UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS
I will be offering lectures and workshops at a number of venues across the country in the upcoming year. If interested, go to the “Lecture” page of this website for a current listing, which will be updated as needed.
Entries by Lee Reich
IN WITH ENDIVE, OUT WITH ASPARAGUS
First Harvest At Season’s End Finally, I’m harvesting endive from the garden, just as planned when I settled seeds into mini-furrows in a seed flat back in July. After leaves unfolded on the seedlings, I gently lifted them up and out of their seed flat, helping them up with a spatula slid beneath their roots, […]
ALL-AMERICAN THANKSGIVING
Danger of Squashing Thanksgiving is a most appropriate time to put together a truly American meal, one made up of native plants, many of which are easily grown, that might have shown up on the original Thanksgiving table about 400 years ago. (The date of that first feast was 1623 but the date for celebrating […]
SENSORY DELIGHTS, NOW AND FUTURE
A Scented Wave For the past couple of weeks, every time I walk upstairs to my home office, a sweet aroma hits me like a wave a few steps before I reach the top stair. This wave pulls me forward, a room and a half away, to the Meyer lemon plant sitting in my […]
UBER ORGANIC & A BEAUTIFUL BLOSSOM
‘Tis the Season ’Tis the season to really put the “organic” in organic gardening. “Organic,” as in organic materials, natural compounds composed mostly of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. “Organic,” as in materials that are or were once living, things like compost, leaves, manure, and hay. I’ve spread compost over almost all my vegetable […]
CHANGING STEMS, CHANGING LEAVES
Korean Giant Pear, In Training Stepping down the two stones at one end of my bluestone wall, a friend looked up and asked, “Are you torturing or training this tree?” He was referring to the tree on one side of the the stairway, one long stem of which was arching overhead, held in that […]
THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF A DRY AUTUMN
Just Like Korea? The bone dry weather blanketing the Hudson Valley and much of northeastern U.S. does have its saving graces. For one thing, it forces perennial plants to shut down and direct their energies to toughening up for cold weather lurking over the horizon. That’s a good thing — unless, of course, the […]
NUTTY TIMES AND COLD WEATHER
Nuts Galore What a nutty time of year, literally! Chestnuts and black walnuts, two of my favorite nuts, were raining down, figuratively, just before the middle of the month. Black walnuts are free for the taking. Wild trees are everywhere around here, and keep increasing because of overlooked nuts buried by squirrels. The […]
DUCKS AND TOMATOES
My Discerning Ducks Every morning when I throw open the door to my Duckingham Palace (a name coined by vegetable farmer Elliot Coleman, for his duck house), my four ducks step out, lower their heads as if to reduce air resistance, and race to the persimmon tree. They trace a large circle around the […]
THE WEATHER, AND BLACKCAPS
Dry Soil Digging a hole to bury an animal last week gave me new respect for the plant world. Each shovelful brought up dusty, light brown soil, even to a depth of more than two feet. That’s expected, since it hasn’t rained more than 1/4 of an inch here for the past five weeks. […]
