Grow a backyard orchard bursting with fruit and plentiful harvests year after year.
What if your orchard could almost grow itself? What if, instead of constant fertilizing, watering, and battling pests, your plants thrived effortlessly, producing fruit, flowers, and abundance year after year?
We’ve all seen jaw-dropping orchards online and thought, “That can’t be real.” But it can, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Every orchard has two paths: the geometric farm or the wild forest, orderly rows or untamed abundance, control or cooperation.
In this class, you’ll dive into holistic orcharding, the wild-style approach that works with nature instead of against it. You’ll discover how to work with weeds instead of against them, explore easier ways to water your plants, and enlist nature’s own army to manage pests for you.
You’ll go from dead soil, toxic sprays, and expensive fertilizers to rich, productive soil that costs nothing to maintain. You’ll design plant communities that support one another, conserve water, and dramatically reduce labor, creating an orchard that largely cares for itself.
By the end of this class, you’ll see your orchard with fresh eyes. You’ll stress less, enjoy more, and harvest bigger, tastier, more abundant crops than you ever thought possible. It’s time to trade control for curiosity, busywork for patience, and effort for abundance.
Meet Your Instructor:
Jason Ross
Hi, I’m Jason Ross. I’m a permaculture innovator, orchardist, and author of The Black Autumn series of preparedness novels, as well as the screenwriter for a homestead movie and TV show. But my real passion is hands-on permaculture and holistic orcharding.
Over the past 20 years, I’ve progressed from gardener to orchardist, learning how to design systems that produce abundant food with less labor, cost, and stress. My journey began in a simple garden and evolved as I discovered the wisdom of forests and permaculture principles, eventually moving into low-maintenance, self-supporting orchards and regenerative growing systems.
I’ve had the privilege of establishing permaculture gardens and orchards in places as diverse as Utah, Hawaii, and Eswatini, southern Africa, and I’ve consulted with over 50 growers across rural and urban settings in the US and Southern Africa. In Eswatini, I developed a nationwide permaculture program for homesteading, and I co-founded Umdoni Farm, a national test farm focused on creating sustainable, thriving homesteads with marketable produce and livestock.
My goal is to help others create resilient, productive food systems that flourish naturally. At the School of Traditional Skills, I’m excited to teach holistic orcharding techniques that work with nature, so you can grow your own thriving, low-maintenance orchard — a backyard Garden of Eden full of fruit, flowers, and abundance.
By the time we’re done, you’ll have the confidence and skills to:
Build an orchard that doesn’t depend on constant work.
Set up a self-perpetuating system that largely takes care of itself, so your orchard supports your life instead of consuming it.
Stop fighting pests, weeds, and disease.
Learn how to work with nature to reduce pest pressure by up to 90%, turning problems into built-in allies instead of endless battles.
Grow abundant food without ongoing costs.
Replace fertilizers, sprays, and expensive inputs with natural systems that drive costs toward zero over time.
Create healthy, productive soil from the ground up.
Regenerate dead soil using no-cost methods so your orchard becomes more fertile and productive every year.
Produce more food in less space with less water.
Design plant groupings that deliver massive yields, extended harvests, and up to 90% water efficiency.
Start with confidence instead of fear and guesswork.
Follow a clear, proven framework that removes overwhelm, minimizes risk, and shows you exactly how to get lasting results.
For $199 You'll Get:
- A one-of-its-kind class on holistic orcharding that helps you stop fighting pests, weeds, and failing soil, and instead set up an orchard that largely takes care of itself.
- Expert guidance through every step, from watering efficiently, rethinking weeds, balancing pests, propagating, planting, and pruning, all based on Jason’s decades of hands-on experience.
- An easy-to-follow, highly detailed guide that walks you through each stage of establishing and harvesting your orchard without guesswork or wasted effort.
- Bonus FAQ videos with Jason’s signature down-to-earth clarity, answering the questions that trip up most gardeners so you can move forward confidently.
Take a look inside! Here's the class details:
Lesson 1: You Can Grow An Orchard
Lesson 2: Meet Jason
Lesson 3: Get Your Supplies
Lesson 4: Purchasing Trees
Lesson 5: The Miracle of the Orchard
Lesson 6: Choosing Your Food Forest Parcel
Lesson 7: Building Orchard Soil
Lesson 8: Choosing Edible Perennials
Lesson 9: Using Perennial Companion Plants
Lesson 10: Watering Efficiently
Lesson 11: Rethinking Weeds
Lesson 12: Balancing Pests
Lesson 13: Propagating Plants
Lesson 14: Planting, Part 1
Lesson 15: Planting, Part 2
Lesson 16: Planting, Part 3
Lesson 17: Harvesting and Pruning
Lesson 18: Stepping Into Holistic Orcharding
Lesson 19: Your Next Steps
Bonus: FAQ Videos
19 easy-to-follow videos (plus 9 FAQ videos) that break down simple steps to holistic orcharding. Watch on your phone or laptop. It’s like having Jason right there with you, walking the orchard and sharing practical guidance every step of the way.
A printable, step-by-step guide you can bring right out into the garden. This is your holistic orcharding manual for real life. It’s made to get smudged with soil, thumbed through with muddy fingers, and used again and again as you grow a thriving sanctuary right in your own backyard.
Plus these bonuses:
Building Orchard Soil: 5 Steps to Forest-Quality Soil from Poor, Depleted Dirt
Natural forest soil takes centuries to develop. With this guide you'll learn to create equivalent soil in 1-3 years by accelerating nature's processes. (Jason built a food forest on pipeline rubble, the absolute worst soil possible. Today it's as rich as any deciduous forest floor!).
Planting Fruit Trees: Step-by-Step to Thriving, Long-Lived Orchards
Learn how to plant fruit trees the right way so they thrive for years. From preparing the hole and handling roots to proper watering, staking, and companion planting, this guide shows you how to avoid common mistakes, save time, and set up a self-supporting orchard that produces abundant fruit with minimal stress.
