Your Backyard Herb Garden : A Gardener's Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More

Rating:
Summary: good start
Review: A good book for (mainly) culinary herbs and how to recognize them, but thin on information about medicinal use, and lacking in too many delicious plants that really ought to be mentioned. Great starter book for someone getting into growing their own herb garden though. I thoroughly enjoy it.

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Summary: The search is over!
Review: Having lived in an apartment for over thirty plus years, growing herbs was intimidating, to say the least. How easy just to purchase a jar at your local market. But now that I've bought a home, I decided to give it a try. So I searched...and searched for the right book and returned all but one. This book is it...look no further. From beginners language to attractive and beneficial growing arrangements, the planning and step-by-step instructions and photography make it a household must. This book not only taught me to walk, I'm now on the path to being an excellent runner! Get it, you can't go wrong. (And what a wonderful gift!)

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Summary: Help to Aid Your Herb Production
Review: Here is what one needs to grow herbs -- soil conditioning, pests, fertilizing, watering -- all of them done organically.

What I find really attractive is a chart on each of the fifty herbs discussed showing its Attention Required, Freindly to bugs, Ornamental quality, Container Growing, Yield, Easy to Grow.

There is also great section on propogation, using in cooking and beauty, dried arrangements, etc.

Done in color with great drawings, this is informative book, each page is loaded with info.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Guide to Growing Your Own Herbs
Review: I LOVE this book. We live in a condo and have no yard space at all. This book helped me set up containers on my decks filled with wonderful fresh herbs. It's such a great experience to know that I CAN grow them myself instead of having to rely on "store bought" jars. I just bought another copy as a house warming gift for a friend. It's easy to understand and takes you step by step through the entire growing, planting & harvesting. It tells you about pests too. Great book!!!

Rating:
Summary: What a great start!
Review: I really enjoy this book! I am new to gardening and really wanted a book to guide me in growing herbs and this is a great start. It has a great deal of information on growing herbs and their uses. There are other books that have more specific information on each and also has a larger selection of herbs, but this is good for a beginner. Not to mention that it is visually appealing and well laid out.

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Summary: This Book is Fabulous!
Review: I wish I'd had this book years ago when I first started growing herbs. It would have saved me lots of 'trial and error' experimenting with my herb garden. This informative, thorough guide is good reading for the beginner as well as the expert herb gardener. There are lists of which herbs love shade and which love full sun; lists of what kind of soil each herb prefers; lists of fragrant herbs and culinary herbs. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to start an herb garden or learn more about growing and using herbs, earth's magical gifts to us!

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Summary: Best Herb Book to Start Out With!
Review: I'm a newbie at an herb garden, altho I've dabbled in a few like parsley, tyme, and chives in the past. But this book is the best one I've ever bought and has encouraged me to DO SOMETHING with what I grow in my summer garden. I have now doubled my herbs and will add more next year to add to my gifts, crafts, and cooking thru the winter from my garden. I have already saved by freezing & drying my own and this book showed me how EASY it is to do. So if you're just starting your own herb garden or you want to expand on what you have and do more with what you harvest, this is deffinantly the book you should have out for reference and a guideline.

Rating:
Summary: The beginner's handbook
Review: I've always been interested in herbs but I have very little gardening experience. This book will walk you though all the steps you need to take in order to grow your own herbs. I purchased this book along with another which I've never even opened because this book is so good. Talk about user friendly, the charts are simple and the photos are inspiring. You'll find information on planting, preparing, growing and caring for herbs. Also there's a whole section on enjoying your herbs with crafts and cooking. The section I've found most useful is the herb directory. This is the only book you need to get started.

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Summary: Invaluable for the beginner
Review: This book enabled me to set up a thriving herb garden on the balcony of my apartment. It offers recipes for herbal breads and teas, instructions for making potpourri and drying herbs, and detailed but not complicated advice on setting up an herb garden, as well as detailed breakdowns on the care and usage of more than 50 herbs. Although a complete plant novice who has ritualistically sacrificed almost every houseplant I've ever owned, I visited the garden department of a hardware store with this book under my arm and got myself started. The ratings that Smith gives each herb are especially helpful--ease of care, herb yield, attention required, and ability to grow in containers. I highly recommend this book to get you started!

Rating:
Summary: Perfect Beginner's Guide to Herbs
Review: This book is so easy to read for a beginner gardner! I love that there are details on all the requirements that each herb needs to grow (soil, light, fertilizer, pests). Also, there is a little bit of everything, recipe's, crafts. Just enough to get started. I would recommend that this book be taken with a person when they go to buy their plants to use as a reference. I feel Miranda Smith did an excellent job in making an easy to follow guide. This book will be used while at the garden store, and in the yard while planting. It will not sit on your shelf!