Author: Lee Reich
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Luscious fruits come from timely harvest, good storage
“Ripe” is a term that’s used much too freely when it comes to fruits. A plum is not supposed to taste sour like a lemon; that lemon-y plum is not ripe. Nor — and this is important — will it ever be. Ripening can begin in a fruit’s “mature” stage, and when the fruit reaches…
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Plan and plant now for spring-flowering bulbs
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save It’s nearly that time of year when gardeners think of spring — of planting bulbs that are going to bloom then. Bulbs are “pre-packaged” flowers, so a green thumb isn’t necessary to get those first…
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Delphiniums are a worthwhile challenge
My delphiniums are now in all their stately glory, the 5-foot, blue spires reaching for the sky as they guard the gate to my vegetable garden. I have to admit that besides their beauty, I also enjoy growing delphiniums to show off. On the one hand, they are not hard to start from seed, and…
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Plants fend off cold during winter, but only to a point
Since they can’t don gloves and a scarf or shiver to keep warm, it’s a wonder that trees, vines and shrubs don’t freeze to death in winter. Sometimes, of course, they do. But usually that happens to garden and landscape plants pushed to their cold limits, not to naturally cold-hardy plants or plants in their…
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Father Hugo: This sunny, early rose has a tough disposition
After showing his sunny face, Father Hugo has left for the season again. Father Hugo the rose, that is. Distinctive foliage, however, earns the plant its keep throughout the summer. Father Hugo is among the earlier roses to bloom, a floral hors d’oeuvre to the full-blown show that follows from hybrid tea, rambling and climbing…
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Believe in seeds: They’ll expand your gardening horizons
“Plant seeds” might seem like an inane suggestion for a gardening column. But I’m serious. More and more people who garden these days put plants rather than seeds into the ground. In the old days, the arrival of warm weather would have us all dropping bean, beet, marigold and zinnia seeds into moist soil, then…
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The sweet side of growing beets
One nice thing about growing beets is you can eat them fresh for much of the year. A spring planting is ready to start harvesting by early summer, and a summer planting is ready from September on. Some people say those early plantings must be harvested as soon as the roots are fully swollen or…
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‘Lucky bamboo’ may be lucky, but it’s not bamboo
The New Year is still young so let’s continue to welcome it in — with some lucky bamboo. At this time of year, this plant appears in supermarkets and plant stores across the country. It may or may not be lucky, but bamboo it ain’t. Lucky bamboo does look a lot like bamboo. The jointed…
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Preparing amaryllis for a Christmastime show
Ready, set, go. As soon as you have new amaryllis bulbs, pot them up, and in a few months the spectacular, colorful trumpets will unfold. (Technically, what are commonly called “amaryllis” are really species of hippeastrum.) With luck, or if the bulbs were from South Africa, Brazil or greenhouses in Israel, you’ll have blooms by…
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Small is sometimes better in the vegetable world
Truman Capote famously told friends that the very wealthy eat better vegetables – tiny ones. So there’s another plus for gardening: It’s easier to eat the way the super rich do. Not that smaller is always better in the world of vegetables. A cucumber picked undersize does not taste better than one allowed to swell…