The Complete Book of Herbs

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Book
Review: This is an excellent book. Filled with beautiful, color photos of all the many, many herbs discussed. It mentions culinary, medicinal, and cosmetic uses. It has crafts and decorative ideas. And many recipes (meals, desserts, and drinks). It also includes many cosmetic recipes and instructions for things like floral waters, hand creams, soaps, and hair rinses. It has some garden layouts, and for each herb, has growing info. But I found this book also wonderful for beginners. I do not have an herb garden. But even still, this book is a treasure. You can buy dried or fresh herbs, or even essential oils and still put them to creative, wonderful uses! I tend to buy books, get totally enthusiastic, then a few days later - end up doing nothing. But this book has really kept me inspired, and I am actually making many of the products from cooking, and making a pomander, to now getting ready to make my own floral water (using my ideas for scents after seeing her examples). Great ideas to keep your home smelling wonderful (as well as yourself). And beautiful pictures of the recipes and herbs, and floral arrangements. Great as a coffee table picture book, fun to just browse through. Invaluable as an inspirational tool to dive into the passionate world of herbs!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely EVERYTHING you need from an herb book!
Review: You truly could not ask for a more complete reference on growing and using herbs. Lesley Bremness' book, beautifully illustrated throughout with sumptuous color photographs, is the first book I turn to for all my herb-related questions, whether they relate to garden planning, how tall a particular herb will grow, or an herbal remedy for dry skin. She provides extensive, well-organized, easy-to-read information on the cultivation and uses of perhaps 100 herbs, going well beyond the "usual suspects" to include such herbs as Elecampane, Melilot, and Houseleek.

One of the best aspects of the book is its 100+ page "Herbal Index." A full page (sometimes two) is dedicated to each variety, with good-sized color photos depicting the stem, leaf, seed, flower, root, dried flowers, dried leaves, crushed roots, other varieties, etc. A small photo tops of the growing plant tops a sidebar. This approach makes herb identification much easier than the books that rely on the garden glam shots where the herb looks gorgeous but its particulars can be difficult to see. Each herb page begins with a description of any lore historically ascribed to the plan and perhaps the origins of its name. For instance, the Borage description notes that the Old Masters often used the "beautiful pure blue" flowers to paint the Madonna's robe.

The sidebars in the Herbal Index pack an amazing amount of information into a relatively small amount of space: Details about cultivation, including soil and sunlight preferences, harvesting and preservation, and the decorative, culinary, household, cosmetic, and medicinal uses of its various parts. More details on the uses can be found in the "Using Herbs" sections.

Interspersed in the Herbal Index are certain theme sections depicting a handful of herbs grown for flowers or foliage and salad herbs, for instance.

The one drawback to the Herbal Index, as other reviewers have noted, is its arrangement by Latin name, rather than common name. Since the common name appears in good-sized print, flipping through to find what you're looking for isn't burdensome. Resorting to the thorough index at the end is another option.

This drawback is more than made up for by the thorough information in the Herbal Index and the 100 pages of well-illustrated uses for herbs. Here, the ideas go well beyond the usual recipes for meals and potpourri. The Herbal Decorations chapter includes lovely photographs of nosegays annotated with the Victorian language of flowers meanings, herbal garlands, herbal wreaths, and herbal table decorations. The culinary section features recipes for herbs the average person doesn't think to cook with, such as lovage soup and a marigold glaze for ham. The Herbs for the Household chapter discusses natural ways to deter pests using herbs, a marjoram-based furniture wax, horsetail "scouring pads," plus instructions for herbal dyes, herbal papers, scented ink, herbal toys, and a perfumed box. A variety of soaps, facial cleansers, bath additives, facial steams, floral waters and hair rinses appear in the Herbs for Beauty chapter. The Herbs for Health organizes medicinal uses of herbs alphabetically by ailment.

The book begins with a section on herb garden design. Among the themes illustrated are plans for a moonlight garden, a delightful circular children's garden, a Chinese garden, and an Egyptian-style paradise garden. Bremness also provides plans for gardens ranging in size from containers on a patio to a small corner of a yard to a large all-purpose garden (which seems to truly have a bit of everything). The planning section is the one place in the book where Bremness relies on some finely detailed color pencil drawings rather than photographs, although she still mixes in a delectable array of inspiring color photos.

"The Complete Book of Herbs" is a resource that herb gardeners, whether novice or experienced, will turn to again and again. I continue to find it as useful today as when I started my first garden some seven years ago. Treat yourself to the hardback edition if you can find it and afford it. It's well worth the investment.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely EVERYTHING you need from an herb book!
Review: You truly could not ask for a more complete reference on growing and using herbs. Lesley Bremness' book, beautifully illustrated throughout with sumptuous color photographs, is the first book I turn to for all my herb-related questions, whether they relate to garden planning, how tall a particular herb will grow, or an herbal remedy for dry skin. She provides extensive, well-organized, easy-to-read information on the cultivation and uses of perhaps 100 herbs, going well beyond the "usual suspects" to include such herbs as Elecampane, Melilot, and Houseleek.

One of the best aspects of the book is its 100+ page "Herbal Index." A full page (sometimes two) is dedicated to each variety, with good-sized color photos depicting the stem, leaf, seed, flower, root, dried flowers, dried leaves, crushed roots, other varieties, etc. A small photo tops of the growing plant tops a sidebar. This approach makes herb identification much easier than the books that rely on the garden glam shots where the herb looks gorgeous but its particulars can be difficult to see. Each herb page begins with a description of any lore historically ascribed to the plan and perhaps the origins of its name. For instance, the Borage description notes that the Old Masters often used the "beautiful pure blue" flowers to paint the Madonna's robe.

The sidebars in the Herbal Index pack an amazing amount of information into a relatively small amount of space: Details about cultivation, including soil and sunlight preferences, harvesting and preservation, and the decorative, culinary, household, cosmetic, and medicinal uses of its various parts. More details on the uses can be found in the "Using Herbs" sections.

Interspersed in the Herbal Index are certain theme sections depicting a handful of herbs grown for flowers or foliage and salad herbs, for instance.

The one drawback to the Herbal Index, as other reviewers have noted, is its arrangement by Latin name, rather than common name. Since the common name appears in good-sized print, flipping through to find what you're looking for isn't burdensome. Resorting to the thorough index at the end is another option.

This drawback is more than made up for by the thorough information in the Herbal Index and the 100 pages of well-illustrated uses for herbs. Here, the ideas go well beyond the usual recipes for meals and potpourri. The Herbal Decorations chapter includes lovely photographs of nosegays annotated with the Victorian language of flowers meanings, herbal garlands, herbal wreaths, and herbal table decorations. The culinary section features recipes for herbs the average person doesn't think to cook with, such as lovage soup and a marigold glaze for ham. The Herbs for the Household chapter discusses natural ways to deter pests using herbs, a marjoram-based furniture wax, horsetail "scouring pads," plus instructions for herbal dyes, herbal papers, scented ink, herbal toys, and a perfumed box. A variety of soaps, facial cleansers, bath additives, facial steams, floral waters and hair rinses appear in the Herbs for Beauty chapter. The Herbs for Health organizes medicinal uses of herbs alphabetically by ailment.

The book begins with a section on herb garden design. Among the themes illustrated are plans for a moonlight garden, a delightful circular children's garden, a Chinese garden, and an Egyptian-style paradise garden. Bremness also provides plans for gardens ranging in size from containers on a patio to a small corner of a yard to a large all-purpose garden (which seems to truly have a bit of everything). The planning section is the one place in the book where Bremness relies on some finely detailed color pencil drawings rather than photographs, although she still mixes in a delectable array of inspiring color photos.

"The Complete Book of Herbs" is a resource that herb gardeners, whether novice or experienced, will turn to again and again. I continue to find it as useful today as when I started my first garden some seven years ago. Treat yourself to the hardback edition if you can find it and afford it. It's well worth the investment.