Horticulturalist Reich explains just how simple growing fruit as part of a garden can be. Detailed, easy-to-follow instructions on spacing, propagating, thinning, and pruning fruit trees and shrubs are accompanied by a comprehensive plant portrait chapter that includes a wealth of information on fruits from apples to quince. 200 color photos.
Lee Reich, PhD started out pursuing an academic career, a trajectory that came to an abrupt halt during his second year in graduate school while studying quantum chemistry. He dropped out, moved to Vermont to ponder, and, after a year, immersed himself in the study and practice of agriculture: reading popular and academic works, entering graduate school, and gardening like a madman.
After three graduate degrees, work work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cornell University, and much dirt under his fingernails, he went off on his own as a freelance horticultural writer, consultant, and lecturer.
Out in the backyard, the garden developed and garnered awards ("Prettiest Vegetable Garden: from Organic Gardening magazine, "Best Vegetable Garden" from National Gardening magazine), and was featured in the New York Times and Martha Stewart Living. The garden also grew: Lee now considers himself a farmdener (more than a gardener, less than a farmer), tending his farmden in a small river valley in New York's beautiful Hudson River Valley.
