A Handful of Herbs ─ Inspiring Ideas for Gardening, Cooking and Decorating Your Home With Herbs

Herbs have been valued for thousands of years for their aromatic, health-giving and culinary qualities. Today they are also loved as attractive additions to a garden, as a sweet-smelling form of decoration in the home, and for their soothing and therapeutic effects. A Handful of Herbs celebrates herbs in all their beauty and variety, opening with profiles of the 20 most popular varieties, including basil, lavender, rosemary and thyme. Distinctive features of each herb are described, and the profiles explain how to grow healthy and productive plants, as well as summarizing their culinary and curative uses. Growing Herbs is then explored in detail, with essential advice about cultivation in beds, borders and containers. There are imaginative ideas for using herbs as ground cover, as hedges and in the vegetable garden. Living with Herbs presents creative ideas for making the most of herbs in every room in the home – as part of a table setting, as an invigorating potpourri in a hallway or as a focal point on a kitchen windowsill. There are recipes for simple beauty and therapeutic treatments using herbs. The book also offers 35 recipes for cooking with herbs, covering everything from snacks to sweet things, and includes infused oils, herb butters and refreshing herbal drinks. There is an A–Z of 75 common herbs, summarizing essential information about each plant’s character, cultivation and growing habits, and the book concludes with an indispensable directory of suppliers.

Barbara Segall is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and editor of its magazine, The Horticulturist. She is also the editor of Herbs magazine, published by the Herb Society. She writes about herbs for Richard Jackson’s Garden website (www.richardjacksonsgarden.co.uk), and is a member of the RHS Herb Advisory Group. Her work has appeared in popular publications such as The Garden and Garden News and for several years she blogged about her town garden for Hozelock. She has her own blog The Garden Post (www.thegardenpost.com) and is the author of 13 books, 4 of which are on herbs. Barbara is a member of the Garden Media Guild, editing its publication Garden Media Guild News. Louise Pickford is a sought-after food writer and stylist with over 20 years’ experience. She is the author of 15 books published worldwide and is a contributor to numerous magazines. Having been based in Sydney, Australia for the past decade, she has now relocated to Brie in France. Rose Hammick is a photography stylist whose work can be seen in magazines such as Country Homes & Interiors and Homes & Gardens. She has contributed to several books, including Children’s Parties, Vintage Fabric Style and Christmas Inspirations (all Ryland Peters & Small).