Beauty & the Feast

by Mary Jasch

Low on phytonutrients? Take a look at the Garden of Reich, where apples are not the only temptation. Lee Reich, horticulturist, author, scientist, has planted the ideal 21st century home landscape. His is a recognizable name with five gardening books and garden column among his research, scientific journal writings, and consulting endeavors.

The first thing you notice about his garden is that it is unpretentious, yet lavishly displaying an honest love of horticulture. The second is the green roof filled with sedum on top of his garage. That too, is unpretentious - and fun!

A 1,200 square-foot vegetable garden takes up much of the immediate back yard with lettuces and other greens - all the ones Reich likes - arranged neatly in rows. He plants for the taste of things.

A row of eerie-looking apple trees, one half of a former 25-year-old apple allee, lines one edge of the vegetable garden. Their trunks and lower branches are colored silver right now. This non-toxic pesticide helps guard against the three big killers of apple trees in the East: plum curculio, apple maggot, and coddling moth. Reich doesn't like spraying near the garden, so he is planting apples farther away. He already replaced one side of the allee with a mix of pear trees and is interspersing young pear among the silvery apples. He plants 15 varieties. Some favorites: Magness, a cross between Worden Seckel and Comice, and Warren, sweet, juicy, smooth, and soft.

Growing pears doesn't take near the amount of stress that growing apples does. Apples must be sprayed with perfect timing if you want to eat them but since pears have few pests, Reich says you can grow them organically. For those who have picked pears and were frustrated with ripening he says, “There is an art to picking pears." The key is to pick them under-ripe since they ripen from the inside out. Pick when the lenticels turn brown and the fruit comes off as you give it a gentle upward twist. Early pears must be chilled for a couple weeks before they're ripened.

Through a rustic cedar gate and enclosed by a three-foot fence, rows of Romaine and butterhead lettuce grow thick heads of plump leaves - his favorites. They look delectable because they are fed good moisture, good fertilization and compost, a Reich specialty. Strong green stalks of celery form the next line on the edible field. Blanching celery is old-fashioned, says Reich, who grows Ventura, a variety that needs no blanching.

Reich doesn't worry about deer. His brand new patented product, DeerChaser® Deer Repeller, a battery-operated high frequency sound machine about the size of a telephone receiver, just hit the market this spring.

Outside the back of the veggie garden, as you gaze toward Shawangunk Mountain, grapes rise on trellises; espaliered red, white, and pink currants stretch along fence; and gooseberry bushes and Yellow Groove bamboo bridge the gap between tame and wild. With gooseberries, the right cultivar is key. Reich describes 58 of them in his book, Uncommon Fruits for every garden (Timber Press). His current 20 cultivars produce different flavored and colored “dessert gooseberries."

He once had the largest collection of gooseberries east of the Rockies, growing 50 varieties just to ensure their existence. When USDA Germplasm Repository in Geneva, New York, came into being, he gave them some of his varieties to include in their collection to preserve their genetic resources. “Then I didn't feel I had to keep them just for collector's value. I just grow the ones I really want."

True to his ideology, Reich likes the bamboo and, besides, it's useful for tomato and bean trellises and fencing, among other things. Almost-evergreen, it nicely screens a rail trail from his landscape.

Most grapes grown today are hybrids of American and European species. Depending on genetic make-up, they exhibit more characteristics of one species. Reich's grapes have more characteristics of the American species. “I like the taste better," he says. “They taste a little different and they're generally a little hardier. They're more on the Concord end of the spectrum as far as flavor. Everything I grow, I choose very carefully."

At the end of the grape row grows a clove current that wows the senses in springtime. Like many plants here, they are scattered around. One is by the terrace so Reich can smell it. “Clove currant. The flowers smell unbelievable!" he says.

To the garden's left, a cage protects 15 to 20 varieties of highbush blueberry from birds. “I want every last one of them,"ť says Reich, who freezes about 50 quarts to last the year. Read more about Lee here.

A flower and shrub border grows around the edge of caged gardens. Here Cornelian cherry blooms the first day of spring in this Zone 5 landscape. Besides being bird food, it's edible, as well as decorative, for people. Miss Kim, a great lilac for a small garden, blooms later than other lilacs and doesn't get powdery mildew. Along a fence by a greenhouse, red currants dangle on their bushes like beads.

Although the entire garden is a work of art and science, one tree in particular could stand as its emblem - a pear tree bearing eight different varieties of fruit grafted on by Reich.

“When I want to start a new variety but I don't want to make a tree out of it I'll just graft a branch onto it. Then if I like it I can take a graft from that branch and make a whole new tree." Reich made this tree a long time ago for his father, who had it for many years. It never grew well until Reich took it back many years ago.

The Medusa-like pear heads a shrubby border leading to the compost bin. Next to it, a fantail willow's young branches fuse and twist together to create an exotic effect, caused by a natural infection as are so many other splashy floral effects. Winter cutting forces pussy willows on these stems.

Pawpaw is surprisingly unknown - neither grown nor sold. It looks like a small mango, tastes like a banana, creme brulee, and even vanilla pudding. Who wouldn't want to plant this native, no-nonsense tree? The interspersed European black currants are high in Vitamin C. The best are a little sweet, strongly aromatic, have great flavor, and are pest-free. Reich eats and freezes them, too.

Shipova, an unusual fruit cross between Pyrus and Sorbus, has a meaty, sweet texture like a small pear and is easy to grow. They're planted around the garden, with a large one in the pear/apple allee and one near his wife, potter Deb Goldman's, porcelain studio.

Reich plans to test market his unusual produce in New York City's green markets. It's hard to believe that the world wouldn't clamor for low-fat creme brulee.

A row of hardy kiwi vines, Actinidia arguta, grows on trellises next to the pawpaw. Their inch-long fruits have a smooth, green, edible skin. Male “super-hardy kiwi," A. kolomikta, has pure white variegation. Both were introduced to American botanical gardens before the 1900s. “Many were planted for their ornamental value at estates such as Old Westbury Gardens and Dumbarton Oaks, their fruits overlooked," Reich comments.

Next, a row of young apple trees grafted last year on dwarf rootstock will reach their max at eight feet - perfect for any home garden. Rootstock determines flowering and growth of about 99% of grafted plants, Reich says. They'll start bearing soon - some this year.

One of the plantsman's favorite trees is Mespilus germanica, a single-flowered medlar. Popular in the Middle Ages, this tree bears golf ball-size fruit that “tastes like a very rich apple sauce." It can grow to 10 feet. He has grown it for almost 25 years. He also grows special mulberries, of course. In a small nearby greenhouse kept to a minimum of 35 degrees in winter, fig trees and cucumbers grow.

Down toward the road, chestnuts, filberts, walnuts and other nuts are happy in a meadow. Closer to the house, decorative Asian pear and beach plum grow in a mixed fruit-flower garden with white fritillaria, poppies, and Snow in Summer spilling over a stone wall. Reich pinches off extra buds on the pear. Oriental pears set too many fruits, he says. It makes the flavor much better if you reduce their numbers so they put more reserves into fewer fruits.

Around front, an ericaceous garden grows blueberries and huckleberries, plus lingonberry, red currant, hellebores and our favorite evergreen flowering shrubs. Gardens wrap around the house, including a line of potted citrus, pineapple guava, and bay laurel.

When the berries, grapes, currants, and tree fruits begin to ripen and hang colorful from the trees and shrubs and fragrance fills the air, he must indeed feel fortunate. Throughout it all, the beds, borders, cages, rows, beautiful fruit trees and busty bushes are accented by fragrant, pretty flowers. It's the Reich way to go!

So if you have a little land, or a new house, or just want to plant more plants in your landscape, take advantage and give yourself the best of both worlds-beauty and the feast. And the best part is, that is if you can't make it to Lee Reich's garden on when it is open to the public as part of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days Program, the simple instructions for growing and enjoying these plants, and more, are laid out in his luscious book, Uncommon Fruits for every garden, with sources to get them.

Check this: www.leereich.com
Garden Conservancy Open Days: www.gardenconservancy.org

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