Little Herb Gardens: Simple Secrets for Glorious Gardens - Indoors and Out (A Garden Style Book) [Paperback]

Georgeanne Brennan (Author), Mimi Luebbermann (Author), Faith Echtermeyer (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1993

The age-old art of cultivating home-grown herbs comes alive in Little Herb Gardens, with all the information needed to grow productive herb gardens year round in even the smallest spaces. Delectable recipes for such treats as herb-infused oils and vinegars, herb-scented biscotti, and herb-flavored sorbets, as well as a resource directory, a bibliography, and an index, complete this uniquely stylish volume.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Georgeanne Brennan is a James Beard Award-winning author of numerous cooking and garden books. She lives in Northern California and France.

Mimi Luebbermann -- whose other books include several in Chronicle Books' Garden Style series, including Cactus and Succulents, Heirloom Gardens, Easy Orchids, Terrrific Tomatoes, and Salad Gardens. -- lives in Northern California.

Faith Echtermeyer is a Napa valley-based photogrpaher whose work has been featured in Chronicle Books' Little Herb Gardens.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811802493
• ISBN-13: 978-0811802499
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and Beautiful, June 15, 2000

By 

Conscious Reader (Lummi Island, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Little Herb Gardens: Simple Secrets for Glorious Gardens - Indoors and Out (A Garden Style Book) (Paperback)

This book has it all--eye-pleasing photography and concise, useful information. The heart of the book is an herb-by-herb description of how to grow the plants. It's organized in a unique way according to where you could keep them--windowsill or fire escape, inside porch, outdoor pots, pantry, etc. There are suggestions for special ornamental techniques (such as topiary) and recipes for culinary herbs. Finally, the book lists seed and plant sources in the U.S. All in all, a real pleasure to read.

73 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book....., September 18, 2002

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Little Herb Gardens: Simple Secrets for Glorious Gardens - Indoors and Out (A Garden Style Book) (Paperback)

LITTLE HERB GARDENS is a great book for the novice. The authors have assembled a lovely collection of photographs and interspersed them with succinct text that explains how to identify and select easy to grow herbs; when and where to buy them (spring, fall, summer, nurseries or catalogs, plants or seeds); how to pot them (containers, soil, etc.); and where to place them (balconies, patios, or in small gardens).

This little book will inspire you to create a green space in a kitchen window, an assemblage before a patio or balcony door, or a collection of pots on the balcony. Herbs grow best in full sunlight, so if your balcony faces south, you are in luck. If you live in a town house or have a small patch of ground you can think more expansively, but this book does not really deal with garden design, or the issues associated with herb gardening. Herbs are frequently garden thugs that run amuck in the open. I suggest you find a more in-depth book such as RODALE'S ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERBS if you intend to go beyond pots and are thinking of growing mints, yarrows, violets, or some of the other "easy" to grow herbs suggested by this book. RODALE'S book also covers the poisonous aspects of herbs. (Some of them can kill you.)

The last section of LITTLE HERB GARDENS briefly covers kitchen uses of herbs including making herb-infused vinegars and herb-flavored sorbets. If you want to know more, once again you will have to turn to something more comprehensive such as THE COMPLETE BOOK OF HERBS by Lesley Bremness. Even if you can't grow herbs, you can buy them at the farmer's market and some food stores. LITTLE HERB GARDENS is not the only book available for learning how to grow herbs or use them, but it will get you started.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book to get you started., May 31, 2007

By 

F. Taylor "Umi" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Little Herb Gardens: Simple Secrets for Glorious Gardens--Indoors and Out (Paperback)

If you're the type of person that likes to do things without a lot of theory, this is a great book.

I'm a novice gardener and the introduction gardening instructions just didn't have enough information for me. I decided to purchase Gardening For Dummies and various other books to satisfy my need for detailed information before setting some serious time, money, and effort into a balcony garden for my apartment.

This book has great ideas and did a good job of introducing me to different herbs and plants to grow to be used in cooking. But if you want to get more "hardcore" with gardening I recommend getting other texts as well.