A Northeast Gardener's Year

The figurative stroll takes us through the seasons, with each chapter in A Northeast Gardener's Year marking a month in the life of the garden. Beginning in March, when the gardening year gets underway, Reich is off and running, from weeds to ripening fruits, laying down his trowel and picking up his pruning shears, or just planning: the spring garden, the fall garden, perhaps a path. The progress of the seasons and the whims and vagaries of the weather and the plants dictate the topics that he writes about within each month, Horticultural engravings from the Victorian period round out the mood.A garden journal brimming with wonderful observations and practical tips on when, how, and what to plant throughout the year, A Northeast Gardener's Year moves from the unfolding of blossoms to the cry of a plant begging to be repotted as its roots push through the bottom of its container; from enjoying foxy grapes, to planting by the moon, to growing the eerie and putrid voodoo lily given by a mischievous neighbor. Reich writes of wild tulips, pea planting, cold frames, new trees, strawberries, columbines, lawns, plant pests, daisies, lilies, onions, tomato troubles, summer bulbs, rose hips, pressed flowers, choice apples, birdhouse gourds, record keeping, garden clean-up, winter ornaments, siting houseplants, purple broccoli, wood ashes, garden structure, and much, much more through the seasons.While this book is about a garden in the northeast, gardeners throughout the country will find common ground merely by adding or subtracting a few days on either side of the outdoor growing season. A Northeast Gardener's Year is a literary treasure chock-full of practical tips that will delight both the armchair gardener and the dirt-under-the-fingernails gardener. It places Lee Reich in the first rank of garden writers today.