Lectures by Lee Reich

In my lectures, I try to meld together my enthusiasm for gardening along with my academic and practical experiences to give my audience information that they can, and will want to, take home and apply to their own "back forty." Typically, my presentations involve slide photographs and last for about one hour, but I can accommodate other formats or time periods. My lectures have been well received, with attendees commenting especially favorably on the clear organization of my material, the abundance and sometimes novelty of the information, and my humor.

Below is a list of some lectures that I offer. Feel free to use these descriptions, as well as the short biographical blurb on the "Bio" page, for press releases. My lectures are by no means limited to the below topics, although my special interests and expertises in gardening involve fruit gardening, vegetable gardening, pruning, and anything concerning soil and compost.

A Sampling of Lecture Topics Offered by Lee Reich

POMONA'S SECRETS: HARDY, DELECTABLE, PEST-FREE FRUITS: Meet some fruits, such as shipova, medlar, Nanking cherry, and lingonberry, that are not well-known, but have delectable flavors and are easy to grow and cold-hardy. The fruits covered are generally free of pest problems, so can be grown without spraying. Many require no more than a little, or no, pruning. And if that's not enough: some of the fruits covered—hardy kiwifruit, juneberry, and cornelian cherry, for example—are borne on ornamental plants so are perfect for "edible landscaping."

FEARLESS PRUNING: A slide lecture to take the mystery out of pruning, so that lilacs, roses—all trees and shrubs, in fact—can be pruned to look their best and be in vibrant health. After going over the many benefits of pruning, we'll take a look at the tools for the job and then—most important—discuss how plants respond to various types of pruning cuts. After that, we enter the "real world" with the how, why, and when of pruning various groups of plants.

MY WEEDLESS GARDEN: This slide lecture will introduce a novel way for caring for the soil, one that results in fewer weeds. My "weedless gardening" system is an integrated system that involves minimizing soil disturbance, avoiding soil compaction, maintaining a soil cover, and pinpointing watering. "Weedless gardening" takes care of the soil beneath trees and shrubs as well as in flower and vegetable gardens, and I'll show how I apply it to my new plantings as well as to maintain existing plantings. By emulating rather than fighting Mother Nature, plants become healthier and weed problems are minimized. The principles and practices are rooted in the latest agricultural research and also could be beneficially applied to sustainable, small farm systems.

NATIVE FRUITS: Most people, when they decide to grow fruits, plant apples, or peaches, pears, cherries, and other familiar market fruits that reflect our traditionally European heritage. But consider native American fruits: Being native they often are better adapted to withstand our pests and climate, and they often look naturally at home in our landscapes—edible landscapes if these fruits are also tasty. A hundred and fifty years ago, there was great interest in native fruits, and it's time to revive that enthusiasm. In this slide lecture, with fruit samples in appropriate seasons, we'll explore the beauty, the flavor, and the cultivation of persimmon, pawpaw, beach plum, lingonberry, and a host of other native delectables, as well as blueberry, one native fruit we have been eating for the last hundred years.

SPECIAL PRUNING TECHNIQUES: A slide lecture about pleaching, pollarding, and creating standards and espaliers. These four pruning techniques make a bold statement in the landscape and have a practical side as well. We will cover the ornamental and practical uses of these techniques, the steps involved in creating them, and the plants appropriate for such techniques.

BACKYARD COMPOSTING: The how and the why of backyard composting, everything from designing an enclosure to what to add (and what not to add) to what can go wrong (and how to right it). Don't bother stuffing old tomato stalks, grass clippings, and leaves into plastic bags; just compost them! Also learn what free materials are available for composting. Whether your interest is to produce a material that will make your garden soil fertile and fluffy or to use an environmentally sound way to deal with waste, this course will teach you all you need to know to make good compost.

EDIBLE LANDSCAPING—WITH FRUITS!: What could please any gardener more than to be able to pick and eat fruit from a plant that is also grown for its beauty? This course will introduce you to some ornamental trees, shrubs, and vines bearing delectable fruits. For landscaping, the ideal is a plant that also is low maintenance, being pest-resistant and requiring little or no pruning. Among these fruits are the familiar shadbush and Russian olive, as well as the less familiar gumi, actinidia, and medlar. Learn how to grow these and other ornamental, fruiting plants, and how to use them to beautify your yard.

ESPALIER FRUIT PLANTS: An espalier makes a decorative and edible covering for a fence or a wall. Apples and pears are the plants that first come to mind, and numerous European pruning systems have been devised for clothing the decoratively arranged branches of these plants tightly with fruit. In this country, apple and pear often do not respond as expected, and I suggest red currant and offer directions for using as an alternative. Besides being extremely easy and reliable to espalier, the jewel-like fruits themselves are very ornamental and dangle decoratively for weeks—unless you eat them.