Full disclosure, I am a student at Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. I began as a student in the medical herbalism program. Once I completed it, I moved into the immersion program. I am a retired professor in education and I attribute that decision to stay with Chestnut to the quality of the education I am receiving. Juliet Blankespoor is a gifted herbalist, gardener, writer, teacher, and photographer. This book is evidence of her many gifts and talents, and I was thrilled with the opportunity to receive an advanced reader copy of The Healing Garden.

This book is truly comprehensive and a reference you will often use if you are interested in growing herbs and cultivating and handcrafting your remedies. The book is divided into three parts:
1. Cultivating medicine includes planning your garden, understanding soil, plant disease, insects, growing herbs in containers, and planting propagation. Blankespoor is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to gardening and soil!
2. Making medicine covers harvesting and drying your herbs and preparing botanical medicine, and healing foods with the herbs you have grown.
3. Botanical medicine covers herbal actions and safety and energetics and provides detailed herbal profiles and recipes for an impressive number of herbs, 30 in total.

The plant profiles covered in this book are priceless. Even if there are plants included that you do not plan to grow, there are many quality places to purchase herbs, and you will have the knowledge needed to use the herb.

Each plant profile includes the scientific and common name, a detailed description of the plant, and how it has been used in varying cultures; she shares cultivation information that includes planting zones, soil requirements, propagation, garden care, problem insects, harvesting, medicinal properties, medicinal preparations including ratios and dosages, energetics and actions and finally recipes for using the herb. That’s a lot of information! With 30 detailed profiles and 70 recipes for teas, tinctures, oils, salves, syrups, and more, it truly is the ultimate reference for anyone looking to bring herbs into the garden, the kitchen, and the medicine chest!

Juliet Blankespoor has a beautiful way of writing that puts the reader at ease, she is gifted at taking information and making it accessible to the reader, and her tone is so very friendly. Her photos are gorgeous- the pictures alone make this an excellent book for your coffee table.
If you are considering growing an herbal garden and/or want to learn more about plants and their medicinal qualities, this book is what you want. I highly recommend it!

This book takes a full look at using your garden for your health. it covers everything from garden planning to plant usage and all topics in between. I personally like the chapter on container plants as I don't live in a climate suitable for year-round outdoor gardening but can keep container plants in my home. This is a must-have resource for anyone wanting to make their lives a bit more natural-based.

This book is beautifully put together. It is so detailed and thorough. This is a must-have for anyone that is looking to gain more knowledge on holistic health. Or for learning how to grow their own herbs and building a garden that can support a healthier life. The included recipes offer practical uses to incorporate these garden items. This book will be one that I refer back to all the time.

This book was a great read. As an Herbalist and Alternative Medicine Practitioner, I really enjoyed this book. The first part was about gardening and how to cultivate. The second half went well into detail about many herbs that I use daily for my clients. This was a well written book, and I will refer back to it when I need to. I would recommend this book and buy it. I only wish more herbs were discussed, but the ones she talks about are remarkable.

This book was recieved as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Healing Garden is an encyclopedic herbal and guide to medicinal plants and herbal medicine by Juliet Blankespoor. Due out 8th April 2022 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on their Mariner imprint, it's a substantial 448 pages and will be available in hardcover, and ebook formats.

This is a well written and accessible beginner-friendly guide (with recipes and tutorials) for herb gardening and herbal medicine.The author writes with competence and experience on choosing, growing, harvesting, processing, and using herbs and the active ingredients they contain. The first section (~25%) covers culture, siting, soil building, pest control, and propagation (very useful info here). The chapters in section 2 introduce methods for harvesting and preparing/preserving plant material without destroying active ingredients. The third and largest section contains a survey of active ingredients, safety issues, and a comprehensive herbal with profiles for 32 common herbs from anise hyssop to yarrow.

The tutorials and recipes include tools and ingredients in a bullet style list. Measurements are in American/imperial units with metric/standard measures in parentheses (yay!), followed by step by step instructions. Plant profiles in the herbal chapters include common and botanical (Latin) nomenclature, culture info, habit (size, spread), propagation, medicinal uses, and recipes and tutorials for specific uses.

The book is lushly illustrated and photographed throughout in full color. The author has also included a resource and links lists, bibliography, and index. With purchase, the publisher has made additional online resources available for readers.

Five stars. This would be a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition, community garden/allotment member libraries, or the home gardener's library.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I'm in love with 'The Healing Garden' by Juliet Blankespoor. It's EVERYTHING I'd want in a book. This book is so much more than the cover describes. It almost needs beautiful workshops given to go along with it almost like a textbook but a beautiful textbook, that is lush, soul-filling and a book you never want to part with. How many books can we say that about?

It's so packed with great useful information it's where do I begin? The book is divided first into growing and tips on growing everything that is beneficial to grow but even that doesn't adequately describe how useful that part of the book is. I am a Master Gardener, a teacher of how to grow plants, and teach workshops on a lot of the things covered int his book and still I got a tremendous amount out of this gorgeous book. I farm on average and am always looking for that one inspiring book and this is it! 'The Healing Garden' makes me want to grow even more than I already do.

Each plant towards the end gets their time to shine and the information a user can glean from Juliet's extensive knowledge. The plants are listed alphabetically, with gorgeous photos and advice on parts of the plants used, medicianal preparation, actions, energetics and precautions. There are recipes and other uses given. The amount of work it took to get this book together with this much information is amazing.

This book has grabbed my soul and soothed it. It's a gem. An absolutely gem. I feel like I found my people and I just want to get dive into this book and heal the weary soul. You feel like you'll come out the other side refreshed and even a better person for absorbing all that is in her to behold.

Beautiful book. The photography was spectacular. The column style text was difficult to read on an e-reader so I would recommend those interested purchase the paperback copy instead. Great for beginner herbalists and a lovely addition to the library of those experienced.

I was so interested in this book because it gave me more insight on how to make homeopathic medicine. There is a lot of information on how to grow the plants yourself, and the best herbs to grow in a garden, no matter what the size. This is a sourcebook, and one to keep in your library to reference over and over. Some of these medicine carriers I never would have guessed (like compound butters).

I love this book! It's a good resource about gardening and herbs. I like how this book was sectioned. It starts with basic things like ensuring the health of the soil, then onto the plants, making medicine, recipes and herbal profiles. I especially like the recipes and herbal profiles.

The author spends a lot of time talking about her background. Also a lot of time describing different types of gardens.
Many of her paragraphs start with" If you are new to gardening,"......, but so much of this is over my head.
There is absolutely so much information and this book, and the photos are gorgeous.
Given enough time, this book would provide the information needed to start a healing garden.
For me, it would be a lot of time. Someone with some basic experience would get a lot of use out of this book.
I'm giving it five stars because for the right reader this is an excellent source. My inexperience shouldn't detract from expertise provided in this book.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and here are my thoughts.

This book is a beautifully produced and written guide on how to create a healing herbal oasis in your garden, even if you have no experience. There are detailed instructions on everything from planning your garden, which plants to grow, preparing and amending the soil, starting seedlings indoors or out, planting out, saving seeds, making herbal medicines, how to manage pest, and so much more.

And everything is extremely well organized and beautifully presented. I especially loved that the author included lists of medicinal plants to grow in different areas (shady, etc.), thus saving many inexperienced gardeners from guessing about what plant to grow where.

I have to say I prefer soil cultivation methods that do not involve a lot of digging, because too much digging can have a detrimental effect on the soil, killing the microorganisms that live there and support plant growth. So, I found what appeared to be advocating reliance on tilling and digging to create "healthy" soil, not to my liking.

And I would suggest that someone who is not familiar with "no-til" gardening concepts, to look up "no dig" gardening or buy one of the many good books on this topic .

Having said that, the author's detailed information on how to improve the soil could most definitely be used for "no-til gardening", and that from a practical point of view...there will be times you definitely do need to dig. There is no escaping that fact. How else do you transplant, etc.?

I'm still going to give this book five stars. Why? Because no matter what your belief is about digging or not, there is a huge wealth of information presented here, and it is presented intelligently and with gorgeous photography. It is hugely inspiring, and the author has clearly put her heart into this book. This has been one of my favourite gardening books to read, because it combines the author's personal love affair with plants, with a tremendous amount of practical information. The words and images just draw you in.

So big thumbs up!!!

Herbal medicine is my JAM!!!!

Juliet Blankespoor took it to a whole new level by making it educational and fun. Learning the techniques and back story of how we can grow and make our own medicine is soul touching. Having the knowledge to treat your body and properly sustain important nutrients should be in every school kid's textbooks!

I loved this and will definitely be recommending it to all my heath conscious and homesteading pals.

The Healing Garden by Juliet Blankespoor is the kind of book that you want to own the hardback! I say that because that is how you would appreciate the beautiful illustrations in the best way!!

This book contains everything you could want to know to have a healing garden in your yard - large or small and even in pots, from choosing the herbs - to cultivating the garden, to planting, tending, and harvesting. It offers safe holistic ways to deal with pests.

I love this book! I really recommend it for anyone interested in growing a healing garden of herbs!

I am very excited about this book, not only is it beautifully presented but the information is very easy to read. with over 400pages of information covering sections on Cultivating Medicine, Making Medicine, Botanical Medicine Foundations, and Properties and Recipes. These sections break down to Planning, Soil., Problems, Growing in Containers, Plant Propagation and Drying to name just a few.
I grow quite a few plants in my garden, both for fabric dyeing and adding to cooking. I also grow plants to make teas for their healing properties on a small scale - this book gives me the information to go further with my planting.
It is a beautiful book, one to dip into from time to time and always to learn something from. Easy to grow plants with wonderful colour for the garden as well as healing properties.

This is a wonderful guide to growing your own herbal plants and using them in natural remedies. The first half is very much a gardening guide, so it will be helpful for those who are new to gardening. It's very comprehensive and will be a great asset. The second half goes into the plants she profiles, both how to grow them and how to use them, with details about their benefits, contraindications, and so on. One or two recipes are included for some of the plants.

The plants featured are: anise hyssop, ashwagandha, basil, bee balm, black cohosh, calendula, chickweed, dandelion, echinacea, elderberry, elecampane, goldenrod, goldenseal, gotu kola, hibiscus, lavender, lemon balm, meadowsweet, milky oats, mint, motherwort, passionflower, prickly pear, rose, skullcap, spillanthes, stinging nettles, tulsi, valerian, vervain, violet, yarrow. Not all of these grow in my climate, but many of them will grow in most temperate areas. Most are perennials, though some are annuals.

I wish there were more plants featured, as some that I use the most are not included (some that come to mind are mullein, garlic, horsetail, cleavers, red clover, hawthorn, burdock, horseradish, mugwort, pine, plantain leaf, sage, aloe and chamomile). Obviously, many of these are found in the wild and more easily foraged (which can also be said for many that she includes, such as dandelions and stinging nettles), but many of my favorite remedies are missing and some of the ones she includes are not ones that I'd consider especially noteworthy. She includes a wonderful range though, and great instructions on how to grow them.

This is a great start for those who are new to healing remedies and growing them in their gardens, though, plus very detailed information about the basics of herbal remedies. I'd highly recommend it for new or intermediate gardeners and herbal enthusiasts.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

One of the best modern common herbal books I have found. Everything in one place, showing each herb medicinal properties, types of tinctures typically made for the herb, uses, growing and harvesting of the herbs and culinary uses if any. With detailed pictures.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I love love love this book! I am all about healing naturally with herbs and this book I will be going back to time and time again. Thank you! Very informative.

First off- let me premise by stating I am not an avid gardener but I truly want to bring more manageable plants like herbs and flowers at my new home. This book was a beautiful guide with personal touches from the author on how to best work your garden or outdoor spaces to accommodate more healing plants and herbs. I am not one to make tinctures or balms or lotions out of plants, but I definitely love making teas (there’s tea recipes included!!). Most of the advice is a bit advanced for me and my goals, but it is informative enough that anyone new or novice to these skills would easily be able to follow the instructions.
The photos in this were stunning & I would recommend buying this for anyone who had a friend or loved one into gardening or healing plants.

The Healing Garden by Juliet Blankespoor is a extensive book filled with everything you need to know about herbs and plants. I was so impressed by how much thought went into making sure every topic possible was covered in this book. How to plant, conditions, size are covered as well as what each herb can do and how to harvest and use them all. The recipes were plentiful and the photography was beautiful. This is a very large book and a great addition for anyone looking to incorporate herbal remedies into their lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the opportunity to read this book book for an honest review.

"The Healing Garden" is a comprehensive guide to growing and using herbs for medicinal purposes! There many herbs and plants available to cultivate and find in the wild that can be beneficial to our well being. She provides extensive information, from the identification, planting, cultivation of numerous herbs and plant that are available to man! A thorough guide filled with recipes and suggestions how to use the herbs after your harvest. I am happy to include this book in my garden and planting library!