Product Description

This is all-time classic gardening bestseller with over 350 varieties of herb to grow and over 200 delicious and inventive recipes. It is a spread-by-spread reference work bringing together all aspects of an individual herb - history and folklore, species to grow and cosmetic, medicinal and culinary uses. Chapters on propagation, harvesting and making herb oils are complemented with ideas for ten different designs for herb gardens and a unique yearly calendar. Accurate colour photography means that identification for the reader is simple as well as making the book a glorious companion - the only book on the subject the reader will ever need.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70620 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
Jekka's is a must-have book for everyone who loves gardening and cooking. I'm her biggest fan. The book is fantastic and so is her amazing knowledge of herbs. She has wonderful ideas to make your food taste the best and to make you feel good. This is the herb book to have --Jamie Oliver

This book is a milestone in the publishing of herb books; with it you can grow them successfully. Its organisation makes it stand head and shoulders above the competition --Garden Centre Association

A great Christmas present- if you can bear to part with it (Alan Titchmarsh, Daily Mail). Jekka's complete herb book is one I often turn to for quick information about the wide variety of herbs gardeners can grow. She gives excellent advice about propagation, different species and varieties, and other aspects of herb culture, with wonderful culinary ideas as well. --Barbara Damrosch, Washington Post

About the Author
Jekka McVicar has run her Herb Farm for 22 years. She presented the RHS video on herbs, and has won eleven gold medals at RHS Chelsea and is on the RHS council. Jekka is also well known for her regular appearances on TV and radio gardening and cookery programmes.

Customer Reviews

By far the most useful gardening book on my shelf
This book is invaluable. I am an amateur gardener - the sort who notes the names of plants which look magnificent in someone else's garden, goes and buys the seeds/seedlings/potted up plant and then has not really got a clue what happens next. For years I have been trying to have a successful herb garden but nothing ever quite worked out. No instructions told me what was going to happen in year 2, year 3 and so on. What I should do the season AFTER I has planted/sown the herb. This fantastic book does just that and tells me what will grow where, the best way to propagate, whether the plant will work in a container, whether it needs to be brought in during the winter and then - oh joy - it gives lots of ideas of what the herb can be used for. It is a real must-have for any gardening shelf.

Just what I've been looking for!
As a hapless owner of a diminutive, north-facing, crazy-paved, patio garden, I rely on luck and terracotta pots to grow my herbs. Thus a special section on container-growing for each herb in this book is a god-send. The other good thing is the inclusion of more exotic sub-species eg. Thai Horapha and holy basils, which are indispensable to any enthusiastic oriental cook. All in all, this book is a treasure-trove of information and invaluable advice; it is well-written and filled with fantastic photographs and illustrations. It even contains some tempting recipes (but sadly none for Thai green curry - Ms McVicar may note the inclusion of my email address - hint, hint). I don't think I will ever need another book on herbs and I can't wait to get a bigger garden.

Not giving this away!

This book was on my mother's Christmas list, but having taken delivery of it, leafed through, and then spending the afternoon lost in it, it may not make it under the tree! What's special about this good-looking book, I think, is that assumes enough knowledge and enthusiasm to appeal to dyed-in-the-wool green thumbers like my mum, but gives beginners and wistful would-be growers and kitchen novices like myself clear guidance and a sense of confidence. Perhaps THIS time the daydreams of a well-stocked and maintained herbed garden might be managable! It isn't often that you pick up a well-written book that demystifies a subject without stripping the passion out of it: I'm beginning to see why my mother raves about Jekka's books. I'm keeping this one for myself!