What I enjoyed most about this book was the instructions for real life uses for the plants we can grow in our gardens. How to make teas, tinctures, and oil infusions. Also, I didn't know there were plants that helped with grief and heartbreak, and I plan in investing in some of those immediately.

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CREATING SANCTUARY made me calmer with each page I read. It is beautiful, wise and inspirational. Author Jessi Bloom, award-winning ecological landscape designer, shares her own compelling story of creating sanctuary after illness, burnout and divorce, so she KNOWS the desperate need our culture has for healing places, where we can take shelter in the natural world and mend the mind, body and spirit.

This lovely guide has tips for designing healing spaces, plant profiles for 50 sacred plants, recipes for using plants as medicine, and simple ideas for daily rituals and self-care practices. Projects include herbal-based creams, an herbal dream pillow and more. Creating Sanctuary is a must-read for gardeners, nature lovers and anyone seeking a healing place. 5/5

Pub Date 27 Nov 2018

Grateful to Timber Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#CreatingSanctuary #NetGalley

I love this book. It reminds you to slow down and enjoy life. Creating Sanctuary is a great read. It shows you how to build your sanctuary from visualising to actually doing it. She also tells you different healing properties of different plants and flowers so you can really personalise your space. There are recipes that you can use to create different teas, compounds, and oils to help.heal you. There are also activities such as yoga, meditation, and labyrinths you can do to really make your space yours. The book really read well.for me. I recommend this book.

I love, love, love this book! Jessi Bloom has created an easy-to-read guide to designing, making and using a sanctuary space. She has combined gardening, mindfulness, spirituality, and natural healing into a book that makes it all seem do-able. Bloom's writing is soothing, cathartic, yet instructive. Beautiful photographs adorn the pages, along with simple activity boxes that anyone can do to accomplish certain goals. I was allowed to review this book in advance of publication courtesy of Timber Press, but I will definitely purchase my own copy once it's published. As someone who's just retired, creating a sanctuary per Jessi will be one of my goals for the coming year!

“Nature will nurture us if we intern, nurture nature.”

My viewpoint on what I want from my garden has evolved over the years. For a long time I just required a large piece of lawn for my young children to run off some energy. To create distance from us and the neighbors. In more recent years as I’ve come to develop more of a desire to understand and grow plants that can provide a sanctuary in my own back yard. I’ve always had a deep affinity to wild places. Appreciated the benefit being in those environs will bring to my physical, emotional & spiritual health. It’s time I brought that to a place I don’t have to drive a million miles to get to.

This book actually overwhelmed me with information. Not only is there practical advice on prepping your soil and then choosing plants etc, but there is a very large section on which plants bring the best to your health too. As an avid essential oil user, much of this info wasn’t new to me - though I am unfamiliar with actually using your own plants. There is a lot to take in, so purchasing this book would be a preference over borrowing from a library. If you are serious about creating a real true wild space on your yard - this is probably one of the best reference books I’ve read recently. There’s even info on how to encourage natural wild habitats for the animals.

Great book, lovely pictures - the occasional diagrams.

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC. This is my honest review.

I grow many of my own herbs and have several books I refer to for preserving and producing teas, but this title by Jessi Bloom is one I must add to my research shelf. She has a more extensive selection of instruction for various herbal remedies and teas and her instructions are clear and details easy to follow. This is an author I will follow.

I received a free electronic copy of this book from Netgalley, Jessi Bloom and Timber Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This book was not what I expected, but it's a fabulous resource if you're looking for ideas to create sacred spaces in your garden and home. It is definitely geared more towards folks who follow earth-based religions (which I do not) but it can be helpful for anybody interested in creating beautiful, calming outdoor spaces and in learning about plant uses. I found myself jotting down a lot of ideas to help make our yard more "magical" (in the sense of beautiful and meaningful) for my kids, too.

The book is filled with gorgeous photos of sacred spaces around the world, which I really enjoyed. I got many ideas for things to do in my own gardens from the photos of beautiful and interesting gardens and garden elements.

Sections of the book include:

Creating Sacred Space: This section has chapters on envisioning your sanctuary, common elements of sacred spaces, and 5 steps to creating your sacred garden. It includes many ideas I would like to add to our gardens, like common elements of sacred spaces (some sort of gate or entryway, appealing to all the senses, using bells and chimes, adding garden art and nature mandalas, etc.).

Botanical Alchemy: This section contains 50 sacred plants for your sanctuary garden, plant spirit medicine, and growing your own apothecary. It is fantastic for plant lovers, gardeners, foragers, or people who'd like to learn more about using plants. I was happy to see that many of the plants she recommends are wild plants that we forage and that pop up in our yard on their own. So many people don't realize the benefits of "weeds" like plantain and nettles. I was happy to see elderberries recommended (which of course they would be, since they are medicinal, beautiful and have been steeped in mythology for eons, and I've written an entire book about how wonderful elderberries are and how to find, grow and use them). The recommended plants are all ones that have a long history of uses as food and medicine, are easy to grow (often growing as weeds all around us) and generally also provide beauty. Each plant has a photo and detailed description of its uses as food, medicine and in various spiritual beliefs. It goes on to another section on "the wisdom of weeds" that goes into much more detail about a whole host of beneficial weeds and how to use them, such as burdock, chickweed, lambsquarters, dandelion and purslane. From there, it goes on to talking about how to use plants for emotional healing and mental well-being, like what plants are said to be helpful for anxiety, sleeplessness, trauma and anger, and how to use them. A two page chart tells what plants to use for what ailments, and how to use them (for instance, use burdock as a dried root in tinctures or decoctions, or in capsule form). This section gives basic information on how to make herbal medicines, with recipes. It also talks about how to grow your own healing garden, how to grow mushrooms, how to preserve your herbs and plants, and much, much more.

Nurturing Self: Healthy Body, Mind and Soul: This section contains your body as sanctuary (caring for your personal ecosystem), mind and soul (finding clarity and comfort), and daily sanctuary (practices and rituals). There are recipes for things like protein bombs, garden smoothies and fruit and herb infused waters. Also included are herbs for digestion, mindful movement, self care rituals and recipes, info on herbs to use for hair rinses and facial toners, ways to meditate and ground yourself using nature in many ways, eco art and play ideas, ceremonies and rites of passage, 14 daily activities to incorporate sanctuary into your life, and more.

Not all of the book applied to me, but I was happy to skip over those sections and focus on the many helpful and inspirational parts that did. There was so much that I found helpful. I also loved how filled it was with gorgeous photos.

This book would be a good fit for people who:

Are interested in learning how to use plants for medicinal and spiritual purposes
Are looking for ways to make their gardens into beautiful, healing spaces
Follow earth-based religions and are looking for ways to incorporate that into their surroundings
Want to learn more about beneficial garden plants
Enjoy rituals and recipes for self care
Want to create sacred elements like labyrinths, cairns, altars and medicine wheels in their gardens
Consider themselves more new age or "crunchy"

I received a temporary ARC of this book to read for the purpose of review. I can enthusiastically recommend it if you are interested in this subject. It is due to be released in November of 2018.

(Note: I will post this review to my blog at "A Magical Life" during the release month in November.)

“Do you remember the first plant you had a relationship with?”
To be honest, I don’t.
Jessi Bloom has a deep respect for the earth and a different interpretation of the word ‘sanctuary’ than I was expecting. I thought a garden sanctuary was a calm and relaxing backyard escape. To Bloom, however, it is a sanctified, sacred space. So this book and me were not the best fit.
Having said that, there is lots to like about the book. I liked the exploration of the different garden elements such as bells and garden art ( maybe skip the altar though!) , details of medicinal plants , recipes for drinks and cosmetics. And the colourful photos are a delight for the eyes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for the digital review copy.

If you're looking for some deeply spiritual new-age approaches to gardening and sanctuary, this is the book for you. I was not looking for that; I was taking 'sanctuary' more metaphorically, so I was not the target audience for this book. I just didn't realize it until I started reading it.

This is a gorgeous book with pictures that sent my creative juices into overdrive. Along with all the photos, the author has added information that could be beneficial to anyone who wants to find ways to relax in this fast-paced world we live in. There are meditations and suggestions for self care such as: bath rock self massage, foot massage and spirit bath. She also included a few recipes for things like root tea, protein bombs, flavored water and smoothies.

Even though my yard is small, I feel I can run with some of the ideas, and I'll definitely use the self-care suggestions.

My review has been posted to Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

#CreatingSanctuary #NetGalley

The book is ideal for people looking to recreate a zen and balanced link with their garden. The book contains beautiful pictures and useful information to create peaceful and sacred garden. Also, Jessi added good recipes created from herbs and trees from the garden. Namaste

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Creating Sanctuary by Jessi Bloom is designed for nature lovers to allow them to find beauty all around. It gives the opportunity for a deeper connection.

I love this book so hard! Jessi delivers an accessible instructional book on how to get the most from your backyard. From gardening to creating a sacred meditative space with garden design principles, everyday ritual and manufacturing your own homemade remedies. This book has it all for those seeking a calmer, more natural and spiritual life.

Beautifully put together and thought provoking. I appreciated the authors approach to sanctuary as more than an exterior space but sanctuary within ourselves as well. You can take your sanctuary with you wherever you go.