The Medicinal Gardening Handbook: A Complete Guide to Growing, Harvesting, and Using Healing Herbs

by Dede Cummings, Alyssa Holmes, Barbara Fahs (Foreword)

Dig into the world of herbal medicine with this complete guide to cultivating and harvesting plants with healing properties. For thousands of years people have been utilizing herbs and cultivating weeds found to speed the healing of wounds, soothe skin irritations, calm uneasy stomachs, and ward off illnesses. Now you can plan and grow your own garden first aid kit.In these pages, you’ll learn the basics of gardening in your backyard-or on your windowsill or porch-including instructions for preparing soil, composting, and weeding. You’ll then find detailed descriptions of the twelve most common, easy-to-grow, most useful healing herbs, with instructions for growing, harvesting, and utilizing them. These powerful plants • Garlic, which boosts immunity, reduces blood pressure, and combats cancer• Echinacea, which reduces inflammation, boosts immunity, and has antiviral properties• Yarrow, which accelerates the healing of wounds, is an anti-inflammatory, and can relieve PMS symptoms• Elderflower, which is an astringent and can relieve arthritis and soothe sore throats• Mint, which soothes digestive problems, sweetens breath, and can reduce fevers• Elecampane, a respiratory tonic with antibacterial and antifungal properties• And more!

Genres: Gardening, Health, Nonfiction

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 29, 2014

About the author

Dede Cummings is a writer, award-winning book designer, publisher, and former commentator for Vermont Public Radio. At Middlebury College, she was the recipient of the Mary Dunning Thwing Award and attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference as an undergraduate fellow. In 1991, she received a fellowship to study with Hayden Carruth at the Bennington Writers’ Workshop. In 2013, she returned as a poetry contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her poetry has been published in Mademoiselle, Connotation Press, MomEgg Review, Green Mountains Review, among others, and anthologized in Roads Taken: Contemporary Vermont Poetry and Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection. She was a Discover/The Nation poetry semi-finalist. In 2016, she was awarded a writer’s grant from the Vermont Studio Center. Her first poetry collection entitled To Look Out From was the winner of the 2016 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize and was published in 2017. Her second poetry collection, The Meeting Place, was published in 2020 by Salmon Poetry. Dede lives in Vermont, where she designs books and is the founder and publisher of www.greenwriterspress.com, a global press devoted to environmental activism, social justice, and sustainable publishing.

Dede lives in Brattleboro, Vermont, in a house built by her husband, Steve Carmichael. They have three children, Sam, Emma, and Joey. After Dede's most recent hospital stay and surgery for Crohn's disease in 2006, she began hiking the Long Trail (the length of Vermont) in one week sections, beginning to realize a long-term goal that had been put off due to illness.

Living With Crohn's & Colitis was her first published book. Her second book, "Cooking Well: IBS" came out October 25, 2011, and it is a description of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and a helpful guide with lifestyle tips and over 100 recipes. The author was first diagnosed with IBS in her 20s, and it is her hope that by reading these books, people will become educated and informed about how lifestyle and diet are key to maintaining health in today's world. Book Number Three in this series is The Living With Crohn's & Colitis Cookbook.

Dede has published organic and holistic lifestyle series for Skyhorse, including The Medicinal Gardening Handbook, The Organic Gardening Handbook, and The Good Living Guide to Beekeeping.

Reviews

[LaDonna Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth spending money on!

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To borrow a phrase from a friend, this is “half knowledge to go.”

What do I mean? First of all, don’t use the word COMPLETE in the title and then provide a small list of herbs and then leave out some important info about those. For example, mint is one of the listed herbs. Great! I love mint. Glad to know about some of its effects. Perhaps they should also warn nursing mothers not to drink mint tea! Also, the book says to harvest young flowers. Then later it says deadheading is harvesting. So do you use the old dead flowers too? One more thing... The authors boast about the powerful working of herbal remedies and then in another part say you can mix and match ingredients. Say what?

Not to completely diss this book. I have enjoyed learning more about herbs and so far I have made one tea out of flowers and leaves growing in my garden.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great book if you are interested in learning about medicinal plants. There are color pictures, detailed descriptions, ideas for planting, how to harvest, how to preserve/store, what and how to use, recipes, and general tips.
Overall I was very satisfied with this book. My only problem with it is that it didn't include very many herbs, only 24. I understand that the authors only wanted to give a basic structure to learn about so they only gave the most common medicinal herbs. For me personally, I just wanted to know more.
This would be a book I would consider buying to have on hand at all times. It is a really awesome book and one I highly recommend!

[Nicoal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers 24 different herbs. Authors live in southern Vermont.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how this book focuses on 12 common medicinal herbs you can grow and 12 you can forage.
it is an interesting way to arrange the information and as a gardener, forager, herbal healing person I appreciated it all in one book.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and fun to page through. The one thing I was looking for that was not included was cilantro - there was only a blurb on using it in food, but no mention of its detoxifying properties or of how to preserve it as a tincture.

[Katie Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Medicinal

Good informative book. Lots of photos and great recipes. Unfortunately, just not long enough! Highly recommend for those interested in foraging as well as gardening.

[Annabeth]

Enjoyed this book very much.

Very informative and helpful. Enjoying the recipes and hoping to start my own herb garden soon. I've planted herbs before without problems but have vfc e always had trouble with rosemary.