Saturday 26 September 2009

Book Review - Grow Your Own Drugs.

I'm trying to read at least one environmenty/gardeny/green book each month to increase my knowledge, so I can actually, y'know, know stuff about what I'm on about! And so I keep up with this I'm going to review my book of the month here...this month I've been reading 'Grow your Own Drugs' by James Wong, which is based off a BBC2 programme of the same name. (except I think the book is better!).

I liked...
1. It has lots and lots of pretty pictures, I like the layout of the pages and just think it's a pretty beautiful book all round.
2. It has general instructions at the beginning, what tools and equipment you'll need and where to get the ingredients and then the remedies are split up into sections, like skin, aches and pains, kids, women's stuff, mind, face and body, which makes it easy to find what you need.
3. James Wong is quite cute really :)
4. It has a section at the back, 100 top plants, with information about how to grow, harvest and use medicinal plants - this is my favorite bit, because I'm having lots of 'when I have a garden....' type thoughts at the moment and this is fuel for those thoughts!
5. It's printed on FSC approved paper.
6. The reaction to the book on my shelves - 'Grow your own Drugs??? What?! What are you growing?? etc, etc, etc'

The only thing I didn't like was that lots of the ingredients are stuff I'd never be bothered to go out and buy (to be honest! I'm quite lazy!) like glycerin and waxes and stuff, but I like to think I could make 'improvised' versions of some things that would cut out the need for these items and then once I'd made those and failed I might get motivated to eventually buy the stuff and make it properly!

Next months book will be 'Vegetable Growing Month by Month' by John Harrison.

2 comments:

  1. Great to see a review like this! And lol about the title!! :)

    I'm trying to learn more about herbs and stuff too.. and yeah, glycerin and such sound iffy to me too, lol! so I'm going for simpler..

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  2. Thanks Layla :D

    I agree, simpler is betterer :) Using bits of information from the book I made a nice mixture for my eczema with almond oil, lavender oil and vitamin E oil, which saved me buying some cream in a plastic pot and probably a loooad of chemicals I don't want on my skin too!

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