This is the book to use as a reference to grow your own herbal garden. I felt there is an abundance of great information concerning soil, herbs, beds, etc. I think this is a book I would love to have in physical form.

This book was super informative and easy to understand even for someone like me (a beginner with no green thumb lol)! I liked that it had information from beginning to end of the process. How to start your garden, what you need, care, uses (medicinally, culinary, other, etc.), and even how to store your plants. I also like that there are options for where to grow plants including indoors, that's important for myself. There were some beautiful pictures throughout the book as well that I enjoyed and I liked that you get a few QR codes with more resources including 32 more plants!

This book is first and foremost a gardening book, not a book on alternative medicine. Its starting point is gardening know-how i.e. soil, light/shade, tools and techniques; working towards the plants that may or may not be suited to where you live. To my mind, it suffers a bit in not having more herbalist know-how. The section listing different herbs mentions medicinal uses for each herb, alongside safety concerns or culinary uses. Some herbs include mention of making tinctures, syrups or oils but no generalised section on the methods to be used to make these.
Also, for those of us on netgalley.co.uk - this book is focussed on gardening in North America. The section on parasites may not be as useful for those of us living on the islands of Ireland and Britain.
Thanks to the publishers for the ARC via NetGalley.

I loved reading all the tips in this book. It comes from a different perspective than I am used to, which is herbs as food. This is using them as medicine, and it is a wealth of information. I do believe it is an overwhelming amount of info for a beginner, as I have been growing herbs for decades and I felt swamped by all the details, however as a reference book, I think it is wonderful. I would suggest owning this book in physical form so you can flip through it easily--there's just so much you would need to revisit if you were to use this as an actual guide. That said, I learned so much that I didn't already know, and I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in naturopathy or herbalism. There are so many plants out there that can heal us and they are relatively easy to grow, with a little instruction. You will find that here. This book will pay for itself if you even find just a few things you wish to try to grow, or even forage. Thank you to NetGalley for the reader copy of this book.

This was incredibly informative beyond just growing your own "medicine." Gardening tips, recipes and more. I will put this new information to use when I start my own garden this year.

This is like a lot of mass produced "herbal" books in that it looks nice and seems great at first glance but lacks the real depth and substance to make it very useful. On the plus side, it has pretty illustrations and goes into some detail about how to grow some common herbs. On the negative, though, it gives very general information about how to use them and leaves out most of the ones I'd recommend. This is really better suited for people who want to grow common garden herbs like thyme, sage and chamomile and have a few new recipes to use them in cooking or (occasionally) medicinally.

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

A real labour of love, and enthusiasm. Every different stage is clear and interesting. It covers beneficial bugs, recipes, soil, containers (I love the idea of a tower) and of course health benefits.

Oh wow, this book was exactly what I was looking for.

As a beginner in the world of herbalism and holistic medicine, I found 'Grow Your Own Medicine' easy to follow and not too overwhelming.

I had a small understanding of what herbs could do in terms of medicinal purposes but now have more in-depth knowledge about how useful they are in supporting health.

A great guide for anyone wanting to get into gardening and specifically planting and growing crops for medicinal purposes.

Not to be read through cover to cover, but more as a guide to reference over time as you begin preparing beds, learning about soil and its needs, and begin a journey into growing medicinal plants.

Ava Green and Kate Bensinger provide information on hardiness levels throughout the globe and what crops will be best to grow in different climates. Learnt a lot and will definitely be buying a physical copy to reference. Thanks for the ARC!

Grow your Own medicine by Ava Green & Kate Bensinger turned out to be just what I needed to read as a newbie gardener and hopeful herbalist. It was simple in its details and didn’t showcase a lot of plants to make me feel overwhelmed. It tells you the plants history of herbs, how to grow it, form the soil types to the zones. I would say this is a beginner’s type book as there were some plants and herbs that I thought I would find there that were not listed or spoken off. All in all, though, it makes for a great starting point in growing herbs for medicinal purposes at home. This review was given on the ARC copy received from the Publisher via NetGalley in return for my opinion.

A good place to start if you’d like to learn how to create and maintain your own herb garden for medicinal purposes. It gives both a general overview of herbalism and herb gardens and detailed information about some of the most common herbs and how to grow and use them.

Grow Your Own Medicine
Handbook for the Self-Sufficient Herbalist
by Ava Green and Kate Bensinger

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So I went into this expecting a coffee table style book with a ton of pictures interspersed with information. Were I in a physical bookstore this would not be an issue because I could flip through it first. Just fyi - not a coffee table book with lots of pictures.

There are a sufficient number of illustrations to make identification of a relevant item clear. There is solid information presented in a clear and concise format in easy to understand language.

An excellent addition to any library. 5/5

This book gives you everything you need to have a successful herb garden. The first 25% of the book includes the basics of herbalism and gardening. The middle part of the book gives very detailed information about many herbs, including a bit of the history of the herb, how to grow them, start them, and use them, as well as information on the best times and ways to harvest and what pests may be a problem. My favorite part in this section was the recipes that were included for several of the herbs. The book concludes with a section on preparing your soil and making your own compost. As a bonus at the end, there is a link to a document with more herbs which I found to be very helpful.

Quite an expansive writing on the basics of 21 herbs to be considered for home growing. Each herb is Brocken down to genus/species, then discussed from top to bottom for successful growing. My only criticism is a bit worst at times, though this is just be being picky.

I loved using this book as a guide for herbs and other plants. I didn't really realize the extent to how much these natural sources can be to my overall health. I mean you hear of stuff like chamomile tea for helping you sleep, but I didn't realize that it also is anti-inflammatory and even mildly laxative! I feel more equipped with knowledge of the world around me. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This comprehensive book about herbs: how to grow them, what to use them for and how to store them or transform them into medicine was exactly what I have been looking for.

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I prefer natural medicine over the traditional pill-pushing kind, but the author admits that there are definitely times when traditional medicine is the only route we can take in certain chronic situations. But to alleviate arthritic pain and to ease your breathing during allergy season, there are a whole slew of herbal remedies that will make your life more comfortable, without having to resort to addictive pain killers.

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The chapter about seeding and creating your own cuttings was exactly what I need to clean up my own act. I've managed to kill off quite a few plants in my career as an amateur container gardener, but now that I have read this book, I might not be so lethal in my balcony garden anymore! (I tend to over-water everything: I love my poor plants to death!)

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Also, some plants need more than just water and sunshine. Certain plants, especially fruit and vegetable bearing plants, require the aid of bees or other insects, and sometimes even a cold spell, in order to produce. I also liked that you could apply many of the tips and suggestions to just about any type of plant, not just herbs.

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The author comes from a long line of herbalists and herb farmers. I loved the story about the author's grandmother, who would send her out as a child into the field to bring back clumps of soil. The grandmother would examine the clumps, then tell her granddaughter to go back and water certain patches or withhold water from others.

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I highly recommend this beautifully illustrated, well written guide book. It is the type of book that you would keep for reference in your seed or gardening cupboard. Five well-earned stars for this educational (and very relaxing!) read. My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. I have been playing around with growing herbs for a few years, but, other than cooking with a few of them, I haven't really stepped into everything that they can do. There is so much information in Grow Your Own Medicine. The book lets you choose an herb and then it tells you everything you can do with it, food, medicine, etc. and tells you how to harvest and keep it. This is just what I have been waiting for to start my BIGGER journey into herbs.

A wonderfully practical book that teaches you how to grow your herbs, as well as what they can be used for.
This is a complete beginners guide, and focuses on setting up your herb garden, which isn't as straight forward as you might think.
It features 21 herbs with brief properties of each. You will learn what they're used for, how to grow them, what soil and climate they like and when the best time to harvest them is according to the uses.
There are also a few useful recipes scattered along the way.

I was looking forward to the medicinal education that the book could offer, but it is just a gardening book with a little bit of chatter about what some plants can do for your health. I wish they would have talked more about the health reasons why we should have more herbal plants in our diets, but they only gave each one a small paragraph. Their talk about soil and growing methods went on for a page or more for each plant, which is understandable for a gardening book. I guess with a title like Grow Your Own Medicine there should have been a better balance of gardening education and medicinal use education.

As an Herbalist and Alternative Medicine Provider, I enjoyed this book. It went into great detail about many herbs and how to and use them, I have it 4 stars because I think I would've enjoyed seeing pictures throughout the book when reading about each herb. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book.

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