Herb Gardening For Dummies

by Karan Davis Cutler, Kathleen Fisher, The National Gardening Association

Whether the reader is looking to cultivate herbs for medicinal or culinary use or spice up landscaping with fragrant decoration, Herb Gardening For Dummies is top-notch source of ideas and information. Herb Gardening For Dummies covers everything you need to know for growing beautiful herbs gardens indoors and out. From picking a site to soil requirements to selecting seedlings, you will be rolling up your sleeves in no time. Herb gardening abc's such as mulching, watering, weeding, pruning and pest control are discussed. Zone maps are included so you can select the best herbs for their climate. Also, an encyclopedia of herbs that covers both scientific and common names, description and common applications, as well as interesting facts and lore about various herbs. Herb Gardening For Dummies also gives tips on storing and using herbs for culinary uses and crafts and more than 150 drawings and color photos.

About the Authors:

The National Gardening Association (Burlington, VT) is the largest member-based, non-profit organization of home gardeners in the U.S. Founded in 1972, NGA is best known for its bi-monthly magazine, National Gardening (250,000; 500,000 readers). They are the featured gardening experts on Housenet-AOL's key home and garden resource. They are also the co-authors of the For Dummies gardening series.

Karan Davis Cutler is a former writer/editor for Harrowsmith Country Life and has written nearly 50 feature articles for Horticulture, The American Gardener and Organic Gardening magazines. She has edited four handbooks for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and is the author of a major book on edibles, Burpee-The Complete Vegetable and Herb Gardener ($30, Literary Guild, Rodale Book Clubs) and is currently working on The New England Gardener's Book of Lists. Karan has also been awarded eight Quill & Trowel awards for her writing.

Kathleen Fisher has been editor of The American Gardener and has just completed a major book on medicinal herbs, Herbal Remedies. (Rodale) She frequently writes for Physicians Garden, Wild Garden and Organic Gardening magazines.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Gardening, Plants

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Brenda Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect book for me. I knew nothing about herbs and only a little about gardening. This covered all aspects of raising herbs including planting, growing, harvesting, drying and using. Even a section on composting. It was useful information without getting overwhelming.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely has some useful information in it but it is 100% aimed at Americans and American climate which is less than useful for someone not living in America. That being said, still learned and will hopefully manage to grow some herbs come springtime

[Isabel Giraldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too many corny jokes but now I have no questions about herbs!

[Anna Urbanek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good primer, misguided and cringy attempts at humor.

[J.S.]

I'm not new to gardening but other than a few occasional attempts I've not grown many herbs. I knew enough to plant mint in a container (to keep it under control) but that was about it. I wasn't even sure what to do with most of them once they were grown. But this winter I've especially been looking forward to spring and getting out into the garden - and planned on including some specific herbs (after noticing how expensive they are in the grocery store!).

Herb Gardening for Dummies starts with the approach that the reader knows almost nothing about gardening. It covers such basics as an overview of what herbs are, climate zones and basic growing instructions, sample garden designs, pests, etc. Fortunately it goes on to explain methods for drying and storing herbs and includes a few recipes and instructions for how to use them in different situations (not all herbs are used only in the kitchen). Perhaps the most useful section after you've read it once is the encyclopedia of herbs at the end which is about 100 pages and full of useful information specific to each plant.

As is typical of the Dummies series of books it's well-organized, clearly written, and easy to follow using a corny kind of humor to explain concepts. It's got a small section of color photographs but most of the book is simple black and white drawings which are certainly adequate. It's more suited to the novice gardener than one with some experience, but still a useful introduction.

[Ladyacct · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful and informative.