A gorgeous book all about dahlia flowers. Dahlias are a tuberous flower native to Mexico and Central America, and the dahlia flower is actually the national flower of Mexico since 1963. If you are looking for a good book that specifically details this special flower, …
Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve and Classify the World’s Plants by Barbara M. Thiers is a great book on the history of herbaria with color plates mixed in the pages. It was fascinating to read how old explorations for commerce and nature expeditions resulted in …
Medicinal Herbs for Family Health and Wellness: 123 Trusted Recipes for Common Concerns, From Allergies & Asthma to Sunburns & Toothaches by JJ Pursell is a great reference for keeping the family healthy using herbal medicine. The same author wrote Medicinal Herbs for Immune Defense.
The book is laid out much the same as the immune defense book with a thorough layout of the types of preparations in the beginning of the book along with dosages for adults. There is a section at the back dedicated to babies and children. In the middle of the book is all the info you need of the medicinal herbs used in the book, as well as the recipes.
These recipes are less preventative, and more useful for things that are happening now and what you can apply to remedy it, such as a kitchen burn, a bug bite or insomnia.
I think my favorite section was the “Bad Dreams & Scary Things” section, providing recipes for a soothing Monster-Rid Sachet and a No-Monsters-Allowed Spray. Her monster-away spray suggested using relaxing oils, which is such a wonderful idea after an upsetting day. Loved that section.
Overall, another great book on herbal medicine by this author for anyone interested, beginners or advanced, in preparing herbal wellness preparations at home.
Below are two recipes adapted from this book.
Put the herbs in a glass baking dish and cover with olive oil making sure it covers all by 1 to 2 inches. Bake at 170 degrees for 4 hours. Cool, then strain through a fine mesh.
Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher and any opinions are my own. Any affiliate links help support this site. Thanks 🙂
Grow Bag Gardening is everything related to grow bag gardening! This was something new to me and I actually had no idea how useful this type of gardening could be. What is Grow Bag Gardening? Wikipedia gives a very basic definition of what it is: …
The Self-Sufficiency Bible is a wonderful reference for anyone wanting to survive on their own, and for those who just want to know how to do basic stuff on a small homestead. Book Contents The book contains 12 chapters on everything you need to know: …
If you’ve ever thought about creating your own medicinal items in your kitchen but didn’t know where to begin, then this book is just what you need.
Medicinal Herbs for Immune Defense has 104 recipes for all sorts of ailments that you can create at home using things you can grow in your garden. Pursell talks in detail about 60 essential herbs and plants that go into the many recipes, but she also states that if you concentrate on say 20, really get to know them then you’ll have the information you need to really create a preparation unique to your circumstance – if you know how an herb performs and what it can do you’re equipped to make something useful.
The 60 herbs and plants have pictures, the common and scientific names, and what parts of the plant is used in medicine (like the flowers, petals, rhizomes or roots, leaves, stems, bark, seeds, berries, the whole plant, the fruit, etc.)
What do you do with the plants? You make the preparations. I loved how the author describes each and details how they are prepared. Below is a condensed description of each of the types of preparations in the book.
A gelatin or vegetable glycerin shell that can be filled with different combinations of powdered herbs. They come in different sizes – 0 (smallest), 00 (common), and 000 (largest).
Extracted essential oils blended together for different healing purposes.
A blend of flowers essences to help with emotional balance.
A strong herbal brew that is applied by soaking a cotton cloth then placing on the affected area of the body, with heat often added to aid in healing.
An herb-infused oil (not to be confused with an essential oil that is extracted). This is used topically alone or as a base for other preparations.
Herbal blends that are usually brewed by the cup or in small batches to be used that day and drunk.
Topical preparations to increase blood circulation and aid in healing.
A soft, damp mass of plant material or plant material mixed with flour that is applied in a thick layer and kept in place with a cloth or gauze.
An ointment, cream or balm typically made with a base of beeswax or other wax or shea butter.
A spray is a liquid containing distilled water and essential oils or a tincture that can be spritzed on the body as needed.
A concentrated herbal tea combined with honey or sugar.
An herb and alcohol solution made to be taken by drops in the mouth. Besides alcohol, vinegar and vegetable glycerin is also used.
A single herb or a combination of herbs used to soak the whole or a part of the body.
This is a highly useful book for taking care of ailments and sickness using things you have in the garden or can get in nature. I think it should be in everyone’s library.
Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher and any opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing for the ARC. Any affiliate links help support the site, thanks.
Blurb: There’s a growing demand for dependably hardy plants that require less maintenance and less water, but look no less beautiful in the garden. Plant Select—the leading purveyor of plants designed to thrive in difficult climates—meets this need by promoting plants that allow gardeners everywhere …
Book Blurb: Make the most of your CSA membership—or your garden harvest—with simple yet bold, inventive yet nourishing meals from acclaimed blogger Linda Ly. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have connected farms to consumers and made people more in tune with where their food comes …
A good garden begins with good soil. Author Elizabeth Murphy explains the basics of soil, and details what makes quality soil a great foundation for the garden in her latest book, Building Soil: A Down-to-Earth Approach – Building Solutions for Better Gardens and Yards.
How do you recognize healthy soil? How much can your existing soil be improved? What are the best amendments to use for your soil? Let Building Soil answer your questions and be your guide on gardening from the ground up! Fertilizing, tilling, weed management, and irrigation all affect the quality of your soil. Using author Elizabeth Murphy’s detailed instructions, anyone can become a successful soil-based gardener, whether you want to start a garden from scratch or improve an existing garden.
If you want methods that won’t break your back, are good for the environment, and create high-yielding and beautiful gardens of all shapes and sizes, this is the book for you! Create classic landscape gardens, grow a high-yielding orchard, nurture naturally beautiful lawns, raise your household veggies, or run a profitable farm. A soil-based approach allows you to see not just the plants, but the living system that grows them. Soil-building practices promote more ecologically friendly gardening by reducing fertilizer and pesticide use, sequestering greenhouse gases, and increasing overall garden productivity.
In Murhpy’s introduction, she details her background as well as the inherent desire that gardeners have for a healthy soil, but not knowing or having the tools to do so. “As gardeners, we instinctively know that soil nourishes our plants. We can sense the difference between a living, vibrant, dark black fertile soil and dried-out, nutrition-starved dirt. All too often, though, we don’t have a clear guide on how to put this intuitive knowledge into practice.” This is where her experience and guidance comes in – and clearly gives the reader all the info needed for a healthy soil.
Do you know what makes up soil, and what kind of soil you have? Soil is composed of these five things: pore space, air, water, minerals, and organic matter. And even though organic matter only makes up less than a half a percent of soil, this part is living – which makes soil ‘living’ and creates an environment that plants thrive in.
The first part of knowing your soil is understanding what type of soil and soil texture you have. And this is done with a soil test.
Knowing your soil texture is the first step on learning how your soil behaves, and what it needs. This is how to test to see what kind of soil texture you have.
After estimating the amount of sand and silt in your soil, go to the Soil Texture Calculator from the USDA to find your soil texture – which could be anything from silty clay, silt loam, sandy loam, loamy sand, or sandy clay. Each will have a different need and effect on your garden.
Building Soil contains seven chapters that detail all you ever would need about building a better soil from the ground up – from the foundation to enriching and feeding soil to proper garden planning with the soil in mind. There is a Soil Grower’s Yearly Calendar that lays out the steps to take each season, and step by step color pictures that show exactly how to do the many things she explains such as tilling by hand. Her chapter on fertilizers spells out exactly what they are, and her whole-soil fertility approach to feeding the soil was informative.
Overall, a really great read for anyone needing or wanting to learn more about the soil they have. After all, a healthy soil produces healthy plants, and a lush garden is more than just watering plants. A productive garden comes with the understanding that the soil is a living thing, just like the things that grow in it.
Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher to me, the author, and any opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links for the book, and any purchase helps to keep this garden blog running. 🙂
