Customer Reviews

Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've always been interested in herbs but I have very little gardening experience. This book will walk you though all the steps you need to take in order to grow your own herbs. I purchased this book along with another which I've never even opened because this book is so good. Talk about user friendly, the charts are simple and the photos are inspiring. You'll find information on planting, preparing, growing and caring for herbs. Also there's a whole section on enjoying your herbs with crafts and cooking. The section I've found most useful is the herb directory. This is the only book you need to get started.

I wish I'd had this book years ago when I first started growing herbs. It would have saved me lots of 'trial and error' experimenting with my herb garden. This informative, thorough guide is good reading for the beginner as well as the expert herb gardener. There are lists of which herbs love shade and which love full sun; lists of what kind of soil each herb prefers; lists of fragrant herbs and culinary herbs. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to start an herb garden or learn more about growing and using herbs, earth's magical gifts to us!

Here is what one needs to grow herbs -- soil conditioning, pests, fertilizing, watering -- all of them done organically.

What I find really attractive is a chart on each of the fifty herbs discussed showing its Attention Required, Freindly to bugs, Ornamental quality, Container Growing, Yield, Easy to Grow.

There is also great section on propogation, using in cooking and beauty, dried arrangements, etc.

Done in color with great drawings, this is informative book, each page is loaded with info.

This book enabled me to set up a thriving herb garden on the balcony of my apartment. It offers recipes for herbal breads and teas, instructions for making potpourri and drying herbs, and detailed but not complicated advice on setting up an herb garden, as well as detailed breakdowns on the care and usage of more than 50 herbs. Although a complete plant novice who has ritualistically sacrificed almost every houseplant I've ever owned, I visited the garden department of a hardware store with this book under my arm and got myself started. The ratings that Smith gives each herb are especially helpful--ease of care, herb yield, attention required, and ability to grow in containers. I highly recommend this book to get you started!

As a brand new herb gardener, I was becoming more confused by each herbal I read. This book is well organized into a progressive step by step layout. It offers planting guides for soil, sun, uses, and ease of care, making it easy for me to decide on the perfect plants for my space, garden location and the herbs I wanted to use. I especially appreciate the harvesting and storage tips. My first herb garden has been very successful following this guide. I am ordering more copies for friends and family.

I LOVE this book. We live in a condo and have no yard space at all. This book helped me set up containers on my decks filled with wonderful fresh herbs. It's such a great experience to know that I CAN grow them myself instead of having to rely on "store bought" jars. I just bought another copy as a house warming gift for a friend. It's easy to understand and takes you step by step through the entire growing, planting & harvesting. It tells you about pests too. Great book!!!

This book is so easy to read for a beginner gardner! I love that there are details on all the requirements that each herb needs to grow (soil, light, fertilizer, pests). Also, there is a little bit of everything, recipe's, crafts. Just enough to get started. I would recommend that this book be taken with a person when they go to buy their plants to use as a reference. I feel Miranda Smith did an excellent job in making an easy to follow guide. This book will be used while at the garden store, and in the yard while planting. It will not sit on your shelf!

I'm a newbie at an herb garden, altho I've dabbled in a few like parsley, tyme, and chives in the past. But this book is the best one I've ever bought and has encouraged me to DO SOMETHING with what I grow in my summer garden. I have now doubled my herbs and will add more next year to add to my gifts, crafts, and cooking thru the winter from my garden. I have already saved by freezing & drying my own and this book showed me how EASY it is to do. So if you're just starting your own herb garden or you want to expand on what you have and do more with what you harvest, this is deffinantly the book you should have out for reference and a guideline.

Having lived in an apartment for over thirty plus years, growing herbs was intimidating, to say the least. How easy just to purchase a jar at your local market. But now that I've bought a home, I decided to give it a try. So I searched...and searched for the right book and returned all but one. This book is it...look no further. From beginners language to attractive and beneficial growing arrangements, the planning and step-by-step instructions and photography make it a household must. This book not only taught me to walk, I'm now on the path to being an excellent runner! Get it, you can't go wrong. (And what a wonderful gift!)

I adore this book! Wow! It has all the things I wanted!
- it's organic
- it very thorougly covers many herbs in different formats, so you know everything from what bugs they attract or repel, how tall they grow, and what zone they can be grown in
- common uses for them: I discovered many herbs I thought were inedible plants that are indeed herbs
- easy to use tables

I wasn't too hip on all the cosmetic and craft uses - I'd rather eat them, but they're short and may come in handy. I know the rest of the book sure will!