olive trees

Hi,
First I apologize, I am new to permaculture and new to this forum and am not sure I am placing my questions properly.

I live on the Greek island of Crete. I have around 360 olive trees, I've been told that they are a modern version, designed to stay small and produce more olives.
I've also been told they need to be pruned heavily and watered during the summer.
I recently watched some locals harvesting the olives and I just got the feeling there must be a simpler more natural way for these trees.
Can anyone recommend good books or info on the subject??
Thanks,
Perri

Hi Perry,
We recently moved to Italy and are exploring similar question particularly with regard to using olive tree prunings for Hugelkultur and compost rather than burning them like everyone else. Nobody has had much to say in this regard here but the massive waste of organic biomass here is tragic and of course everyone uses gasoline to burn these prunings. PS planting rosemary, comfrey, and lavender with your trees is helpful from what I've heard.