First and foremost, select varieties that have high disease resistance to the diseases in your area, a few possible common diseases are Cedar Apple Rust, Powdery Mildew, Fireblight and scab. Second, learn how to properly train and prune your trees in order to keep them open enough to allow for maximum light and breeze penetration and productivity. Select rootstocks bfor the varieties you want that will allow you to manage your trees for many years down the road. Finally, learn what sprays you can use like Lime Sulphur for disease or Cyd-x for Coddling Moth in apples.

I'm going to be using alfalfa pellets (bunny food) to fertilize my orchard this year.

The mulch ring is great, take it out to the edge of the drip line and add to it every year to keep it there.

Definitely, pick up the windfall apples.

Don't give up on the fruit and orchards forum yet.

Start with the soil these trees are to grow in. A good reliable soil test to determine what the soils pH and nutrient availability are would be a good beginning and these simple soil tests might also be of some help.
1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.
2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.
3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.
4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter can be bad as well.
5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

Talk with the people at your county office of your state universities Cooperative Extension Service about which cultivars would be the most appropriate for your area of the United States and including somewhere on your member information where in the United States you are would be of much help.

Perhaps the link below might be of some help, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing organic apples

Sorry Basilady, forgot you plan to do your own grafting, by all means, go back to the fruit and orchards forum and ask for help there where many are experienced in grafting apples and other fruit trees. I've managed to use a type of graft called t-budding on apples, it is pretty simple and fairly easy to do. As a first time grafter, I suggest you try many more than you need to succeed as surely some won't. Having too many is no problem, I think.

The tree I grafted is an extremely old one in my town that I noticed having very good resistance to the 2 worst diseases here and the fruit is fantastic. Now I have 3 trees added to my orchard that require no sprays for disease! The insect control has been easy to keep organic using oil, Spinosad, Cyd-x and monitoring traps for Coddling Moth to know when to spray the aforementioned materials. Best of luck and by all means get a soil test but before sampling, ask the lab or extension service how to take a proper sample and handle it once taken. Lousy samples yield lousy results.