Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening: Herbs (Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening)

I collect books on growing herbs and without exception they are all useful. Some books are personalized and others give general and basic information. This is probably one of the very best "all round" books that I've ever seen.

Some of the topics that are discussed are as follows: Climate, Topography, Garden Style, Understanding Basic Botany, Species Chart, Soil Preparation, Weeding, Propagating Herbs, Over-Wintering Plants, Drying Herbs, Cooking with Herbs, Medicinal Herbs, a Plant by Plant Guide and a USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

The section on Preventing Pests and Diseases has very good illustrations of plant damage with a drawing of the insect culprit next to the herb. The Species Chart is six pages long and gives the growth form, the preferred climates, soil conditions, propagation season, the primary usage of the plants and the pests and diseases that each plant is susceptible to getting.

This is a very concise and usable book.

+AH4-More of a 3.5, but I'll round up :-) This is one of the first herb gardening books I got. Because I am not gardening in a large space, like a raised bed or half my backyard, many of the directions and much of the information was sort of overwhelming, at least for right now. I do mostly container herb gardening and in flower boxes and barrels, so there wasn't much info specifically geared for these types in this book, but cut down the organic gardening, soil preperation, pest control,+AH4-+AH4- sowing, watering, and composting info into small-scale size and it's great.

However, the info on the herbs specifically, which ones work for what climate zones and how to cultivate, dry and use them is wonderful and all but makes up for the focus on larger-scale gardens. The info on more than 50 common herbs is invaluable, especially the chart that details each one individually with all the necessary info you need at a glance, name, growth form and size, climate, soil condition,+AH4-+AH4- propagation, pests, and primary uses. It is a good supplemental to the other gardening books I have. I use the herb chart and specific herb info in the back of the book a lot, the instructions on how to harvest and dry the herbs, and the culinary and craft ideas, such as how to make herbal vinegar, dressings, spreads, teas, dyes, potpourri, soap, oils, and more.

It is a very good book for a beginning herbal gardener, especially one interested in raising them organically and wanting to+AH4-+AH4- know the many things you can do with herbs once you've grown them! I would just hasten to add that this book would be best in conjunction with a book on container or patio gardening or something in a smaller scale if that is your main goal, otherwise for larger-scale backyard herb gardening from the ground up, it's perfect.+AH4-