Herbs yourself. A year at the community garden

by Bernie Munoz Chereau

Mugwort Press, 2025

A meditation on communities, herbs, gardens, immigration and belonging, Herbs Yourself: A year at the community herb garden describes the creation and growth of a community-led culinary and medicinal herb garden in the heart of Fishponds. The book explores what happens when you pin a flyer on the notice board, talk to strangers, come to the weekly sessions, apply for funding, sow seeds in public spaces, tell stories over and over until shared identities are created. Even more importantly, what happens when you slow down and pay attention to herbs.

 Bernie Munoz Chereau is a prolific Chilean-British writer, academic, psychologist, gardener, mother and activist. Before, “Herbs yourself” Bernie created “Dove gardens”, a guerrilla garden in the social housing of Dove Street, Kingsdown, and documented it in the short film Loving Dove Gardens. She has published more than 30 books in Chile and Latin America, along dozens of academic papers on educational inequalities. Her book Noelia’s diary, a fictional account of a girl growing up under the Chilean dictatorship, received an IBBY honourable mention, Colibri Medal 2017. She works as an Associate Professor at UCL, Institute of Education.