Too Much of a Good Thing, I Think!

The Herbal Husband and I discuss (only in the nicest way) about what we are going to do with all of the onions he has let reproduce (only in the nicest way) in the vegetable garden to the distraction of the bed space.  They are the walking or Egyptian onions.  They can be very ornamental but thousands we don't need.  OK, maybe it's hundreds.  The radishes are volunteers.  The Herbal Husband says he cut the tops off 400 extras!  I would say a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.  As my herbal companion, Bonnie, says we can start our own farmer's market.  Too many permits!  I hope you have too much of a good thing as well.  We are a lot cooler than yesterday.  Still working on clearing and planting.  Hopefully I'll show you the results soon.  Don't forget to get in on the Herb Companion magazine giveaway.  I forgot to mention one comment per person, please.  Talk to you later.

My Favorite Herb Magazine and A Giveaway for You!

Here is the latest issue of The Herb Companion magazine.  I'm in it!  They reblogged a couple of posts I did and called it 4 Reasons to Love Lemon Verbena.   This issue has a very nice article about the lavender book I just reviewed for Timber Press and other interesting recipes and articles.  Sooo here is your chance to win a copy.  I have six (not five or ten) extra issues.  Even if you are some place other than the US, you can win!  So leave me a comment here or on Facebook.  The only exception is if you already subscribe to The Herb Companion.  I would like to give the issues to nonsubscribers, please.  This contest is going to be quick.  It will end on Friday, June 1st at 10:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.  Good Luck!   It has been hotter than Hades here.  We just had a big thunderstorm although it didn't cool it off much.  Hope you have had a great day.  Talk to you later.

Just Having a Bit of Fun! Forgot to Post!

We have been in the garden nonstop since we last talked and it appears we have some things done and other tasks are just waiting.  We are going to get very hot this weekend and again it's only May!  Plants that bloom later are blooming now!  It's going to be a flower less summer if the weather doesn't start behaving!  We got the 'Coppertina' ninebark planted.  Still have the viburnum to plant.  Hopefully once the weather gets cooler from the 90's to the 80's, we can plant it.

Finally could plant basils and hopefully sometime this week we will get a bed in the back of the garden cleaned out and we can plant the sunflowers seeds.  It has been the 40's at night and neither the basils nor the sunflowers like cold soils.

And this unknown rose is beautiful.  I think I'll call it 'The Herbal Husband'.  We are going to the movies today to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  Really enjoyed the movie.  Great cast.  Wish we had seen a bit of more of India, but it was good.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend if you are reading this in the US.  Talk to you later.

FREE webinar: Holistic Perspectives for Whooping Cough

Holistic Perspectives for Whooping Cough: Join us for a FREE webinar on May 29! Time: 5:30 PM-7:00 PM PDT  I am very excited to be hosting another free webinar with Michael Tierra, L.Ac., AHG! Pertussis or whooping cough has been grabbing headlines this year as it has reached epidemic proportions.  Did you know that herbs can be used safely and effectively for people with whooping cough?  In this webinar we'll discuss various herbs to support the immune system for prevention, different herbal approaches to quelling the symptoms, and ways to promote a full recovery. All the information will be relevant for adults and children with whooping cough. Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/457505370                   After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Poison Ivy Remedy–Easy!

In the early 90’s we listened to Bertha Reppert, founder of The Rosemary House talking about some simple home remedies, and within a few days, several of the actors at the Renaissance Festival where we had an herb shop showed up covered with poison ivy.  Bertha had talked about steeping sage in apple cider vinegar, and we’d gone home and started a batch.  It was very effective for the poor sweaty, suffering actors, and we were impressed.  This couldn’t be simpler, and is just wonderful as is.  Just fill a jar with sage from the garden (or grocery store) and cover with vinegar.  If you’re in a hurry, heat the vinegar and steep the sage in it as you would an herbal tea.
The following year we added plantain and jewelweed to the original brew, to add even more healing properties to the vinegar.  We’ve used it ever since.
I just made a quart up today.
The ingredients are shown below.

If you don’t have or know how to identify jewelweed, her cousin – garden impatiens is a good stand-in.  We like to harvest jewelweed in the spring while the stems are succulent and full of juice.  After it flowers, the stems get woody and aren’t worth much.  Some people like to harvest the leaves and flowers after it blooms, but this is how we do it.
The sage we grow here is Bergarten, which has a very high essential oil content.  That’s really what we want to come through in the vinegar, so any garden sage is fine, but we like this one.  In a pinch, you can even use the dried stuff in the spice aisle at the grocery store, but fresh will have more punch.
Even city dwellers most likely have plantain in their midst.  Plantain is exceptional for skin irritations, bug bites and stings, and all kinds of rashes.  We have both types here, the long strappy lanceolata, and the large major, and use them interchangeably.
All of the plants are chopped up and placed into the jar.  Cutting them up (or even placing them into a blender with a little vinegar to get it going) helps release their properties into the vinegar.

After all the plant matter is chopped and placed into the jar, it is covered with vinegar.  I reserved some large plantain leaves and some jewelweed stems.  The plant matter is carefully covered with the leaves, and then the stems are inserted in such a way as to hold everything below the surface.  Be careful not to enclose air pockets under the leaves, though.
All ready to sit and age for a couple of weeks.  It is perfectly fine to leave everything as it is until needed.
 
Then, just strain it out and apply to any area that has been exposed to poison ivy (preferably before a rash appears!).  It stings slightly when applied, but will really help dry up a rash in a hurry.
The other best remedy is to learn how to identify poison ivy and avoid it. 
We make a soap with jewelweed, plantain, and the essential oils of lavender and tea tree that works well after exposure = Happy Wanderer Soap
and also have the vinegar spray on our website, but we’re very happy to encourage you to make it yourself.

Who is The Essential Herbal?

If you’ve been reading this blog, you might be a subscriber to The Essential Herbal Magazine (thank you), but there’s a good chance that you aren’t aware that there is a magazine attached to the blog. 
Over the past year or so, I’ve been inundated with offers to write for “your website” or requests for me to highlight products on “your website”.  There is a website, but this is not it.  Here on the blog we publish past articles and highlight our advertisers on occasion.  That’s the whole point, isn’t it? 

So then, perhaps it might be a good idea to re-introduce ourselves to our blog readers.  It’s been over 7 years for the blog and 10 for the magazine, after all.
The Essential Herbal Magazine started out as a 16 page newsletter full of all kinds of ways to use and get to know herbs. We now stick to 32 pages, and they contain so much usable information for the typical individual wishing to learn about herbs, that it seems like much more.  It is written by herbalists, herb enthusiasts, and those who are deeply in love with the world of plants.  We all share our knowledge, experience, recipes, ideas, and sometimes our mistakes.  The pages of the magazine are often described as feeling like a long letter from old friends, talking about the things we all enjoy.  It’s an honest-to-goodness print magazine that mails out 6 times a year. At the start of 2012, we began to offer a PDF version to our customers who requested that option (and that is the only version available outside the US now), but that is exactly the same as the print version. No gimmicks, come-ons, or secret content, just the magazine. The entire staff is comprised of 1.5 people, so our main goal is to continue doing what we do as well as possible.

From all over the country (and sometimes the world), we receive articles that are filled with the joy of discovery.  Along the way, our readers learn to identify plants that they can use for first-aid, disease prevention, and self-limiting illness.  They learn to make all kinds of herbal preparations like tinctures, balms and salves, blended herbal teas, soaps, bath crafts, and scrumptious herbal dishes,  We’ve published books in segments, carried a full series of herbs of the zodiac, and are currently covering a historic woman herbalist in each issue.  We have subscribers who have been with us the entire 10+ years of publication, and some writers who never fail to come up with something fascinating for each issue.  We never know how an issue will shake out until the deadline arrives.  It is thrilling work, and our readers tell us it is just as much fun for them.  I’m pretty sure you’d enjoy it.

Me?  I’m Ym-health, the founder, editor, and head nag (just ask our writers).  After 10 years of co-owning an herb shop and retail/wholesale handmade soap company, my sister and I got tired.  We sold the shop, she continued the wholesale soap business, and I thought it would be fun to start an herbal newsletter.  After years behind the sales counter at the shop, I wanted to answer all the questions that people asked everyday.  It felt like people were far too intimidated and distanced from the plants growing around them, and it would become my new vocation to attempt to lift that veil and share the intense satisfaction that one gets from knowing how to work with herbs.

There is rarely an issue without a typo or two.  The inside pages are all black and white.  No frills, just great articles that will encourage you to try something you’ve never tried in each issue. 
If you enjoy the blog, I bet you’d love the magazine.  On our website, we have the covers and tables of contents posted for the last few year.  There are also a lot of other interesting herbal books and products.  Check us out!

Wildcrafting Part II - Why Wildcraft?

Xavier's hands covered in cottonwood sap. 

If you have never wildcrafted before let me be the first to tell you - it can be hard work! First you need to be able to correctly ID the plant. Then you need to locate the plant. Then you need to make sure the stand is healthy enough to harvest from. Then you need to know how to harvest it ethically. 

Once these preliminary areas are covered then comes the hard work of harvesting. This can mean wading through marshes to get your cattail, braving thorns to get to your hawthorne berries, scrambling up mountainsides to get to the elderberries. Undoubtably as a wildcrafter you will have to withstand the hot sun, incessant wind, bugs and other pests. It can mean stooping for hours to get enough violet flowers to fill a pint jar or digging through hard-packed rocky soil laboring with all your might to get that burdock root released from the ground.  


Once you’ve accomplished this you are only half through! Plants will need to be taken home, cleaned and processed and then turned into medicine. Phew! 

So, why would a sane person wildcraft? 

Wildcrafting can increase the health of plants and their eco-systems.


 In part one of this series we already looked at one very valuable reason for wildcrafting. We can actually increase the vitality of an area by interacting with it in a conscious way. We will discuss this concept more, but simply put aerating the soils, spreading seeds and pruning branches appropriately are very real ways in which we can tend the wild thus creating stronger and healthier eco-systems. 

By regularly visiting areas we can ensure their health by speaking out on their behalf. Here’s one example. I have a place where I love to harvest mullein. It’s a patch near my home that springs forth many mullein each year. I can easily harvest leaves, roots and many flowers in just one visit. Last year on one of my foraging trips I was devastated to find that the area had been sprayed. I live quite a ways from people on a rough dirt road so this really surprised me. I contacted the neighbor who owned land nearby and explained what had happened and that I had been harvesting the plants there for medicine. This person was fascinated to learn that all those “harmful weeds” were actually helpful for ailments that he and his wife suffered from. He readily agreed to never spray there again. 

There are many similar ways we can actively play a part in educating our communities about keeping our eco-systems healthy. Local public parks where children play are often needlessly sprayed with herbicides. YOU can stop this from happening. 

Wildcrafting is about connection.  


By harvesting our own plants for food and for medicine we connect with the plants themselves, we connect with the ecosystems our plants inhabit and we connect with the living forces of this earth. For me this connection brings me to the joie de vivre or the joy of life. 

Wildcrafting teaches us about plants. 


I have learned so much about the plants from directly interacting with them. Visiting plants through the seasons, sitting with them, watching them shift, observing the land where they live gives us a plethora of information about the plants we would never ever know by simply ordering them via the internet. I really doubt we can truly know the plants we take internally unless we know that plant as a living being whether that be in our gardens or on mountain slopes. 

I've loved watching the cottonwoods shift from buds full of resins

To the female trees bearing their "snow". 

Wildcrafting is mostly free. 


Sure, it will cost you your time, cost for tools and most likely some patience, but is otherwise very easy on the wallet. Finding “free” medicine and food outside your door is another big benefit to wildcrafting. 

Wildcrafting gives us a healthy diet. 


In the spring when many people are itching for fresh greens from their gardens we are harvesting many wild greens at least a month before local agricultural greens hit the market. We also have noticed that we eat a much larger variety of foods than is standardly found in the produce department. Also wild foods commonly have more nutrients in them than domestic foods raised using big-scale agriculture. 

Wildcrafting can result in high quality medicine. 


Harvesting healthy plants and lovingly preparing fresh medicine from there results in a high quality medicine - something that can be found lacking in super-sized herb companies. We already know this as eating fresh tomatoes from the garden is much more enjoyable than eating tomatoes which were picked green and then shipped from thousands of miles away. 

Wildcrafting can be empowering. 


I was recently traveling through the deserts of southern Utah when I got a urinary tract infection. Although I had an herbal first aid kit with me, nothing was very specific for this ailment. I admit, I panicked for a moment. Would I have to find a doctor? I was traveling, was I going to have to stop the car every twenty minutes so that I could find a bathroom? This quickly subsided however when I realized I was surrounded by many plants that were specific to bladder infections. Fairly easily I was able to harvest juniper berries, yarrow flowers and manzanita leaves. Making a tea from these powerful plants I was better within hours. In fact, after chewing on a few juniper berries I was almost immediately better. 

Juniper berries (actually cones). 

There is a a deep sense of empowerment that comes with wildcrafting. It means looking out onto the forest, or meadow or even the southwest desert and knowing that the plants contained there can help us when we are ill and feed us when we are hungry. 

This series of articles was originally written for  www.herbmentor.com

Wildcrafting Part III - Tools of the Trade
Wildcrafting Part IV: Before you Harvest
Wildcrafting Part V: Harvesting Guidelines

Wilcrafting Part VI: Resources

Chive Blossom Vinegar

 This year the chive blossoms have been unusually spectacular.  The single little pot that was planted 1/2 a decade ago has now scattered seeds, expanding to an area of several feet in diameter, popping up between mint plants (who can take care of themselves, thankyouverymuch).  Each spring, the greens show up before most anything else is awake, and soon the flowers are waving from the tips, sparkling with a color that is unlike that of most spring flowers.  All of the alliums are good for us.  Garlic gets all the press, but they all have the same health benefits to varying degrees.

The long spring this year must have had some effect on the color of the blooms.  They are almost magenta, rather than the usual soft pink (top picture is from last year).  This called for some chive vinegar.
 To make any herb or flower vinegar, all that is required is some good quality vinegar suited to the intended infusion, a jar, and the herb.  For chive blossoms, we want to see the color and taste the fresh garlicky flavor, so we choose a white wine or rice vinegar.  For this batch, it was white wine vinegar.

 Fill the jar with chive blossoms.  Just pop them off the stems, rinse to remove any inhabitants, and dry them on a tea towel for a few minutes, and then put them in the jar.  Cover them with the vinegar.  My own tip (which I use with vinegars and tincture making) is to break up wooden skewers to the correct size, and then make an "x" across the top, just before the jar narrows.  That keeps the plant matter submerged, which is necessary to avoid spoilage.

Within a few days, the color transfers from the flowers to the vinegar.  For flavor, you'll want to taste the vinegar after about a week, and then decide whether to let it continue steeping or not.  This vinegar was the right flavor for me in about 10 days.  Some vinegars you can just allow to sit until you're ready to use them - entirely up to you!

After it was strained, I picked a few fresh blossoms and put them into the bottles I'd be using.  The color will stay on the fresh blossoms, since the vinegar is saturated with color now.

The finished vinegar must be stored out of sunlight to retain the jewel toned brilliant pink color.  Visions of luscious salads dressed with this vinegar and a little oil dance in my head.

Guest Blogging for The Herb Companion Magazine!

We are having just gorgeous weather to go and buy herb plants at herb farms across the country.  I have done two posts with a list of herb farms throughout the U.S.  Not every state unfortunately, but maybe you have a favorite that I missed.  Please let me know.   The photo above is from Stream Cliff Herb Farm in Cominsky, Indiana.  I was lucky enough to visit the year the International Master Gardener Conference was in Cincinnati, OH.  This is the first part called Herb Farms A-Z:  Finding Farms that Sell Herb Plants-Part One.

The second part of the post was published today and funny it is called Herb Farms A-Z:  Finding Farms that Sell Herb Plants-Part Two.  This is one of my favorite places to visit in Chagrin Falls, OH and it's called The Village Herb Shop.  Kathleen Gips, the owner, sells herbs from Mulberry Creek Herb Farm and I forget the other herbs she sells.  Her gardens are tended by her customers in classes throughout the season.  They always look great each year.  Got to run.  We mowed and planted new plants.  It's looking good.  I am an herb plunker and I can't change!  Just wanted to add  to the Pennsylvania list, a local herbalist, Joanie Lapic from Everlasting Gardener that she has herbs for sale as well.  The Everlasting Gardener is located in New Brighton, PA.  So if you are in the Pittsburgh area, check out the Everlasting Gardener.  I think I can feel a PA road trip coming soon!  Hope you have had a great day.  Talk to you later. 

Spring 2012 so far

This has been a long, long spring, and we've had lots more time to play in the gentle sun than we usually get in a typical spring.  This morning I was thinking about how the 15th was the safe date to plant out things that can't handle frost, but we haven't had a hard frost here on the hill since mid-February.  The constant winds up here helped with that on the rare nights when frost threatened, but mostly we've had a surreal winter and spring.
At the same time, as I was thinking about what odds and ends need to be done before the Jul/Aug issue of The Essential Herbal Magazine can be put together for print, I was feeling a little sorry for myself.  A couple of weeks ago I had some needed surgery, and was fretting about missing out on spring.  Then I gave myself a little kick in the pants!  4 months of spectacular spring, and I'm whining about missing a few weeks.
The best way to get over any residual self-pity is to count blessings.  It may sound trite, but it really is a valuable life skill.
So I started thinking about all the fun things we made during classes in the early spring, some of the talks we gave that turned into catalysts for projects at home, the swap I jumped into at the last second, the test batches of elderberry candy for an article I'm submitting to another publication, the sheets upstairs that are already covered with anise hyssop and violets to dry, and the syrups and vinegars I got to make already.  I got to distill some white sage, play around with bear grease and cottonwood buds, and make a wild mushroom tincture.  Watching the plants burst from the earth, send out leaves, blossom and begin to fruit has been a rare joy.
Seriously, a typical spring filled with faires, classes, and talks to groups never gives me the kind of time to play that landed in my lap this year.  This has been a spring filled with all sorts of fascinating herb work.
Big deal, the weeds get another week to grow before I'm allowed to do battle with them.  I'll be too busy on the magazine anyhow.
Counting blessings put me back on track today.  And that's another blessing.

Photo Friday - Forest Flowers

Last night we took a stroll through the forest and found so many beautiful flowers in bloom I just had to share it with you all. 


From wild orchids to chocolate lilies to delightful violets, I hope you enjoy this virtual plant walk. 

Chocolate Lilies - Fritillaria lanceolata 

Hooker's Fairy Bells - Prosartes hookeri

Saskatoon - Amelanchier alnifolia

Wild Strawberries - Fragaria spp.

Violet - Viola glabella

Fairyslippers - Calypso bulbosa

Fairyslippers - Calypso bulbosa

Gooseberry - Ribes lacustre

Baneberry - Actaea rubra

Arrowleaf Balsamroot - Balsamorhiza sagittata

Larkspur - Delphinium nuttallianum

Arnica - Arnica cordifolia

Herbal Designing on the Fly!

Well, we are going to have a string of beautiful days here and we are going to get some if not all of the plants I purchased planted.  So you may not see or hear from me for a tiny bit of time.  I'll try to post updates as we get sections planted.  I may be doing some herbal designing on the fly!  I wanted to make some small vignettes amongst the lavenders that are surviving.  I've got two lemon verbenas to plant that have been inside.  Those two red-veined sorrels that you see in the photo have been moved out.  They were taking up real estate and they needed to go.  The garlic chives were taken out over the past week.  So I have a bit of territory to design.  Not much, but it's something.  Where I usually plant the scented geraniums has been overtaken by lemon balm!  No surprise there.  So we will just work one section at a time.  I'll try to remember to take before and after photos!  I'll also be squishing four-lined plant bugs as we go.  My theory is if we leave some lemon balms at the perimeter of the garden.  They will stay there rather than come in and damage the nicest herb plants!  A little wishful thinking, herbally speaking!  Hope you had a great day.  Going to go make a list and do some combinations of plants and a plan.  Talk to you later.

A Visit to Beech Creek Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve, Alliance Ohio

Visitor's Center at Beech Creek

A Nice Patio for a Picnic

Scented Geraniums in Containers

A Sweet Bay

The Plants for Sale

A Miniature Garden for Live Turtles!

My herbal companion, Bonnie and I made our annual trip to Ohio for plant shopping.  We used to go to Lily of the Valley Herb Farm.  Sadly it was sold this year, but the good news is they are selling plants at Beech Creek Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve.  They don't have all of the plants that they used to have, but we still managed to fill the new car with delightful smells for the trip home.  They are currently raising funds to complete a master plan.  They need members and volunteers to help Beech Creek succeed.  So if you are in the Alliance, Ohio area and would like to help, click on the link above to get details.  Hopefully, you have had a good day.  The weather has been changeable and we are still getting rain!  Hopefully, we will get some dry days so I can get the new kids planted.  Talk to you later.

Lemon Verbena Lady's Book Review For Timber Press--The Lavender Lover's Handbook by Sarah Berringer Bader

Lovely Front Cover of The Lavender Lover's Handbook

I got an e-mail from Timber Press recently asking if I would like to review books for them.  Heck yes!  I have purchased many books published by Timber Press over the years.  So it was a no-brainer.  Just so you know, I am not being compensated (Well, maybe a free book!) and just giving an honest review of the book.

My first review is The Lavender Lover's Handbook by Sarah Berringer Bader.  I wasn't familiar with the author so I went to the back of the book and read her biography.  Ms. Bader is the owner of Lavender at Stonegate in Oregon and has planted at least 5,000 (Bet it's more now!) lavender plants.  I didn't need to know more.  I think she is a bit obsessed and in my opinion, that's great.  From the cover (Who doesn't love an adirondack chair in a field of blooming lavender?  Maybe a swarm of bees!)  There are smaller photos at the bottom to tease what's inside.

So I'm just going to take you through the book and highlight my notes.  From the preface where Ms. Bader had her a-ha moment with lavender.  It actually happened for me with lemon verbena on a hot summer day.  I should have taken an herbal liking to an herb that had more than just one cultivar!  I guess it's not too late!

The next chapter summed up Ms. Bader's love of lavender called Lavender Obsession:  An Introduction.  I really liked her charts with bloom colors, favorite lavenders, best lavenders for humid summers, best cold weather lavenders and lavenders with the strongest scent.  She explains types of lavender and explains common names that are different throughout the world.  I'm always preaching about learning botanical names and this is one of the reasons because as long as you know the botanical name, it will be the same throughout the world!   I'm sure now that Ms. Bader is obsessed and it's a very good thing!

In Lavender in the Garden:  Landscapes, Containers and Herb Gardens this chapter gives you lists of drought tolerant plants to plant with lavender, a list of early bloomers, all season lavenders, hedges of lavender and lavenders for containers.  This chapter also gives you ideas with photos of lavenders in landscapes with perennials for inspiration.

While this book is labelled a beginner's guide, as a gardener who has killed her fair share of lavenders, I loved the next chapter called The Lavender Palette:  100 Varieties to Try.  Being an herb plant collector as well, 100 varieties of lavender give you something to find in your travels.  There is a flower color and foliage color guide.  It is really helpful to see the cultivars chosen in bloom.  Ms. Bader also highlights her top ten favorites.

Under the Care and Cultivation:  From Planting to Pruning, Harvesting and Drying chapter, the author's explanations of soil preparation, pH levels and fertilizers for lavender growing are very easy to understand.  She talks about the difference of growing lavenders from seed and cuttings with her own tested method for rooting lavender cuttings.  Ms. Bader goes into irrigation issues, insect, wildlife and disease problems.  Then she gives you a year by year (for the first three years) pruning schedule. Boy, do I need that!

How NOT to Prune Lavender!

Ms. Bader also talks about harvesting and drying lavender for the best results.  She goes into the best lavenders for culinary use and gives some good culinary recipes from herb blends like Herbes de Provence and main dishes such as Mediterranean Chicken to desserts like lavender and lemon verbena ice cream.  Think there is an additional reason for enjoying dessert!

The final chapter called Scented Creations:  Wands, Wreaths, Swags, Sachets and Beyond.  gives you a list of the best lavenders for crafts with the best color and staying power.  I especially liked the lavender wreaths, herb box, herb swag, all-purpose cleaner, lavender spray and lavender dryer sachet recipes.

There is a nice Resources section with lavender associations and festivals and mail order plant companies.  The Further Reading page had a nice list of supplemental reading including my favorite herb magazine, The Herb Companion.  Even the back cover is a wonderful field of blooming lavender.

The Lavender Continues to Bloom on the Back Cover!

While this is a very good beginner's book for lavender growing, I think it is just as good for an advanced gardener.  That 100 varieties chapter of lavender would encourage me to purchase it.  I also have really FINALLY learned how to prune my lavenders the proper way!  REALLY, I have!  Yes, Jekka in England, I have found out the correct way to prune lavender.  I think over all Ms. Bader takes into consideration different factors that go into growing lavender in the different regions of the U.S.  The only negatives that are keeping it from being a national book for me, would be the four-lined plant bug that attacks members of the mint family including lavender in sections of the mid-atlantic states and maybe the northeast and additional mail order nurseries that sell lavender in the eastern part of the country, like Well-Sweep Herb Farm in New Jersey, Companion Plants in Ohio and Sandy Mush Herb Nursery in North Carolina.  Maybe in the next edition!

I also found an online excerpt from the book at The Herb Companion website.  Overall, I highly recommend The Lavender Lover's Handbook by Sarah Berringer Bader to you.  Hope you enjoy reading it and using the lavender wisdom from Ms. Bader.  I have a vegetable book to review next time.

Finally, going to get outside.  The garden is growing like a weed and not an herb!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.