Growing Plant Medicine Vol. 1

The Growing Plant Medicine Book brings Richo Cech’s decades of hands-on experience into one practical, beautifully illustrated guide to medicinal herb cultivation. As a result, readers benefit from both inspiration and actionable advice.

First released as The Medicinal Herb Grower, this expanded, reworked volume reflects Cech’s life as a medicinal plant grower and seed steward. Importantly, rather than relying on theory, it draws on experience cultivating hundreds of useful species in real gardens and farms.

Clear, conversational explanations make complex growing principles approachable for beginners. Meanwhile, the depth of practical knowledge makes it a valuable reference for experienced growers.

The opening chapters follow the full cultivation journey. Specifically, they cover soil, sunlight, moisture, climate, garden planning, and seed germination. Later chapters then move into propagation, plant care, harvesting, and post-harvest processing.

Rather than prescribing rigid methods, Cech encourages readers to observe how plants behave and respond to their environment. As a result, the book serves medicinal gardens, productive home plots, nurseries, and small farms alike.

A substantial materia medica forms the heart of Volume 1. Notably, the book arranges plants alphabetically by family from A to H, grouping them by botanical kinship and common names. As a result, readers can more easily recognise relationships between plants rather than memorising isolated species. Entries include cultivation notes, propagation guidance, medicinal background, and firsthand observations. Growing Plant Medicine Vol. 2 also covers the remaining families.

Ecological growing, seed stewardship, self-sufficiency, and respect for plants as living systems run throughout the book. Readers are also encouraged to conserve uncommon, culturally significant, and at-risk medicinal herbs while developing a more attentive relationship with the garden.

Sena Cech’s hand-drawn botanical illustrations add the warmth and character of an old-world herbal or working field journal. Thus, the book has a unique visual appeal.

Pair this volume with Making Plant Medicine, which explores how to transform harvested herbs into tinctures, extracts, salves, and other preparations. Together, the books take readers from seed and soil through harvest to practical use.