Amazon.com
An excellent guide for novices and experts alike, Growing 101 Herbs That Heal combines gardening, cooking, crafts, and natural healthcare into one sturdy manual. The author's care and concern for healthy plants and people are evident on every page, and there's an astonishing amount of detail in every section. Simple plant listings cover multiple pages, outlining everything from drainage preferences to the size and color of blooms. The different garden styles presented range from formal knot gardens to carefree wild gardens, with lots of choices for raised beds and containers. Organic methods for fertilizing and pest control are emphasized--time to get familiar with beneficial nematodes!
If you've already got an herbal garden in place and are now wondering what to do with your harvest, look no further. Delicious recipes for breads, soups, and salads are here, along with medicinal tinctures, creams, and bath soaks, which are great for gifts or home use. There are also straightforward tips for starting an herb-based home business from your own creations. The last section is a fascinating materia medica that devotes a separate page to each herb, going into beneficial companion plants, harvesting time, market value, and home pharmacy uses. From common peppermint to the unusual yerba de la negrita, you'll enjoy the lovely pictures at least as much as the helpful information. --Jill Lightner
Booklist
Gardening with medicinal plants is growing in popularity, and the market for botanical medicines continues to increase. Hartung offers instructions on planning and designing a garden, and she includes a chart giving basic information on 101 herbs: height, spacing, color, water requirements, and soil preferences. A chart listing plant habitat preferences accompanies a chart to help readers plan a theme garden. The author gives instructions on how to maintain healthy soil and propagate a variety of herbs. There is a chapter on garden maintenance, one on pest and disease control, and one on harvesting and drying roots, rhizomes, bulbs, flowers, buds, seeds, and fruit. Hartung explains the art of making such herbal preparations as salves, tinctures, oils, and creams. A chapter on cooking with medicinal herbs contains 16 recipes. There also is a 66-page list of herbs, giving their personality and blooming traits, heights, and sun and soil requirements, along with care, propagation, and harvesting instructions, and their medicinal benefits and home pharmacy uses also are included. George Cohen
