The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herbs

The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herbs is a wonderful gardening resource for anyone who wants to start growing their own herbs.

 

The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herbs

Title: The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herbs   (Head over to Amazon for this Herb Guide)
Subtitle: 26 Herbs Everyone Should Grow and Enjoy
ISBN:978-1-60342-528-5
Author: Charles W.G. Smith
Publisher: Storey Publishing
Pages: 142 (paperback)

My Review of this Herb Gardening Resource

It seems like more and more people are becoming interested in gardening. Some people are trying to save money at the grocery store.  Others just prefer the taste of a home grown tomato. The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herb will help accent all your favorite recipes with herbs that were picked fresh from the garden.

Common and Uncommon Herbs

I am not going to list every herb included in this book since that would take up too much space. I WILL say that they range from the common (dill, mint, oregano, basil) to the more unusual (Hyssop, Bee Balm, Borage, and Calendula) and many more in between.

Like this herb gardening book?  Try these gardening tips, too:

• How to Keep Animals Out of the Garden
• Edible Gardening Tips and Foodscaping Ideas for Beginning Gardeners
• What to Plant in November, Both Inside AND Outside!

How to Grow Herbs for Beginners

The introduction of The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herb includes helpful information on growing herbs in the garden. How much sun should they get and what types of soils do they prefer? Which herbs start well from seed?

Which ones should be started from plants you buy at your local garden center? There is also a small section on drying and freezing herbs for use once the gardening is done for the summer.

How to Use Herbs from Your Garden

Each chapter is broken down by herb. They include not just gardening information but also suggestions on how to use them. For example, some herbs have medicinal purposes, some are great in certain recipes, and others are wonderful when placed in a muslin bag and added to your bath to relieve stress. 

The book also makes numerous references to which herbs are actually beneficial to your garden in terms of repelling pests and attracting pollinators.

Recipes using fresh herbs

Since The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herb is broken down by herb, the recipes are scattered throughout the book as are the various uses for them such as medicinal uses and flavored vinegar . I thought it might be better to arrange the book in chapters.

For example,  gardening, recipes, preserving fresh herbs, medicinal uses, etc. Despite this, there is a handy index in the back which includes Recipes as a subject as well as Healing Uses, Oils and Vinegars, etc so you can find the information easily by using the index.

A benefit to herb gardeners

The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herbs is a wonderful book for any gardener. Have you ever looked at the price of fresh herbs in the grocery store? And what do you do when you only need 2 or 3 basil leaves for a recipe and the package has 10 times more than you need?

Growing herbs in the garden allows you to pick whenever you like, even just a sprig or two of Rosemary to throw on the grill with your chicken!  Head over to Amazon for this Herb Guide and grow your own herbs now!