6 Herb Gardening Books by Professional Herbalists and Farmers

Rosemary Gladstar is one of the most well-known names in the herbal world here in the US. She is the founder of The Science and Art of Herbalism, a self-study course, and is the author of many books, including Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Remedies for Vibrant Health, Fire Cider!, and more.

In Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginners Guide, you will get to know 33 wonderful, beginner-friendly herbs. Not only will you learn how to grow them, but you’ll learn how to store and use them as well. This book is great for beginner herbalists as well as beginner gardeners.

Like Gladstar, Juliet Blankespoor is a very important herbalist. She is the founder and a contributing teacher and author at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, a well-known herbal school.

In The Healing Garden: Celebrating & Crafting Herbal Remedies, Blankespoor walks you through some common herbs that are easy to incorporate into your garden, your kitchen, and your medicine cabinet. Not only will you get information on how to grow these plants, but you’ll also get many recipes to begin to use them. This book is recommended for beginner herbalists and gardeners.

Deb Soule is a bit of a celebrity where I’m from. There are many great farmers and herbalists in Maine, but Soule really stands out. She is the founder of Avena Botanicals, a biodynamic farm and apothecary specializing in making tinctures. She is also a teacher and the author of How to Move Like a Gardener and Healing Herbs for Women.

The Healing Garden: Herbs for Health and Wellness is a practical guide to growing and crafting with some common herbs. This book is particularly special because it teaches you about biodynamic herb gardening. The Healing Garden is for the beginner and the intermediate-level herbalist and gardener.

Known for writing some of the most popular books in herbalism–including Making Plant Medicine–and for growing the seeds of thousands of medicinal herb species, Richo Cech is someone you can trust to know what they’re talking about.

In Growing Plant Medicine, you will get an abundance of knowledge about growing medicinals. This includes garden planning and design, bioregional plants, identification, taxonomy, pollinators, germination, soil, and harvesting. This book contains all the knowledge necessary for successful herb gardening.

In the wooded hills of Vermont, you’ll find Zack Woods Farm, where Jeff and Melanie Carpenter run their thriving herb farm business. The farm is known for producing dried herbs for market, both retail and wholesale, and for helping other herb farmers find success in the field.

One of my favorite books, The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer is an excellent, detailed guide to growing and processing many medicinal herbs. Not only do you learn about the plants and their medicinal properties, but you’ll learn about what they need to grow, how to properly process and store them, and some business pointers (for those looking to go big!).

In California, Peg Schafer has spent years studying and growing a huge range of Chinese medicinal herbs. She runs a farm in California called the Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm which aims to aid herb conservation and is the founder or co-founder of many organizations, including Fu Tian Herbs, the first company in the US to sell only organic and domestically grown Chinese herbs.

If you want to learn about the wide variety of medicinals or want to grow more variety on your farm or in your garden, The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm would be a great resource for you. In this book, you’ll read about many kinds of medicinals as well as how to grow and use them.

Ken Mudge, known for his agroforestry research and teaching, and Steve Gabriel, owner of Wellspring Forest Farm and contributor to the Cornell Small Farms Program, are very knowledgeable about agroforestry and farming in the woods.

Although Farming the Woods isn’t specifically written about growing herbs, there is a wealth of knowledge in this book about forest farming and foraging medicinals (including mushrooms!). Plus, this book gives you excellent insight into permaculture farming and medicinals you may not otherwise get to learn about.

This is another gold star publication from Richo Cech. Because of colonization, there are thousands of plants that have been either completely wiped out or are in danger of extiction. Because these plants are at such high risk, many non-Native herbalists don’t work with them anymore.

In Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs, Cech teaches us how to care for and cultivate these plants. This includes information on the plants’ ecology, germination, care, harvesting, processing, and storage. The plants discussed in this book include black cohosh, slippery elm, Americn ginseng, goldenseal, and more.