Entries by Lee Reich

A FRUITFUL YEAR IN THE OFFING

 More Fruits to Plant!?    You’d think, after so many years of gardening and a love of fruits being such a important part of said gardening, that by now I would have planted every fruit I might ever have wanted to plant. Not so!    Hard to imagine, but even here in the 21st century, new […]

FRUIT BOOK GIVEAWAY, AND FRUIT FUTURES

 The Eternal (Fruit) Optimist    We fruit growers get especially excited this time of year. On the one hand, there’s the anticipation of the upcoming season. And on the other hand, we don’t want to rush things along at all.    Ideally, late winter segues into the middle of spring with gradually warming days and nights. […]

COMPOST TEA: SNAKE OIL OR PLANT ELIXIR?

Is the Jury Still Out on Compost Tea?     In gardening, as in life, you can’t help but want to love some things, compost tea being one of them. After all, compost is good, tea is soothing, so what’s not to love about compost tea?    Perhaps it depends on how you brew your tea. Traditional […]

MANURE ABSOLVED, PRUNING STARTED

Horse Manure: Not Guilty, So On To Pruning     A dark cloud no longer hangs over my horse manure, that is, the horse manure that I occasionally truck over here to add to my compost piles. I wrote a few weeks ago about the possibility of herbicide that, when applied to hay, retains its toxic […]

FIRST SOWINGS OF THE YEAR, DEADLINE MISSED

 Onions & More, Late But They’ll Be Fine    I missed my deadline by four days, sowing onion seeds on February 5th rather than the planned February 1st. That date isn’t fixed in stone but the important thing is to plant onions early.    Onions are photoperiod sensitive, that is, they respond to daylength (actually, night […]

HOW TO FEED THE WORLD

Perennial Wheat to Save Our Soil, But What About Compost?     We — that is, almost all of humanity — get all our sustenance from the thin skin that covers out planet, the soil. In appreciation of this, the United Nations has declared 2015 “The Year of Soil.” “Soil is more important than oil,” stated […]

LUSTING FOR AVOCADOS, HOME GROWN, OF COURSE

A Long Journey to Avocado-dom This far north, an avocado plant provides reliable entertainment and, less reliably, the makings of guacamole. The entertainment doesn’t compare with the excitement of a car chase on the silver screen; it’s slower but very engaging. To whit: I’ve been watching roots on two avocado pits elongate and branch. I […]

GOOD BOOKS, GOOD LECTURES

One Book = Years of Experience     I’ve been gardening for over 30 years. Don’t be impressed. The number of years spent with hands in the dirt doesn’t necessarily confer any particular expertise in the field (pun intended). Some gardeners do the same foolish things year in and year out, or never sufficiently investigate other, […]

NOTHING TO DO? SEQUESTER CARBON?

Agriculture: Good or Bad for Our Planet?     I’m enjoying this farmdening interlude, with essentially nothing to do, farmdenwise, for a few weeks. No planting, no pruning, no weeding. Seeds have been ordered and the greenhouse, full of lettuce and kale and chard and other fresh stuff, is cold enough to require no more than […]