Books Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts

The easy-to-use resource for growing healthy, resilient, low-maintenance trees, shrubs, vines, and other fruiting plants from around the world—perfect for farmers, gardeners, and landscapers at every scale.

Illustrated with more than 200 color photographs and covering 50 productive edible crops—from Arctic kiwi to jujube, medlar to heartnut—this is the go-to guide for growers interested in creating diversity in their growing spaces.

“[Levy and Serrano] go way beyond the standard fare. . . . With their help, you’ll be growing persimmons, currants and hazelnuts in no time.”—Modern Farmer

Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts is a one-stop compendium of the most productive, edible fruit-and nut-bearing crops that push the boundaries of what can survive winters in cold-temperate growing regions. While most nurseries and guidebooks feature plants that are riddled with pest problems (such as apples and peaches), veteran growers and founders of the Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, focus on both common and unfamiliar fruits that have few, if any, pest or disease problems and an overall higher level of resilience.

Inside Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts you’ll find:

• Taste profiles for all fifty hardy fruits and nuts, with notes on harvesting and uses
• Plant descriptions and natural histories
• Recommended cultivars, both new and classic
• Propagation methods for increasing plants
• Nut profiles including almonds, chestnuts, walnuts, and pecans
• Fertilization needs and soil/site requirements
• And much more!

With beautiful and instructive color photographs throughout, the book is also full of concise, clearly written botanical and cultural information based on the authors’ years of growing experience. The fifty fruits and nuts featured provide a nice balance of the familiar and the exotic: from almonds and pecans to more unexpected fruits like maypop and Himalayan chocolate berry. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts gives adventurous gardeners all they need to get growing.

Both experienced and novice gardeners who are interested in creating a sustainable landscape with a greater diversity of plant life—while also providing healthy foods—will find this book an invaluable resource.

Reviews and Praise

“Outrageous diversity throughout the ecosystem will always be essential for growing healthy fruit and nuts. Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano have provided a thorough guide to adding an intriguing selection of productive plantings to your landscape. Get on board and plant more of everything!”—Michael Phillips, author of The Holistic Orchard and Mycorrhizal Planet

About The Author: Scott Serrano

Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano are both exhibiting visual artists and codirectors of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in New York’s Hudson Valley. Their garden began as a source of inspiration and raw materials for their art. Over time their interest in growing a wider selection of plants expanded until the garden encompassed eleven acres and became their primary passion. Along the way they began planting a vast diversity of plants, both edible and ornamental. This grew into an extensive collection of cold-hardy cactus, magnolia trees, viburnums, and grafted fruit trees, with a focus on rare, underutilized plants. The arboretum is now a nonprofit organization and level II arboretum.

Pages: 384 pages

Book Art: Full-color photographs throughout

Size: 7 x 10 inch

Paperback: 9781645020455

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