4JHG0ERDKJXA7NYCZHX&pd_rd_w=vAle5&pd_rd_wg=9wBYx&psc=1&refRID=D4JHG0ERDKJXA7NYCZHX)

[the road] (https://www.amazon.com/Road-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307387895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880272&sr=1-1&keywords=the+road0)

[alas babylon] (https://www.amazon.com/Alas-Babylon-Pat-Frank/dp/0060741872/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880316&sr=1-10&keywords=babylon)

IF you already have a bug-in kit covering serious first aid, not just bandaids and Tums, water filtration, fire and cooking without power, etc......

The first two titles assume that you have at least some yard with reasonable sun access, or the potential for access to a community garden. (Could presently be a community park, a church lot, neighbor's land, whatever.) Books are presently roughly in the order that I'd replace them if my copies were lost. Buy used when you can. Some of these are available used for not much more than standard shipping.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times

Where There Is No Doctor

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

If you have no comprehensive cookbooks that cover a wide range of garden veggies and game recipes, something like Joy of Cooking is probably in order. The point being that one way or another you may have to get used to enjoying whatever can be had, from an abundance of zuchinnis to rabbit, to acorn meal.

If you are not (yet) handy, find an old copy of something like Reader's Digest How to Fix Everything in a used bookshop for maybe $4.

A regionally appropriate guide to edible and medicinal plants such as A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America

Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation

optional, but cheap, Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis

1. Water is life. You want to keep as much water on your property as long as you can. Have you put in swales on contour or keylines to stop, spread, sink the water into the soil so the trees can benefit?
   
   
2. What is your soil like? Is it acidic or alkaline? Is it compacted? Eroded? Deficient in minerals? Is it more clay or loam or sandy? Have it tested. There are ways to improve the soil. If it's compacted, you can deep rip. If it's acidic, you can add lime and dolomite. If it's clay, adding gypsum will break up the clay. Pioneer trees can also help break up soil with their deep tap roots. Forests are usually alkaline while pastures are more acidic. Forests have more fungi where pastures have more bacteria. You can get a jump start on changing over the soil if you take some starch like rice to a forest, leave it on the ground for several days, collect it, and scatter it where you want the fungi to take over. There are things you can add to increase the soil microbes that are so beneficial: compost, compost tea, bio-fertilizers, and inoculates on seeds.
   
   
3. What do you want to accomplish with a forest? Are you wanting to use some of the trees as a wind block? Are you wanting to stop some of the soil erosion along the stream? Are you wanting food (fruit, nuts) or fodder for animals or fiber or timber for building or trees that bloom to feed bees or trees for coppice or trees for firewood or a mixture? If you know what you want, then you can consult some books and local permaculture groups for trees that will live in your site-specific conditions that provide the function you want.
   
   
4. For each tree, you'll want to plant multiple nitrogen-fixing support plants that you will sacrifice so that the desired tree has nutrients. Legume trees, shrubs, and ground covers add nitrogen to the soil that will feed the main trees. Over the course of several years, you'll chop and drop the nitrogen fixers several times. Besides adding nitrogen to the soil, they will also shade out grasses and other non-desirable plants until your trees are established. You can also mulch with straw to shade out pioneer plants you don't want. Timing is important. You want to plant at times that give the plants the best time to get established. You'll want to chop and drop the nitrogen-fixing support species when the rains come. You'll want to use the mulch and cover crops at the same time as you plant your trees to prevent weeds from taking over. You'll want to time when the trees produce food. You can plan some early crop, mid-season crop, and late crop varieties. Thinking about your timing carefully.
   
   Resources:
   
   
   Creating a Forest Garden by Mark Crawford.
   
   Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier
   
   Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
   
   
   

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612120547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.5RLBbJEEGVV8

The Apple Grower

The Holistic Orchard

both by Michael Phillips

If you want to graft new varieties on, you'll wand to top work the trees. Cut the top off, meaning all the branches, so that you've just got a trunk, and then graft onto the top of that.

If you're looking for cider apple scionwood for grafting, Chris Ryland has the best collection in the US and he sells them through his website.

Greens will usually do alright in shade. Spinach, broccoli, kale, arugala should all be fine. Carrots, beans and peas can tolerate shade but should still be getting at least a few hours of direct sun. How shaded are they? Setting good sweet fruits really requires 6 hours of sunshine. It's fairly likely though that your fruit trees could use some extra pruning which would let more light through.

Check out The Holistic Orchard. It'll guide you in pruning and tells you how to grow everything fruit related.

Try to get your hands on Edible Forest Gardens ( vol 1 and 2 ) by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. It's the premier work on Eastern North American ecological agroforestry.

Martin Crawford's work is also very applicable since he's in a humid zone 3-5 ish British climate. His book is an amazing resource.

The Bullock Brother's have done a lot of work in Cold climate permaculture but they're in Washinton so it's still more humid.

Great Plains ecology is an interesting biome though and I'm not sure there's been a lot of work done on food forestry in that particular climate. I know a fair amount of work has been done on perennial grasslands but it gets more complicated since you are dealing with elements of dryland design and cold climate design. Some tropical techniques for water retention aren't going to work since frost is going to be a factor. Probably the best technique would be to follow the ecology and design around coolees since that's where great plains deciduous forests tend to thrive.

For those just getting started, Square Foot Gardening is great, it's a good starting point for getting in the habit of maintaining a garden, for making good use of small spaces, and for learning about gardening.

How to Grow More Vegetables is a fantastic book. It is a great reference book on sustainable gardening, and self-sufficiency gardening. It is used by several programs as a textbook to teach sustinence gardening in third-world countries.

Carrots Love Tomatoes is a great book for learning about companion planting.

I just ordered Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times. I haven't read it yet, so I can't give a review, but it is reviewed very favorably. My understanding is that it presents a more old-fashioned, traditional method of gardening that requires less water, less fertilization, etc.

Good luck, and let us know what you think of any books you try!

I don't have a favorite, I have a long list of favorites. Listed below is a good starter selection. Lucifer's Hammer is the book that probably most directly led to the path I am on today. I have always liked science fiction and read it long before I would have ever called myself a prepper.


Fiction, to make you think:

• Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
  
• Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles
  
• Lights Out by David Crawford
  
  Self Defense:
  
  
• Boston's Gun Bible by Boston T. Party (Kenneth W. Royce)
  
  Sustainable Living:
  
  
• The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery
  
• Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon
  
• Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving by Altrista Consumer Products
  
  Health and First Aid:
  
  
• Where There Is No Doctor by David Werner, Jane Maxwell and Carol Thuman
  
• First Aid -- Responding To Emergencies by the American Red Cross
  
  Free Your Mind:
  
  
• The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larken Rose
  

Grafted apple trees will start giving you fruit by year three and will reach full production by year five. If you wanted to plant them now without the expense of the deer fence, you could make cages for your trees out of chicken wire and livestock fence.

To get you started, check out The Backyard Orchardist. Then, perhaps check out some of Michael Phillip's books such as The Holistic Orchard, and The Apple Grower. Michael is based in New Hampshire so a lot of his information is especially relevant to you New Englanders.

Also, if you find yourself thinking you want to see if you could push for self-sufficiency, this book is amazing for that: https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1496610942&sr=8-2&keywords=quarter+acre+farm

Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy should be at your local library, or you can purchase it used online.

In any garden your edibles are open to premature harvesting by deer, squirrels, birds and, if they are in the front yard, by other people.

The first thing to think about is fences and hedges, then design your edible landscape.

Except that phaseolids contain lectins as well as other indigestible and potentially harmful compounds.

While cooking doesn't necessarily take indigestible foods and make them digestible, it does, as you mentioned, aid in digestion, allowing for less energy to be consumed in the digestive process so, the caloric yield of eating cooked foods would be higher.

Check out Catching Fire and Beans

A family of four. Plus he would also carry a wagon into to town once or twice a week to sell the excess he said he would normally make a couple of dollars and that one time he made 20, which is a lot for then.

Here's a great book on farming for yourself, wonderful info. or you can find a pdf of it online if you're feeling tricky ;)

hey, survival noob - everyone knows that the definitive work on this is in this book: Gardening When it Counts

best of luck.

I would buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933392134/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

and then watch this video https://www.possiblemedia.org/product/the-permaculture-orchard-beyond-organic/

Between those two you would have everything covered. Both of those guys are within your USDA zone.

It doesn't have to be large depending on your plans for the park. You could do pick your own food with edible landscaping. You could create a beautiful arranged garden similar to azalea gardens. Offering lessons in foraging/survival or floral garden arrangement might be a good side business. A third option could be to have a cordoned off area where you can let dogs run around but only do this if you know how to manage a large group of dogs in close proximity.

Could always do hunting depending on the animal population of your place but you might run on the wrong side of the law with that one so do research obviously.

Were you playing on making it a "for profit" or a free access park?

This would be awesome or anything you picked. :)

Also, not only do you look smashing today, but you make my Wednesdays awesome by making my mornings go faster and with fun by your Waldo contests. :D

I like Steve Solomon's Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, especially the parts about gardening when water is at a premium.

Another oldie-but-goodie is The Vegetable Expert by D.G. Hessayon.... Getting on for 30 years old now, but very comprehensive!

Thrift stores and libraries are good places to look for gardening books, even if they might be a bit 'dated,' most of the basics don't change much.....

Any kind of well-rotted organic matter dug into to the raised bed should improve whatever soil is in there already - if there are any horseriding stables nearby, they are often more than happy for you to take away a few sacks of horse poo for free.... Otherwise, store bought compost would be fine, or you could have a truckload of good topsoil or loam delivered if you are filling the whole bed from scratch as it might work out cheaper...

One of the first things I'd do in a new garden is establish a compost heap or bin for all the green garden waste, kitchen peelings etc.... It takes a year or so to get going, but it's a great way to get rid of biodegradable waste and put goodness back into the vegetable plot with your own free compost :>)>

Any more specific soil preparations would depend on what the plot's soil condition and drainage are like already, as there are lots of soil types (from thin, dry and sandy to soggy heavy clay) in a range of pH's from acid to alkaline, and certain crops may be better suited to your conditions than others, so that might be worth having a read up on before you assess the task ahead....

If you have any more questions as you go along, this sub is a great place to ask! Happy gardening, and I hope it brings you a lot of satisfaction :>)>

Woody

Some good books for reference.

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333634510&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Edition/dp/1602392331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333634541&sr=8-1

If you have a place where you can grow a few things in the house or outside covered in colder weather, you have more options. Some are tropical. I would say make a list of your favorites. One example of something you could likely grow if you found the right bulbs is saffron. It's often used in Indian cuisine and comes from a variety of crocus. You can grow your own pepper. You can also grow flavorings for old-fashioned candies, herbal teas or tisanes, root beer ... anything you can think of if you look hard enough. Even if you can't grow the exact plant, there are often alternative plants you can grow and get a very similar flavor. Nasturtium flower buds can be made into "poor man's capers". You can grow more than just food. If you are into crafting, you can also make your own plant-based dyes and paints from plants, eggs, and other things.

For a book that lists other plants you may not think of, as well as ways to attract and help wildlife try Gaia's Garden. I think you may also enjoy Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden.

I'd consider having the field plowed and sowing a mix of seeds to create a ground covering that doesn't grow as high, doesn't need cutting at all, and is a net adder of nutrients to the soil. Martin Crawford's book on forest guardening has a few interesting ones. The one I found most interesting and have been meaning to try is:

• Trifolium repens (white clover)
  
• Lolium perenne (dwarf perennial ryegrass)
  
• Festuca rubra (creeping red fescue)
  
  According to the book you should plant 3kg+6kg+2kg of seeds per acre anywhere from April to August, and the ground cover will last 10 years or more without management.
  
  The whole book is probably interesting for your situation as you can go and select a few base trees to plant right now and then leave them alone while they grow and you're otherwise busy. By the time you have some time again you'll have a head start. From the book I'd suggest you look into besides the ground covering I've already mentioned some large trees like alders that also add nutrients to the soil. You could just plant quite a few of them in all the acres you left wild and by the time you get around to it you can select which ones to keep and put the other down for firewood.

Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops

https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Forest-Garden-Working-Nature/dp/1900322625

Well, four that I can think of off the top of my head would have to be:

• The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook
  
• Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
  
• All New Square Foot Gardening
  
• The Vegetable Gardener's Bible
  
  Also, here's a channel on YouTube that has an ENDLESS amount of organic gardening information. GrowingYourGreens

Certainly the links below are great (particularly Gaia's garden). There are a couple other low-cost intro books that might be useful (wait till you're hooked to drop 200 bucks on Dave Jacke's "Edible Forest Gardens" -- though it's amazing.)


Eric Toensmeier's "Paradise Lot"
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/paradise_lot:paperback

Great book that reads like a novel, so it can be easier to get through than other textbook-style books listed in this reddit. They live outside of Boston, if I'm remembering right, so pretty freaking cold, but they're succeeding well.


Martin Crawford's "How to Grow Perennial Vegetables"
http://www.amazon.com/How-Grow-Perennial-Vegetables-Low-maintenance/dp/1900322846/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Easier to read than his forest-gardening book (which has lots of high-level systems thinking, but can be overwhelming). He specifically references a ton of perennial vegetables, many of which aren't covered in other texts, and gives methods for their cultivation within a permaculture setup.

Personally, I find it easier to get a handle on the whole systems-design thing through videos, so here are some of my favorite youtube-available vids on urban permacuture:


Urban Permaculture with Geoff Lawton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeIZwenDSvo

This site is in Austrailia, and has a climate more like central or southern california, but in principal, the stacking of functions can be applied to a northeastern site.


Permaculture Trio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXVnAMQRGbI

These 3 stories from the UK cover a range of scales of permaculture implementations, the last one is a very compact urban site with a climate very similar to the northeast.


Backyard Permaculture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18ZuuAOUIXo

This was produced for Gardening Australia, so not all of the species of plants used are available locally, but the climate seems to be a pretty close match to a east-coast state's. TONS of great ideas, though with a larger lot and budget than most people have.


Finally, even if you decide on the structure of plantings that you have room for, it can be a beast to decide on the right plants for your area, or locate the seed stock. This answer could be an entire post on its own, but a good place to start is Practical Plants:
http://practicalplants.org/wiki/Practical_Plants

This wiki contains the entire database of Plants for A Future (pfaf.org) in addition to more that has been user-added since it went live last year. It's pretty, easy to navigate, and FULL of good plant suggestions which can be filtered in a variety of ways.


So, now that you've got all this info, go to town!

One last note on the grow-lights. Personally, I don't think that any real permaculturist would frown on grow-lights -- particularly the low-wattage LED varieties available now. The real goal is, as Factran pointed out, resiliency, and relying on a grid connection for indoor light is less resilient than growing in your yard. But, maybe you have PV that gives you plenty of power in the winter, and you want to grow greened sprouts indoors for juicing. Or something else even crazier. I say go for it -- more ideas = better. Just be sure to share your successes and failures with us when you do!

But definitely try growing some stuff outdoors, even if it's in a windowbox. You'd be surprised -- seeds just want to grow.

I put in 9 trees last year and still learning all of the mistakes I made. I don't have room for full-sized trees (15' or taller/wider) so started with dwarf and semi-dwarf. This may have been a mistake based on a couple of books I've been reading. If you do have limited space, or want to keep your trees manageable (a good point by /u/pecantrees about professional trimming and ER costs), then I highly recommend Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph. One of the things that she covers extensively, and I've heard stressed by others, is proper pruning. It won't answer several of your questions but I think it's a good resource to learn about pruning young trees and maintaining size without overly limiting fruit production.

Creating a Forest Garden: Working with nature to grow edible crops https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1900322625/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_BG0mDbTHGDF7F

Check out Edible Landscaping, Landscaping with Fruit, and The Edible Front Yard for inspiration.

Hey OP, I'd also suggest you look at the book, "Grow a Little Fruit Tree". It's a super handy book and it shows you how to keep fruit trees of any variety really short! :) If you want to see any pages from the inside lemme know and I can snap some pictures for you when I get home tonight.

Someone already said to garden, so I'll suggest two similar (but different!) things!

Start a beehive. Not as hard as it seems, if you have enough money for the supplies (usually only a couple hundred dollars for the actual hive, maybe one hundred for the bees). Have no land? No problem! Find someone who does, maybe they'll let you set up camp there in exchange for honey and awesome pollinators for their garden. :) This book is actually really good at explaining. I have it, and I researched the hell out of all the amazon books before buying one.

If you don't want to do that (and if you have space somewhere): Plant a tree! Or a bush. Specifically, the kind that bear fruit. Think of all the fun things you can do with even one apple tree! Because I'm boring, here's another book! I have it on my wishlist, too. ;)

I hope your birthday! is excellent!! :)

/r/permaculture and /r/forestgardening are ones I've looked at, How to Make a Forest Garden and Forest Gardening are the two books most people seem to talk about, I haven't gotten around to reading them yet :(

The main guy has written a great book too!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Holistic-Orchard-Berries-Biological/dp/1933392134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376182617&sr=8-1&keywords=holistic+orchard

If you're short on space, there's a really good book called
Mini Farming: Self-Sufficien​cy on 1/4 Acre. I've found it to be really useful, since I live just inside city limits and we really don't have much space.

I would always recommend The Backyard Orchardist by Stella Otto to anyone who wants to start out. The book is honest and informative, and she's a local that I respect. It covers all major fruit trees, not just peaches, but as a single book for a beginner I think it does very well.

Honeyberries! These are on my short list of fruits to try growing next year... And Akebia fruit, it looks like a purple alien-spider egg sack that's about to hatch and it grows in many climates.
Also hardy kiwi, white (pine) strawberries, and black raspberries. You can find them at some better stocked grocery stores but they are such a treat and very prolific (well, the kiwi and the raspberry, the pine berries not so much).
Check out Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, it's a comprehensive guide to unusual fruits that can grow in most North American gardens.

Get off your ass, read some books, and learn through trial and error. Check out:
http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346892792&sr=8-1&keywords=homesteading+on+2+acres

Funny you ask this. Just today I got out my copies of Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape and How to Make a Forest Garden.

I bought these a few years ago, read through them and kept the thought in the back of my head. Just today I began a much needed book organization and these came out on top of the 'read again' pile.

The concept is solid and if you will be on land long term this is a great way to go. I would keep a traditional vegetable garden in tandem though.

Sorry to not have any real experience.

This book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1602399840/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1602399840&linkCode=as2&tag=theprescat-20

covers that subject in good detail. It's not perfect, but it is a good start for someone just starting out.

I will say that if you're looking to 100% self sufficiency, you're going to need approx 1/4 to 1/2 acre (around 10 to 20 thousand square feet) of land. Your entire space is 1200 square feet. Planted intensively with an eye to crops that produce a lot of food per area planted, you could provide a very large harvest that would feed you for a good part of the year, but I don't think you're going to get to full self sufficiency in that space unless you become a true expert at it.

At first, I would suggest 6-12 laying hens and a rooster. Choose a dual purpose breed that can also be a meat bird. Consider hatching eggs periodically, keep whatever hens you deem necessary to maintain your flock, and butcher the rest. You'll need a decent sized coop and run (unless you can free range) and you'll need a quarantine area to keep young birds so they aren't beat up by older birds in the run. I'd guess you'll never have more than 25 birds at a time (12 hens 1 rooster and 12 birds to butcher when mature), and if I was doing it that would mean about a 150 sq foot coop with a run about 4 times that size. All food and garden scraps are chicken food. Compost is made in the chicken run, need to feed the chickens and whatever is left over is compost covered in chicken manure.

Focus on calorie dense foods, especially root crops and things that can do a second or third planting in a year. Potatoes, carrots, etc are great, they store well and provide a lot of calories per square foot of space.

Some thoughts anyway. It's really a matter of fine tuning efficiency. I've been working towards similar goals for 4 years now and I'm nowhere near where I wish I was.

We came across this book that tells you what to plant each month. It worked out really well for us and we just used a raised bed garden.

This book has been very helpful for me

Guide to Florida Fruit & Vegetable Gardening (Vegetable Gardening Guides) by Bowden, Robert unknown edition [Paperback(2010)] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQ1QZYC/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_7h6htb0CNFJWH

And because Imgur won't let me edit anything in my post via mobile, I will add more info here! I spent about two months researching container growing fruit trees/edible tree/bush before deciding to start with a blood orange and my favorite, lemonade. I'm hoping this helps someone else who might think they can't have a fruit tree due to space.

Although I bought trees on dwarfing rootstock (often called flying dragon rootstock, as that's the plant used to give it stunted growth), you do not need a tree marketed as dwarf. Using a container will naturally impede the process of growth, in addition to pruning.

This is very important because each type of rootstock will give different qualities to the root health. Pick the rootstock that works best for your growing conditions. The book Grow a Little Fruit Tree was invaluable for its information on rootstock alone, although it's geared towards deciduous trees and not evergreens like citrus.

Another helpful book for container gardening that helped me jumpstart my information search was The Bountiful Container. It's American oriented, not Aussie, but lots of helpful principles and ideas all the same.

Another great read, and useful, is this write-up on Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery about using bags (containers) to restrict tree growth in order to net better fruit production. Size restriction can help to produce more per hectare than just letting a tree go (which would be suicide to a home orchard anyways).

Mini farming has a lot of good info on making the most of a tiny spot.

Lee Reich has an entire book on this! Landscaping With Fruit

I hate that he dismisses elderberries, but otherwise, I loved the book and learned a ton.

Has anyone read Holistic Orchard?

And do you have any opinions about it?

Fruit trees can definitely be grown in a small back yard or even a large (10-15 gal) container. You just have to prune them heavily and on a regular yearly schedule. There's some pretty good techniques and advice in this book:

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612120547

I've collected many books on gardening from second-hand stores like goodwill. The Rodale's and the Home and Garden books are thorough, currently I'm using "The New Victory Garden" by Bob Thompson to plan my garden which organizes the chapters by tasks for each month. I'm also interested in edible perennial gardening; my favorite book is "Creating a Forest Garden" by Martin Crawford which has a great plant encyclopedia with ratings and guides for design and planting. If you have a little extra room and want to incorporate beautiful landscapes while growing food, it's well worth a look.

Here is my favorite book I have found for starting new trees and taking care of them: Grow A Little Fruit Tree

A good place online to read about varieties and order apple trees for shipping is Stark Bros Nursery.

Typically, you get them during the early winter when they're dormant and they come "bare root" so there's not a root ball. Your nursery can help you with planting times. If you don't know your USDA Hardiness Zone it can help with looking that up, too.

A surprising thing to me was that you need to worry about pollination! Some trees require a cross-pollinator tree of another type. Both that book and that site and your nursery have information on that too.

It will take a few years for the trees to mature and produce fruit, so start sooner and have fun!

So no blogs, but there is You Bet Your Garden, a fabulous podcast done by a fabulous gentleman by the name of Mike McGrath. I learned just about everything my grandmother didn't teach me from him, and so much more.

He's also got a great list of book recommendations that you can find with a quick google, all of which I recommend highly. But honestly, the best way to learn how to garden is to do it, screw up, kill a few plants, and keep trying until you find something you can both keep up with and enjoy. I love pruning, so I'm following Grow a Little Fruit Tree to try and keep two cherries and a peach (possibly two, if the damn online place ever ships my order) small and manageable in my back yard.

Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre covers the basics and more.

Definitely second David Jacke's books - they're incredible! This one is also supposed to be good: http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Forest-Garden-Working-Nature/dp/1900322625/

Jacke is also working on a book about coppicing, which I'm really looking forward to: http://www.coppiceagroforestry.com/

Along those lines, OP may also find these guys inspirational: http://www.badgersett.com/info/woodyag1.html

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840

If you want inspiration, have a wander round Kew Gardens. At one time they had student vegetable gardens there too - don't know about now, but it's a wonderful garden. Most supermarkets will have seeds sold for UK conditions, as of course will garden centres, and seed catalogs are a good source of inspiration. I have a nice one from http://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Home/Orders-Requests/Catalogue-Request.html#.VvLaK6DLfGU The classic book on UK vegetable gardening is by Hessayon, with titles some variation on "The Vegetable Expert":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-New-Vegetable-Herb-Expert/dp/0903505754?ie=UTF8&keywords=hessayon%20vegetable%20expert&qid=1458756231&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

I see second hand copies of the previous version going cheap at http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Vegetable-Expert-books/dp/0903505207?ie=UTF8&keywords=hessayon%20vegetable%20expert&qid=1458756231&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

Such large numbers of this were sold that you have a good chance of repeating what I did a week or too ago - check out the local charity shops and pick up a second hand copy for £2.

Last year I was very pleased with Annual Rocket. A few years before that I had a lot of Kale coming along which got covered in caterpillars, but I am trying that again this year since I saw a story in this newsgroup of it recovering from such infestations. I have grown tomatoes outdoors but that can be chancy even with a variety bred for the purpose. Radish is famously easy, unless you get enough heat to make it go to seed, and even then you could eat the tops as greens.

Welcome to the UK - for further enthusiasm about its climate etc. see http://www.poeticexpressions.co.uk/POEMS/This%20royal%20throne%20of%20kings.htm (..This other Eden, demi-paradise,..)

I went to a local nursery and Costco neither had cherry trees. I think Stark Bros. is my best option at this point. So you get the trees bareroot and then have to put them in the ground right away?

What do you mean 3 60' raised beds? sq feet or 60' long. You have a picture of them?

Is this the book your talking about? It looks pretty good. I just bought The Fruit Gardener's Bible yesterday though. Maybe I'll pick up this one too.