You'll find plenty of books in your local library - which you can read for free. Browsing through this forum will provide lots of useful information for you. There are many posts with the word 'beginner' in their titles. FataMorgana has given excellent advice - just start gardening! I'll add to it by suggesting that you start with a lavender plant. Make it the true English Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia or any of its derivatives - it has culinary and medicinal properties as well as smelling wonderful fresh or dried - and its aroma is very relaxing. Take a stroll through your plant nursery (a herb nursery for preference, of course!) and don't be afraid to pick off a leaf, crush it and smell it. Choose the ones that appeal to you most, or the ones you are most likely to use. Most people opt for rosemary, basil, sage, thyme and something lemon-y - lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon-scented geranium. It's wonderful working in a herby scented garden! Even just walking past a scented herb, you can brush against it and the perfume wafts around you. I like to give my plants an affectionate rub with my hand as I walk past. Lovely! If you choose herbs with flowers, that's even more cheering. Think Roses, Nasturtium, Daylily, Echinacea, Calendula - all these and many more have very pretty flowers, many are edible, all have medicinal uses. But if you're after aesthetic pleasure, flowers will do it for you. Here is a link that might be useful: posts with 'beginner' in the title

My favorite is "The Complete Book of Herbs: A practical guide to growing & using Herbs" by Lesley Bremness. It covers herb bed design, growing herbs, herbal decorations, herbs in the kitches, herbs for household uses, herbs as beauty products, medicinal herbs, cultivation and harvesting, and my favorite part: a large catalog of herbs complete with pictures of the seed, bulb, root, flower, and plant; scientific and common names; and uses (including contraindicated uses). Its a beautiful book and I keep it on my coffee table. Its copyright is 1988 Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. It was published by the Penguin group.

There used to be someone else who would post here with the most unbelievable recipes and post a link to her page where she offered free recipes ( all of them awful!) and the site was full of ads...and you can bet tracking spy ware! I am always amazed at what nonsense someone who really has no idea how to cook can come up with...2 pounds of potatoes and 2 cups of fresh herbs! And upon reading the rest of the recipe, she said to cover and roast at 400 for 35 minutes! Rachelellen had it right....braised herbs with potatoes. In a covered pan those potatoes wouldn't even get slightly browned! LOL!

Welcome and it is so nice to see a new Cooking Forum addict! To give you a little idea how our cooking club works.... For the first meeting I chose the book to get us started then each month we choose a cookbook for the next months meeting. A few people will suggest something and since we are hosted by a local indy bookstore we vote for something they have in stock and can order easily for us. While we are deciding we can pass and preview thw book before it is selected. Quite often if it isn't a cookbook a I want, someone else who does want it will share it so there is no pressure to buy every cookbook either. I wasn;t at the last meeting and it seems there was a new person who was very vocal about chosing the Jamie Oliver book that everyone ended up disliking. Oh well - it happens. Anyway, we start an email chain 2 weeks before the next meeting and "claim" a recipe to make for meeting night. If something comes up and a member can't make a dish, it is no biggie, that person will usually pick up a bottle of wine or a great loaf of bread or something easy that will compliment the feast. We avoid duplicating recipes that way and it seems we get a really good balance of apps, main dishes, sides and desserts. I can't tell you if that is by luck or design, because no one is assigned anything, you just look through the book and if the recipe isn't claimed it is open to make. On meeting night we gather at the bookstore and take turns discussing the cookbook (pros and cons) and the recipe in particular and taste taste taste. There is ALWAYS wine since even if no one brings any, the bookstore has a couple of boxes available if we need them. The owner also (graciously) gives members 20% discount on any books purchased the night of a meeting. It is a great way to support our local indy bookstore and I have made some great friends at the meetings. The bookstore does the advertising - meetings are open to anyone - and I maintain a blog of the meetings for anyone who missed one or just wants to see what we made. Alexa