Gardening with Herbs

If you love herbs, if you love cottage gardens, or country gardens, or flower gardens, then you will love Gardening with Herbs. While many garden books have great photos or good content (but rarely, it seems, both), Gardening with Herbs has married the two beautifully. A pleasant read, garden descriptions often include quotes from the gardeners themselves and usually at least a partial list of plants used. From a perennial garden in California to a lavender field turned topiary garden in the countryside of France there are ideas and incredible inspirations for any garden style.

I was lucky enough to find this in our public library and checked it out several times before purchasing my own. In my experience, garden books filled with photos that initially take my breath away end up driving home the point that 1) I am not a professional landscaper; 2) I am not a millionaire with a Mediterranean garden estate and 3) Once again I have purchased a book whose ideas do not scale to my home, gardening expertise, or available time. This book did none of that. Naturally much of the landscaping is shown on a grander scale than what I could undertake, but so much of it could translate to a smaller city garden. It is easy to splice together your own garden design ideas from the hundreds of color photos- most of which go heavy on the durable, low maintenance plants (providing you don't become obsessed with the topiary possibilities...something the authors are pretty gifted with.) All in all, an inspirational book filled with possibilities.

Another absolutely gorgeous herb book by Tolley and Mead! This book contains gardens of your dreams and also lots of neat ideas for garden structures, pathways, and ornaments. Many inspiring ideas and actual herb garden plans. It's like taking a tour through the most beautiful herb gardens in Europe and the U.S. If only mine looked half this good. This book gives me the inspiration to keep trying.

This book is a great picture book. It gives the reader a variety of ideas for herb gardening in a variety of gardening styles from rustic to ultra-formal. I really enjoyed thumbing through the pages, getting ideas for my own garden. It mentions the different types of herbs, but it could have been a little more thorough.