At last, my new herb book is available for sale as a Kindle e-reader download from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008R9JIUE. Cost is only $4.95 and it may well be the best five bucks you’ve spent in a long time!

The book is called Grow Herbs – Make Money and shows you how to turn herb-growing from a hobby to a small backyard business, following the GardenEzi Five Step program.

Those interested can find more information about this book on my website and gardening blog at  www.wix.com/jrlakemedia/ezibooks

Growing herbs has been a major part of my life for 40 years or so now  and yes, for some of those years I’ve made a dollar or two out of them but mostly I’ve grown them just for my own pleasure.

There is something essentially satisfying about growing herbs.  Humans and those plants we have chosen to designate as having culinary and/or medicinal value have an ancient association and I think those  who still get pleasure from planting and harvesting our crops of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme like to feel a continuing part of this tradition.  Also, growing herbs is easy.  Vegetables and fruit demand a lot  from the gardener whereas herbs are cheap to buy, either from seed or in pots, and need very little attention.

I have refined my herb-growing practices over the years so that today I grow only the chosen few.  When I first started I tried growing just about anything that could be classified as a “herb” so that at one point my herb garden boasted about 45 different types of plant.  I was an avid collector; joining a herb society, sending away for new and exotic species or varieties, and raiding the gardens of others with my knife and scissors.   I read madly, built up a herb book library, concocted exciting new recipes, tried my hand at drying and otherwise preserving leaves and flowers, harvested seed in season, dosed my family with hideous concoctions.  Indeed, my medicinal compounds rivalled those of Lily the Pink and though we all survived I soon lost interest – and faith – in the efficacy of such potions when compared with modern drugs manufactured by those with better knowledge, methods and equipment than I possessed! (Though I still think a cup of chamomile tea is soothing to the nerves and that mint tea aids digestion).

My interest in culinary herbs, however, has endured.  After all, I love to cook and so a source of fresh herbs is essential to me.  And though I no longer believe in herbal remedies to cure disease I do (as a horticulturist and scientist) believe in the benefits of herbs in promoting good health.  Like most plants, they contain their share of vitamins and minerals as well as the free-radicals  and anti-oxidants that so many of today’s health gurus tell us are essential for our wellbeing.  For me, though, it’s their taste that really matters.  What are Italian tomato-based recipes without basil?  Or salmon without dill? Or lamb without rosemary? Or just about anything without parsley?

During the many years in which I’ve grown herbs I’ve had a variety of gardens, from large acreage to a courtyard.  Today I have a very small area of garden around the house under cultivation and this gives me just enough room to grow the dozen herbs I consider essential for my kitchen.  This include the Top Ten mentioned in my book – parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, dill, mint, coriander (cilantro) and chives – plus fennel and so-called Vietnamese mint.  Where I live, fennel is a substitute for dill in the hot season, while Vietnamese mint is a suitable taste substitute for coriander.  I also, some years, grow chervil as a cool season extra.

While some of my larger or mat-forming herbs (fennel, oregano) are grown in-ground most are kept in pots.  This enables me to move them around as necessary to take advantage (depending on time of year) of sun or shade.  These days I grow from seed rather than from cuttings, using mostly commercial seed because it is easy and has good, reliable variability.  Harvesting and storing your own seed is quite hard work and the viability rate is a lot lower – I’ve been there and done that and now I have other interests that consume my time so my herb-growing can’t be allowed to take up more than, say, one hour a week.  Yup, that’s all it takes me nowadays to keep my kitchen well-supplied and help out a few friends as well.

I do think that one of the handy things about learning to be a good herb-grower is that it IS one of those hobbies that can make a profit.  It’s not difficult at all to expand your own growing program to produce pots and fresh herbs for sale.  And from that small step it’s possible to build up that program to a small backyard business that won’t make a fortune but WILL bring in some extra income for relatively little effort after the setting-up process.  That’s why I wrote Grow Herbs – Make Money, to show how this could be done.  It’s not for everyone, but for those looking for some extra money growing herbs is not a bad way of getting it.

I love my herbs!  Indeed, they have been one of the enduring loves of my life and have never let me down.  If I lived in a tiny flat with a window box I’d still grow a small selection of them.  The smell, the feel and the taste of them enchants my daily life – if you’ve never tried growing them yourself, please give it a go.  You’ll find herb-growing good therapy as well as good fun!