Greetings All,
One of my blog readers, who has a wonderful blog of her own called Cat in the Flock, is offering a drawing to new subscribers to her blog for a signed copy of my book. Here is the link to her blog, which will go live at 6am on January 17th, where you can read all about this great book give-a-way. I hope you will check it out.

https://www.catintheflock.com/
Why You Should Read All of Tammi Hartung’s Garden Books This Winter – Plus a Chance to Win a Free Paperback!
My own collection of Tammi Hartung books.

I’ve been fangirling author Tammi Hartung for some time now, and I think you should share in the love. I picked up a copy of her 2014 book The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Food in Harmony with Nature a couple of years ago at my neighborhood used book store, and I was immediately hooked. When I found out she’d also written on growing healing herbs and how to make use of native plants, my soul-sister crush was cemented.
Here’s a list of just a few of the many things Hartung has taught me:
- That plants signal their use somewhat metaphorically, through color, shape, and way of being in the world. This is called the “doctrine of signatures.” A good example is the heart-hued, heart-shaped rose petal offering healing powers for the heart muscle.
- Your quest for food plants does not have to be in conflict with your desire to help support wildlife. In fact, the two can coexist in a mutually supportive way.
- It’s surprisingly easy to grow, harvest, and make use of your own healing herbs as teas, tinctures, food medicine, syrups, poultices, balms, the list goes on.
An ethnobotanical herbalist and organic farmer, Hartung champions an approach to gardening that is gentle on the earth and its creatures. Her books are enormously helpful if you’ve wanted to garden but felt turned off by guides that call for fertilizer and pesticide use, or simply zap the fun and natural-world connection out of the endeavor.
Now for a rundown of all four books, in order of publication date. I highly recommend every one. You can try scouring used book store shelves for them, but I’ve also provided handy links to the Amazon pages for each. We don’t receive anything in return for including these links.

Growing 101 Herbs That Heal: Gardening Techniques, Recipes, and Remedies – Storey Press – North Adams, MA – 2000
Publisher’s Description: What better way to take your medicine than straight from the garden? From St. John’s wort to fennel, chicory to skullcap, herbalist and gardener Tammi Hartung introduces you to the special cultivating and care techniques required to grow 101 versatile and useful herbs.
How I’ve used this book: As a reference guide for the historical medicinal use of 101 herbs and for how-to’s on handcrafting herbal teas, tinctures, and other products. It’s illustrated and full-color, which helps you picture unfamiliar techniques and makes it an attractive reference.

Homegrown Herbs: A Complete Guide to Growing, Using, and Enjoying More Than 100 Herbs – Storey Press – North Adams, MA – 2011
Publisher’s Description: Infuse your yard with the flavor, fragrance, beauty, and healing power of organic herbs. Whether you want to work herbs into existing flower or food gardens, grow them in containers, or plant a dedicated herb garden, Homegrown Herbs is your in-depth guide to everything you need to know about planting, caring for, harvesting, drying, and using more than 100 herbs.
How I’ve used this book: Same as the above, as I believe this is an updated version of the original. But they’re definitely both worth owning. This one includes some helpful tips on harvesting and drying flowers and herbs, a list of edible flowers, a good assortment of food medicine recipes, and other additions.

The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Food in Harmony with Nature – Storey Press – North Adams, MA – 2014
Publisher’s Description: Make beneficial wildlife part of your food-garden ecosystem: they’ll pollinate your plants, feed on pests, and leave behind manure to nourish your soil. Tammi Hartung has spent years observing natural rhythms and animal habits in her garden, a peaceful place where perennials attract pollinators, ponds house slug-eating bullfrogs, mulch protects predator insects in the soil, mint gently deters unwanted mice, and hedgerows shelter and feed many kinds of wildlife. Her successful methods are a positive step toward a healthier garden.
How I’ve used this book: This book has formed the basis for my wildlife-friendly garden design at Dragon Flower Farm. It’s why we have a brush pile supporting families of rabbits and other critters, a rock garden for snakes and reptiles, and a host of other features that encourage everything from opossums to monarchs to visit our garden.

Cattail Moonshine & Milkweed Medicine: The Curious Stories of 43 Amazing North American Native Plants – Storey Press – North Adams, MA – 2017
Publisher’s Description: The plants in your backyard have amazing stories to tell and fascinating uses you’ve never known about. For millennia, we humans have relied on these plants to nourish, shelter, heal, and clothe us. Through captivating tales and images that illuminate our lost wisdom, Tammi Hartung reveals the untold histories of 43 native North American plants and celebrates their modern versatility.
How I’ve used this book: The prettiest of Hartung’s works, the hardcover is a pleasure to leaf through for the luscious imagery, entertaining fun facts, and short tips on native plants we might actually take for granted. It’s a bit of a fascinating history lesson, too, as told through flora.Tammi Hartung.
Just as I finished this last book in Hartung’s oeuvre, I lamented she had no more, but then I discovered her blog, which is an extension of her work as co-owner of Desert Canyon Farm. As mentioned in her Amazon author bio:
She and her husband, Chris, own Desert Canyon Farm, a certified organic farm since 1996 in southern Colorado, where they grow more than 1800 varieties of plants. They grow all types of herbs, heritage and heirloom food plants, native and wildlife habitat plants, edible flowers and more. In their flower seed production field, they grow over 60 varieties of perennials for a German seed company called Jelitto Perennial Seed Co, so seeds from Tammi’s farm end up being grown by gardeners and growers all over the world!
Through the blog newsletter, I enjoy hearing about Desert Canyon’s work across all four seasons, as well as getting to know Tammi and Chris, not to mention dog Shrek. Tammi’s blog posts offer a glimpse behind-the-scenes for both the farm and her latest author project, a children’s plant book. As an avid hiker myself, I also like the photos and accounts of their hikes through southern Colorado terrain, which is much more arid than my environment here in Missouri. Side note: Tammi is a friendly, responsive writer, too; I reached out to her to find out if I could buy her books directly through her instead of Amazon (the answer is no, as she directed me back to the ‘zon), and we had a really nice little exchange.
And Now for That Chance to Win a Free Paperback
All you have to do is get one friend to subscribe to our newsletter, and both you and your friend will be entered into a drawing for a free paperback copy of Hartung’s third book, The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Food in Harmony with Nature. Here’s how to enter:
- Forward our newsletter, share a link to our blog, or somehow else get one of your friends excited about Cat in the Flock enough to sign up for our email newsletter.
- Email us at this handy link to let us know you succeeded, and include your friend’s email address used in the signup so we know to credit you and your friend!
- That’s it! We’ll reach out if you’ve won. If one of your names is selected, you both get a copy of the book.
I hope you check out Tammi’s books and get as much out of them as I have.

https://www.catintheflock.com/
