Entries by Lee Reich

MORE PRUNING, AN INVASIVE?

Training Sessions    Anyone appalled at the apparent brutality with which I approached my grape and kiwi vines a few weeks ago, pruning shears, saw, and lopper in hand, would have been further shocked today. But no harm done. (The kiwis are “hardy kiwis,” that is, Actinidia arguta and A. kolomikta; fuzzy kiwis are not […]

EEK, A DINOSAUR IN MY COMPOST PILE!

  A Creature Not Really So Strange     One of the strangest creatures I ever found in my compost was the dinosaur that emerged today as I turned the pile. It was worse for the wear, the gash in its head probably from my machete, the “solar powered” shredder I use for stemmy compostables like […]

DRAMATIC PRUNING & NOT-TOO-BIG ONIONS

Henry IV Method of Pruning    Deb get’s a little nervous every time a go into the garage for some pruning tools this time of year. Not because she’s afraid I might hurt myself but for what I might do to the plants. Today it was so-called “renovative pruning” of the St. Johnswort ‘Sunny Boulevard’ […]

FEAST OR FAMINE

Is Gardening Too Easy?     Control yourself, Lee! Growing seedlings this time of year is too easy. Within a single packet of seeds  is the potential for a gardenful of vegetable or flower plants, even shrubs and trees. As such, a packet of seeds is relatively inexpensive.    I have envisioned delphinium in my garden, its […]

QUICK, NO WORK GARDEN, FOR STARTERS

Prescription for a New Gardener     It seems like everybody’s a gardener, or is becoming one, this time of year. And a lot of people have been asking me questions. Like my niece Lana, for instance, who moved along with her husband, a baby, and a toddler to a new house last fall and is […]

BLUEBERRIES OUTSIDE, APHIDS INSIDE

 Plant the Best-Tasting Fruit    My sixteen blueberry plants keep me in blueberries year ‘round, so I’m not planting any this year. But you are, or should be. The bushes are attractive in every season, with white blossoms in spring, foliage that looks spry all summer and turns crimson red in fall, and stems that […]

POPPING, PRUNING, AND EATING

  Popcorn Gets Bigger, But Medlar Is Still Ugly (Not To Me)    A couple of weeks ago I wrote about increasing the poppability of my home-grown popcorn by exposing the kernels to the vapor of a saturated salt solution. Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored popcorn, a variety that usually pops fairly well, popped to 1/3 […]

ELUSIVE AZURE AND FRUIT

Too Hot Here For These Gems, But Maybe I Can Trick Them    It was decades ago that Norman — gardener, orchid expert, one-time cattle farmer, and lawyer — described to me his first sighting of blue poppy, Meconopsis betonicifolia. He was traveling in England, and at this particular garden was a pond whose far […]

HOME GROWN GRAIN & GRAIN-ISH

  Popcorn & Chestnuts, Bigger is Better But Not Always    Orville Redenbacker’s popcorn may be an “exclusive kernel hybrid that pops up lighter and fluffier than ordinary popcorn,” but my popcorn — nonhybrids whose seeds I’ve saved for many years — tastes better. I grow two varieties, Pink Pearl and Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored […]

BANANAS & GINGER BRING TROPICS HERE

Spring Coming? Might As Well Go For Something(s) Tropical    Do I smell spring in the air? Must be. And the calendar confirms that it’s just around the corner. These hints finally stir longings for that season — even for a skiier. And what better way to welcome spring in than with attention to some […]