Landscaping With Fruit: Strawberry ground covers, blueberry hedges, grape arbors, and 39 other luscious fruits to make your yard an edible paradise. (A Homeowners Guide) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: shade tree blossoms, hardy kiwifruit, raisin tree, United States, Rocky Mountains, Native Americans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Fruit trees, shrubs, and vines are true two-for-one plants. Many varieties are strikingly beautiful — well suited to doing double duty as delicious sources of sweet, organic fruit and as ornamental additions to the home landscape. Backyard fruit plants also tie in perfectly with the growing locavore movement. It's difficult to find food that's more local than one's own backyard!

"Luscious landscaping," as author Lee Reich calls it, takes fruit-bearing plants off the commercial farm and replants the prettiest and tastiest specimens in suburban and rural yards. Spring blossoms, summer and fall fruit, and the year-round presence of the plants themselves bring a special magic to the home landscape. Pillowy pink blossoms on peach branches or the bright orange fruit of persimmon trees perk up their surroundings with color and drama.

Beautiful plants, yes, but these landscaping additions also provide sweet, nutritious fruit. Homegrown, organic varieties bear almost no resemblance to commercially produced fruits,which are bred and selected to withstand shipping and refrigerated storage conditions. It's hard to believe that Alpine strawberries and those grown in California and shipped across the country are even related!

Fruitscaping is a complete, no-nonsense guide to growing temperate-zone fruit, with information on everything from planting and pruning to pest control and harvesting. Readers will find all the basics of landscaping with fruit — site analysis, climate assessment, understanding soil and sun, plant selection, and optimizing growing conditions. An encyclopedia of 38 plants includes information for each entry on hardiness, size, potential pests, special care and pruning, harvesting, and visual appeal.

About the Author

Lee Reich is an author, lecturer, and consultant whose books include The Pruning Book and Weedless Gardening. Reich grows a broad assortment of fruit plants in his own garden, which has been featured in the New York Times, Organic Gardening, and Martha Stewart Living.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (February 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603420916
• ISBN-13: 978-1603420914
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only for big gardens?, May 25, 2009

By	J. Blum (Medford, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Information on fruit growing can be found readily, but books on landscaping with fruit are not that numerous. So it was with eagerness I awaited this one. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the "landscaping" part. It is OK for big gardens, but virtually useless for those of us with more modest ones. A small section on dwarf varieties etc.. The impression left is that a "luscious landscape" is possible only with lots of land. In fact, the landscaping section is excerpted efficiently in Carleen Madigan's "The Backyard Homestead", which also is a bit more helpful for smaller gardens. Lee Reich's book is strongest when dealing with plant care & individual plant information.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing the Local Food Movement Fruit To Your Backyard!, April 17, 2009

By	Sacramento Book Review "SacramentoBookReview.com" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

Bring the local food movement to your own backyard with Lee Reich's Landscaping with Fruit. This comprehensive guidebook will aid any aspiring fruit gardener in their quest for juicy peaches or bursting blueberries. Likewise, it will help experienced gardeners improve their edible landscape. Covering three main concepts: 1) edible landscaping ideas and considerations, 2) plant care and organic maintenance, and 3) specific instructions for each of 39 recommended fruits, unlike other landscape books designed with fancier photos than practical guidance, Landscaping with Fruit is a book you're sure to reference frequently. It's written for gardeners by someone utterly devoted to gardening himself. In fact, Reich's experience includes soil and plant research for the USDA and Cornell University.

Based on years of experience, Reich provides his own rating system for selecting landscape fruits that combine flavor, ease of care, and beauty to create what he calls "luscious landscaping." You'll learn about pruning, planting, and plucking, plus you'll find design plans, guided illustrations, and climate considerations. Importantly, you'll feel empowered to practice what you learn.

Any gardener interested in harvesting the literal fruits of their labor will enjoy this well-researched, well-written, inspiring book.

Reviewed by Amber K. Stott

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewing: "Landscaping With Fruit" by Lee Reich, July 6, 2009

By	Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas) - See all my reviews

Growing your own vegetables and fruits has come back into favor in the last year thanks to the bad economy. Instead of focusing primarily on beauty in the landscape a lot of folks went in a new direction and began planting with the idea of growing food. As the author notes in the introduction, one can plant fruit producing plants that also provide beauty in the landscape.

After the introduction, the book is essentially divided into two parts though that organization is never expressly stated by the author. The first half of the book is all about the technical details. The second half is all about the various plants. Of course, various plants are discussed and there are photographs of them in the first section, but the overriding material is regarding landscape design and placement of the plants as well as how to maintain them.

The first chapter covers "Landscape Design Basics." As implied by the title, it is how to figure out how one yard looks better that another(and not just because everything is alive and thriving), how to figure out what you have, what you want, how to use different plants to achieve different goals, etc.

"Considerations In Planting" follows with topics on weather, your local soil, types of sunlight in your area, etc.

This leads directly into the chapter titled "Growing The Plants." Spending money and effort on planting is doomed to failure if you don't know what will grow best, how to care for your soil, prune and protect against pests of all types, among other topics.

Various plans for several different layouts are found in the next section titled "Home Landscape Plans." Starting on page 61, you are led through "A Patio Fruitscape," and "A Modular Backyard" and a very neat design for "A Children's Garden" (which also appeals to adults as a retreat) and many others.

Starting on page 73 is the "Guide To Fruiting Landscape Plants." The plants were selected for landscaping in temperate climates which the author interestingly defines as "... having distinct winter and summer seasons." (P.73) After an overview table listing the name of the plant, what it usually produces in terms of quantity, zones it lives in according to USDA and AHS, landscape use, prominent ornamental qualities, ( types of bloom, leaf, color, etc.) among other categories, the book moves into very detailed descriptions of the plants. Along with much of the info listed in the chart being repeated here there are photographs of the plants and plenty of growing tips. Nearly forty plants are listed and include several varieties of cherries, currants, kiwi fruit, pear and others. There are also suggestions for fruit trees in pots using various types of citrus, as well as fig, kumquat, and others.

A list of suppliers, reading resources, zone maps and eleven page index bring this very helpful book to a close.

Despite the photographed lusciousness of many of the plants in the book, which would indicate a heavy need of water, many plants such as the "Russian Olive" ( Pages 162-163) prefer it drier with low humidity. So, while not specific to Texas readers, this book does feature plants that will work here as well as various other places in this country. Be sure to read all the info for each plant so that you can make a good decision as to what fits best in your landscape.

Comprehensive and detailed, 191 page book provides a wealth of good advice in how to incorporate fruit bearing plants your landscape. While it might be trendy among some right now to do so, this book will show you what to do to keep fruit coming from your landscape long after the fad has passed.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2009