“The Medicinal Herb Grower” book–volume 1, by Richo Cech

In the year 2000, Richo wrote the book “Making Plant Medicine” that told the story of his little family living in the coast mountains of Oregon.  That book helped people learn how to access the healing power of herbs that could readily be grown in the home garden.  “The Medicinal Herb Grower” continues this story, as it follows the family’s move to Southern Oregon where they engaged the growing of larger and more diverse gardens and fields of medicinal herbs.  It is about how to make a place for these healing herbs to grow and draws from Richo’s over 25 years of experience.  The book starts with “Principles of Natural Gardening Techniques,” covering: observation in nature, planting with the seasons, creating plant habitat, the benefits of diversity, and rules of (green) thumb.  The book then covers “Practices of Natural Gardening Techniques,” practical “how-to’s”, covering: preparing the ground, making diverse composts and potting soils, planting seeds and cuttings, caring for plants, and harvest and processing of medicinal herbs and seeds.  The book is full of amusing anecdotes and is delightfully illustrated by Sena Cech.  We hope it reads a bit like a “James Herriot” of herbalism and that it is as nourishing to you as cornbread. This book has a great deal of information in it for the startup medicinal herb grower and also for the advanced farmer of medicinal herbs.  It will help engender success in growing common weeds and rare and unusual plants.  It will help you if you are growing tulsi in a pot in New Jersey and if you are trying to grow 100 acres of Skullcap on a farm in Costa Rica.  The book will inspire confidence in those that have a timorous relationship to seed planting, and will improve the technique of those whose sweat hits the earth and sprouts flowers.

176 pages, soft cover