Tip of the Week: The Underused, But Delicious, Pawpaw
Posted in Gardening Tips on August 30 2010, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center. |
Lee Reich, author of The Pruning Book, an authoritative and accessible account of pruning techniques, gets part of his passion for pruning from his insatiable curiosity about and his desire to grow every type of fruit possible in the Northeast.
I was visiting his garden up in New Paltz in July and spent the day wandering through carefully caged and guarded blueberries (against the birds, not me) and arbors of grapes and hardy kiwis (Actinidia).The garden overflowed with fruit in all shapes and sizes ranging from alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) in containers and Nanking cherries (Prunus tomentosa) lining the driveway to medlars (Mespilus germanica) and cornelian cherries (Cornus mas) spotted around the garden.
One of the most breathtaking sites was his allée of pawpaws (Asimina triloba). They are small- to medium-size trees that grow to about 25 feet in height, with large, lush tropical foliage that is reminiscent of an avocado.