The healing garden : cultivating & handcrafting herbal remedies / Juliet Blankespoor, Founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A comprehensive and lushly photographed guide to growing and using healing plants, including recipes, from the founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine



This is the ultimate reference for anyone looking to bring the beauty and therapeutic properties of plants into their garden, kitchen, and home apothecary. Both informative and accessible, it covers how to plan your garden (including container gardening for small spaces); essential information on seed propagation, soil quality, and holistic gardening practices; 30 detailed profiles of must-know plants (including growing information, medicinal properties, and how to use them); foundational principles of herbalism; step-by-step photographic tutorials for preparing botanical medicine and healing foods; and 70 recipes for teas, tinctures, oils, salves, syrups, and more. Packed with sumptuous photography, this book will appeal to home gardeners who want to branch out to culinary and medicinal herbs, home cooks and those interested in natural wellness, and novice and skillful herbalists alike.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Blankespoor, founder of Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, brings her 30 years of experience "as a plant--human" to the page in this information-packed debut. As she writes, "gardening is medicine for our spirit, mind, and body," and she makes a case that growing remedies at home is a way to "tread more lightly on the earth." She starts with soil basics (nettles, chickweed, and horsetail make good fertilizers) and moves through solutions for disease and pests (homemade garlic-pepper spray, for instance, takes care of aphids). Then she digs into making medicine, which includes harvesting (for roots of perennial herbs, this is best done in fall or early spring) and drying plants, either by using a dehydrator or by bundling and hanging them. There are recipes for teas, tinctures, syrups, and oil infusions: elderberry syrup can be "taken throughout the winter months to boost immunity and increase circulation," a "Weedy & Wonderful Soothing Salve" works to "soothe and heal dry, chafed hands and feet and chapped lips," and herbal finishing salts are a "nice alternative for preserving fresh culinary herbs." Lush photographs accompany Blankespoor's practical advice. This compendium is worth a look for gardeners who'd rather turn to the outdoors than the drugstore. Agent: Coleen O'Shea, The O'Shea Agency. (Apr.)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Juliet Blankespoor is the founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, an online school serving thousands of students from around the globe. She's a bonafide plant geek, with a degree in botany and over 30 years of experience teaching and writing about herbalism, medicine making, and organic herb cultivation. Juliet's lifelong captivation with medicinal weeds and herb gardening has birthed many botanical enterprises over the years, including an herbal nursery and a farm-to-apothecary herbal products business. Juliet and her family reside in a home overrun with houseplants and books in Asheville, North Carolina, | chestnutherbs.com