As most of my readers know, I was a Marine wife for 24 years. During that time I was given the opportunity to garden in many different climates and locations. Yuma was the perfect place to learn about growing cacti and succulents. We learned more about container gardening in Okinawa than we’ve ever learned anywhere else (we weren’t allowed to grow in the ground). Once we moved to North Idaho, once again, I needed to learn a different style of growing.
The book Homegrown Herbs was one book I have relied heavily upon when making choices about what to grow. Though there is some information on how to use herbs, its primary focus is on choosing and growing herbs.
Handy Tables
The tables in the beginning of the book give the reader wonderful information on
- Plant habitat preferences
- Plant characteristics & requirements (including color if you want to use that to design your layout)
- Planning a children’s theme garden
- Planning a culinary themed garden
- Planning a scented themed garden
- Planning a tea themed garden
- Planning a medicinal themed garden
- Planning a wildlife themed garden
She also includes harvesting and storage best-practices and gives the basics of herbal preparations.
Lists & 100 Herbs
Included are also lists on edible flowers and recipes to use in the kitchen. The book concludes with a section titled “Herb Personalities” which is a short overview of 100 herbs covering:
- Botanical name
- Ethnic & other names
- Personality (description)
- Height
- Bloom traits
- Likes/dislikes
- Propagation/maintenance
- Sun/soil
- Harvesting
- Medicinal benefits (this is not a thorough monograph, just a tiny blurb)
- Parts used
- Home pharmacy uses
Homegrown Herbs is a book I have referred to over and over. The layout and brevity of the content is what I most appreciate. This book provides a lot of information without a lot of fluff. It gets the job done so you can get the job done. Highly recommended!
