Tea Gardening for Beginners is an interesting and well written tutorial guide for hobbyists who want to experiment with growing and blending teas at home. Due out 26th July 2022 from Callisto on their Rockridge Press imprint, it's 136 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. (Ebook available at time of review). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

The first chapters give a short overview and introduction to what tea *is* and how to grow different plants and plan for the special culture needs of tea plants, along with a little bit on hardiness zones and garden planning. The author, Julia Dimakos, is an experienced gardener and teacher with a experience in home gardening.

The majority of the book content covers individual plant profiles. They are arranged thematically by which part of the plant is used: leaves, flowers, fruits & seeds, and roots. The book also contains a number of recipes for different tea blends such as health & wellness, relaxation blends, energy, bedtime, and a few others. Recipe ingredients are given in a bullet list. Measurements are provided in imperial (American measurements only), followed by blending and preparation instructions. The instructions and plant profiles are easy to understand and follow and the illustrations are clear and easy to identify.

There are no photographs included, but the book is charmingly illustrated throughout in watercolor. The author/editors have included useful resource and links lists as well as a hyperlinked bibliography which will provide readers with lots of further information.

Four and a half stars. Very well written and up-to-date information.

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

tl;dr
True to the title, a friendly entry-level book on growing, harvesting, and blending teas and tisanes. Plenty of easily searchable information, and illustrations are also very attractive.

Thoughts
What a useful guide! Hardcore tea aficionados know that true tea comes from the plant camellia sinensis and that all other plant brews are technically tisanes (insert joke about the champagne region here). But "grow your own tea" kits often feature plants that are not camellia sinensis, so I was expecting something similar here. Instead, I was excited to find that this book DOES cover growing camellia sinensis, along with a myriad of other plants that make excellent tisanes or blends. The book bills itself as being for beginners, and it absolutely is. Anyone who is new to growing will find a lot of useful starter information on caring for plants, when to water, and how to design growing spaces either outdoors or indoors. There's also a quick rundown of the differences in preparation and flavors of types of tea (white, green, black, oolong), and a very brief history of tea that unfortunately doesn't cover a lot of the juicier bits (but that's probably an entire book unto itself).

The bulk of the book, however, is a practical guide to various plants that one can grow to make tea and tisanes. Each plant is given a thorough rundown with tips on things like care, best regions to grow, flavor notes, and even health benefits. The charming illustrations also make the book fun just to page through. Recipes in the back also offer a great starting point for anyone unsure about making their own blends.

Wow, I really loved this book! I had never even considered growing my own tea leaves but after reading this I really am inspired to go home and try to grow some myself! This gives a lot of practical solutions to growing at home and lots of helpful advice on how to be successful. I really enjoyed all of the illustrations as well. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a great title and truly for beginners. I learned quite about about flora native to my area and am eager to try some blends of my own. A great start to a new hobby!