Purchase Signed Copies of Lee Reich’s Books (shipping only in U.S.)
There is an additional charge for shipping: $5.00 for the first book, plus $1 for each additional book. Buyers in New York State must also pay sales tax. These charges will be added during checkout.
Fruit: From the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection
Despite the long title, this is a small book, a coffee table book that fits into the palm of your hand. Represented are 250 of the 7500 watercolors that the U.S. Department of Agriculture commissioned 20 artists, mostly women, to paint of various fruit varieties between 1886 and 1942. They were used for educational and promotional purposes.
I selected the watercolors for their beauty, historical interest, and/or quaintness. Would you reach for a Peasgood Nonesuch or Peck’s Pleasant apple, a Neva Myss peach, or (dare one say it?) a Nun’s Thigh pear from a supermarket shelf?
My introduction to the book and to each chapter unravels some of the botany, history, and development of the fruits in this country. (My special interest in this book comes from my having done my doctoral research at the Fruit Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture, where some fruit art was displayed and right across the street from the National Agricultural Library, where the watercolors are stored.)
You’ll be justifiably wowed by the unique beauty and number of different varieties grown in decades past.
Hardcover, 288 pages. – $12.95
Weedless Gardening
Turning conventional wisdom on its head, this book shows how to garden like Mother Nature, offering a system that’s good for plants and good for people. Eschewing the yearly digging up and working over the soil, WEEDLESS GARDENING is an easy-to-follow, low-impact approach to planting and maintaining a flower garden, a vegetable garden, trees, and shrubs naturally. Say good-bye to backaches and weed problems. Illustrated. Roger Swain (Host of The Victory Garden) says: “The deepest wisdom gardening has to offer. Do as Lee Reich says. Pay attention to the top few inches of soil and nature will take care of the rest.”
Softcover, 195 pages. – $10.95
Growing Figs in Cold Climates
Growing Figs in Cold Climates is a complete, full-color, illustrated guide to organic methods for growing delicious figs in cold climates. Here are five methods, some pruning techniques, and suitable varieties for making this possible across cool and cold growing zones of North America, Europe, and beyond. Also some ideas for small-scale, commercial fig production in cold climates.
A fresh fig is a soft and juicy fruit, with a honey-sweet, rich flavor. And very perishable, so is picked underripe commercially, which is why fresh figs from the market never develop full flavor. If you already grow figs, this book will help you grow better or more figs, or be able to manage them more easily. If you haven’t yet experienced the rewards of growing figs, you have a treat in store for you. Easy and delicious!
Softcover, 115 pages. – $24.99
The Pruning Book
The lively text, abundant photographs, and clear drawings of this book make pruning any plant easy. This book walks you through the basics of pruning in a clear, step-by-step approach and then details how to prune everything from ornamental bushes to trees, vines, fruits, and houseplants. Guidelines for pruning hundreds of species, from tropical to cold-climate plants, are included. A section on specialized pruning techniques covers espalier, topiary, bonsai, and pollarding. For both beginning and advanced gardeners.
This second edition is completely revised and updated, incorporating my own experiences and the experiences of other gardeners, as well as recent research with pruning that has surfaced since the first edition was published in 1997. Beyond substantive changes, revised text and many new photographs should make this edition even more accessible than the first edition.
Softcover, 234 Pages – $29.95
Uncommon Fruits For Every Garden
TEMPORARILY OUT OF PRINT.
A valuable guide to fruits and berries that add an adventurous flavor to any garden. Though names like jujube, juneberry, maypop, and shipova may seem exotic at first glance, these fruits offer delectable rewards to the gardener willing to go only slightly off the beaten path at local nurseries. Reliable even in the toughest garden situations, cold-hardy and pest-resistant, they are as enticing to the beginning as to the advanced gardener. This expanded sequel to the author’s celebrated Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention offers new fruits, new varieties, and new photos and illustrations to entice the reader into an exciting world of garden pleasure.
Softcover, 308 Pages – $19.95
A Northeast Gardener’s Year
A Northeast Gardener’s Year offers a couple of hundred pages of gardening know-how: what to do, how to do it, when to do it. As I write in the introduction, there is “no orderly system to what I write, except as dictated by the progress of the seasons, which we will follow month by month. I will begin each chapter setting the tone for the month with a few lines of borrowed poetry, then follow with a short description of what is going on plantwise. From there, we are left to the whims and vagaries of the weather and the weeds, the unfolding of blossoms and the ripening of fruits, and the cry of plants begging to be repotted as they push their roots through the holes in the bottom of their containers . . . I have gardened as far west as Wisconsin, as far south as Delaware, and as far north as New York. This book is applicable to at least that range, and any reader could stretch the range a bit more – to include the whole of what we generally call “the Northeast” – by adding or subtracting a few days on either side of the outdoor growing season . . . This is not a book to be read at one sitting, but rather, month by month, as it was written. I hope for each month’s offerings to guide, to entertain, and, most of all, to enthuse you, dear reader, to share in the joys of gardening.
Softcover, 262 Pages – $21.99
Landscaping With Fruit
A book to rethink landscaping and fruit growing. Use certain temperate zone fruit trees, vines, shrubs, and groundcovers to beautify the landscape and, at the same time, provide tasty fruits for eating. The focus here is on so-called dessert fruits, delectable fruits that can be enjoyed right off the plants. Most people don’t expect to need to—and don’t have to—perform detailed annual pruning or pest control on their landscape plants. Fruit suggested in this book are those that can be held to these same low-maintenance standards. Learn how to optimize growing conditions and reap bountiful harvests while enjoying your scenery.
Softcover, 192 Pages – $19.95
The Ever Curious Gardener: Using a Little Natural Science for a Much Better Garden
Curious why caressing your cucumber plants will help them bear more fruit? Or why you should grow oranges from seed even if the fruit is inedible? Or why trees need to sleep and how to help them? Offering eye-opening insight and practical guidance, coverage includes: Helping plants thrive during drought; Outwitting weeds by understanding their nature; Making the best use of compost; Why the language of Latin can make you a better gardener. The Ever Curious Gardener is an irreverent romp through the natural science of plants and soil, ideal for newer gardeners moving beyond back-of-the-seed-pack planting to experienced gardeners whose curiosity at the wonders of cultivation grows deeper and stronger with each season.
Paperback, 240 Pages – $18.99
