space at their home.

Their home and garden borders the Cumberland Community Forest - several hundred acres of 

protected temperate rainforest that is home to deer, beaver, wolves, salmon bearing streams, numerous birds,

 frogs and other beasts, thriving medicinal plants, and of course the black bears after which the Herb Garden is named.

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Amanda loves to teach and is happiest when she is in the garden teaching people how to grow, harvest, use and listen to the magic of the plants that are thriving there.

Amanda trained in England in the early '80's and became a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in the UK. She subsequently went on to receive her MSc(Distinction) in Herbal Medicine from the University of Wales.  Amanda worked in England in a multidisciplinary clinic before moving to Vancouver Island twenty five years ago.

Since moving to Canada Amanda has been active in practice as a Herbalist and as a herbal educator.  She has served on the board of the provincial Canadian Herbalists Association of BC as well as the national Herbal Practitioners Council - the Canadian Council of Herbalists Associations (CCHA), working to ensure continued access to herbal medicines for Herbalists and the general public.  And she also sat on Health Canada's Natural Health Products Expert Advisory Committee.  

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Amanda spent several years teaching at Pacific Rim College in Victoria BC. as a teacher in their full time Herbal Practitioner training program, and was involved in funded research projects with the Centre for Livelihoods and Ecology at Royal Roads University.