A Witch's Garden

March winds bring May flowers:
So March came in here like a Lamb, wondering what the end of March will bring for us here in tornado land. I ask for peaceful weather but we do need rain. I have planted some new root perennials, bleeding hearts and Purple clematis vine this year to add to the beauty of my pretty little garden. I'm saving egg shells once again to throw out when I dig, it's so good for your plants, just rinse the eggshells as you use them and save them for your garden, or you can make eggshell tea to water your potted plants.

Preparing early:
So we did not have a cold hard winter here where I live, and so my roses have leafed out already and it isn't even February yet. I decided I had better get out and start cleaning up the dead stuff but not too thin because we might get one last cold snap and then everything that has started growing will die off and then my garden will be way behind. It is spell time to bless the garden coming up at Ostara.

Picture in your mind for a moment the image of a benevolent Witch who lives
in a flower-surrounded cottage.  The garden is a place where morning glories
and moonflowers tumble over fences.  Roses climb over handmade arbors, and
magical herbs and flowers thrive in sunny beds.  Around back, under old
trees the shade gardens offer a quiet spot and relief from the summer heat.
Ah...a suburban Pagan myth.

But actually, these images are true.  As my aching knees can attest, I am
one of those mythical modern Witches.  I am a Garden Witch.

Garden Witchcraft is not some new, unheard-of tradition.  The lore of herbs
and flowers is as ancient as the practice of growing a magical garden.  My
own garden, however, is in as modern a tract-home neighborhood as you can
imagine.  Let me assure you, too, that despite all the work, it's very much
worth it.

Gardens have always been magical places.  You can plant theme gardens for
love, prosperity, or protection.   Or how about a fairy garden for your
children?  Magical gardening is a great way to put you in touch with the
Earth and her cycles and her seasons.  Not to mention it's great exercise,
and growing your own veggies and herbs is a great way to save money and eat
better.

Here are some Garden Witch suggestions to help you start a magical garden.

To start, try planting cornflowers, brown-eyed susans, yarrow, zinnias and
petunias in a sunny spot in your yard.  Add monarda, also known as bee balm,
and parsley and you'll have a butterfly haven.  From the garden you can
affect strengthening and love spells, psychic flowers, and hex breaking. The
parsley adds protection and purification.  Monarda adds success and
prosperity.

For a fragrance garden, plant grandiflora roses or David Austin roses in
full sun.  Underplant these with lavender, catnip, sage, and allysum.  Tall
garden phlox would make a good background.  This garden's Magical uses
include love, protection, purification, beauty, cat magic, wisdom, and
protection.

If you have an abundance of shade, no problem.  Choose from hostas, white
astilbe, ferns, violets, hydrangea, foxglove, lady's mantle, and pastel and
white impatiens.  Behold, you have assembled the ingredients for a moonlight
garden!  Magical uses:  luck, riches, and health from the ferns;  and hex
breaking from the hydrangea.  Foxglove protects the garden and the home.
(Warning!  Foxglove is a poisonous plant.  I waited until my children were
older before I added this plant to my shade gardens).  Violets are sacred to
the fairies, and lady's mantle is often used in love spells.

Need more ideas and information?  Talk to other gardeners, we like to share.
Join a garden club or the Herb Society.  Attend free garden seminars.  Visit
your local nursery and ask questions.  Go to the library and see what you
can find on plant lore and perennial gardening and read up during the off
season.

Now, I want you to go outside and scout out a spot for a small garden for
yourself and your family.  I bet you could grow tomatoes and herbs in that
sunny spot over there in the back yard.  Add some organic compost to your
soil and get started!  I dare you.

The possibilities are truly endless. Go ahead, get your hands in the soil
and really ground and center.  Let's put the nature back into your Earth
religion.

Some suggested titles for magical gardening are:  "Cunningham's Encyclopedia
of Magical Herbs" by Scott Cunningham, (Llewellyn, 1985), "Garden Spells" by
Claire Nahmad (Running Press, 1994), and "Earth Magic" by Claire Nahmad
(Destiny Books, 1994).

Gardening is a natural statement of the Craft. From the Green Witch who grows magickal plants for spellwork and healing to the dedicant who plants a single plant to honor a deity, people of all ages have found magick in the plant kingdom. Following are some ideas for magickally themed gardens
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Moon Garden
                                                          some pretty moon garden tips

What could be nicer than sitting on the front step at night, eating almond crescent cookies, sipping jasmine tea, and gazing at night-blooming plants? Plants in this plot would be white like the moon, bloom at night or be fragrant at night, and some of the plants might correspond to Moon goddesses.

White night-flowering plants include:

Evening Primrose
Moonflowers
Nicotiana
Datura (Angel's Trumpet)
Soapwort
Phlox -- the Midnight Candy variety

Plants that release fragrance at night include:

Night gladiolus (gladiolus tristus)
Tuberose
Evening trumpet flower (Carolina Jessamine)
Sweet Rocket (Hesperis matronalis)

Artemis is a moon goddess, and white-ish plants that are sacred to her are wormwood and white mugwort. She loves all artemisias -- Silver Mound and Canescens would be especially beautiful here
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Faery Garden

find some interesting faery garden ideas here

Whatever you do to bring life to your garden will bring faeries as well. First of all, plant plants that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. This will also attract the fae. So put up hummingbird feeders, bird feeders, bird baths, bird houses, even bat houses. Small fountains, ponds, faery statues, or waterfalls are all good. Here's a short list of plants that attract faeries to your garden:

They also love the following plants and trees:
foxglove, primrose, ragwort, cowslips, pansies, bluebells, clover (3-leaf, not 4-leaf), St. John's wort, hazel, rowan, blackthorn, oak, willow, elder, birch, alder, apple, ash, and especially toadstools.
Faery Garden
Whatever you do to bring life to your garden will bring faeries as well. First of all, plant plants that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. This will also attract the fae. So put up hummingbird feeders, bird feeders, bird baths, bird houses, even bat houses. Small fountains, ponds, faery statues, or waterfalls are all good. Here's a short list of plants that attract faeries to your garden:

Common yarrow, Achillea millefolium
New York aster, Aster novi-belgii
Shasta daisy, Chrysanthemum maximum
Western giant hyssop or horsemint, Agastache occidentalis
French lavender, Lavendula dentata
Rosemary, Rosemarinus officinalis
Thyme, Thymus
Fountain butterfly bush, Buddleia alternifolia
Orange-eye butterfly bush, summer lilac, Buddleia davidii
Shrubby cinquefoil, Potentilla fruitiosa
Common garden petunia, Petunia hybrida
Verbenas, vervains, Verbena
Pincushion flowers, Scabiosa caucasica
Cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus
Common zinnia, Zinnia elegans
Orange-eye butterfly bush,
summer lilac, Buddleia davidii
Shrubby cinquefoil,
Potentilla fruitiosa
Common garden petunia, Petunia hybrida
Verbenas, vervains, Verbena
Pincushion flowers, Scabiosa caucasica
Cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus
Common zinnia, Zinnia elegans
They also love the following plants and trees:
foxglove, primrose, ragwort, cowslips, pansies, bluebells, clover
(3-leaf, not 4-leaf), St. John's wort, hazel, rowan, blackthorn, oak,
willow, elder, birch, alder, apple, ash, and especially toadstools.
* Please if you have children that like to put things in ther mouths or pets that may chew on some of the plants beware of adding toadstools and foxglove in your gardens. Some faery also like Nightshade but this is very deadly to animals and people.

Also Faery love shiny and sparkley things. Hang crystal prisms or crystal ball pedestals.

alot fae do not like the sound of bells ringing. Do not put up windchimes r bells in the garden you wish for them to inhabit.

Make faery houses, find directions on the Daily Faery Glossary page.
Place these in your garden and let the faery know they are for them.

If you have cats, keep them out of your garden. Most fae do not like cats and will steer clear of areas that cats frequently visit. If you have a cat give it a belled collar so the fae always know when the cat is nearby.

Some more plants that faeries like

Foxglove- this offers shelter and protection from night spirits its said the fairies sprinkle powders on the p[lant whihc                     make it poisonous to anyone but fairies for protection

Pansys- this playful flower is a favoritre among fairy children as its flowers seem to appear to have a tiger or lion cub                 looking face on them.

Snap Dragons- said to be used by frost fairies for summer hybernation

Lavender- make infused wine out of this and they make love charms out of it.

If you can manage to procure rough chippings of precious and
semi-precious stones, then do not be afraid of burying them in your
flowerbeds, for the stones of the earth, even the rocks and pebbles, are
alive and quickened with spirit, and their heartbeat can be sensed by
the wise and the knowing.

Gods and spirits of great beauty dwell within the inner magical world of
precious stones, and the place where they are buried will produce
harbours of peace and goodness, where flowers will grow and absorb
special vibrations from the crystals. These flowers may then be cut for
the house so that they might impart their influences, strengthened by
the abundant graces which precious stones enshrine.

Murmur this rune as you bury the stones:

'Gods and fairies in these stones,

Shine forth amidst Earth's soil and bones;

Let your essence bless these flowers

That their hues might wear your powers.'

From Fairy Grove

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Tarot Garden

This idea has always intrigued me. What do you want to manifest in your life in the coming year? Prosperity? Fertility? Love? Find cards in the tarot that represent your desires. Examples would be the Empress and the Ace of Cups for a wanted pregnancy, or the Lovers, Ace of Cups, and Eight of Wands for a new relationship. If money is on your mind, how about the Ace, Ten, and King of Pentacles or Emperor?

Find plants corresponding to the chosen cards. Plant the seeds and nurture them to harvest. Your goals should be reached by harvest. If you use the Herbal Tarot, your work is already done -- just plant the plants found on each card. If not, refer to the following chart .
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God/dess Garden

Who is your patron god/dess? Find plants sacred to hir and dedicate a section of the garden to that deity. For instance, some of the flowers sacred to Artemis are mugwort and all artemisias, trefoil, marigold, and amaranth. Hecate would appreciate aconite, Calla lily, belladonna, datura, and beautiful poison plants in general. If you want to steer clear of the poisonous plants, try verbena, borage, English ivy, chamomile, St. John's wort, bay, angelica, fennel, or rue.

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Sabbat Garden

Include herbs that correspond to each of the eight sabbats:

Samhain: rosemary, mugwort, rue, calendula, pumpkins, turnips, sage, wormwood, tarragon, bay, passionflower, garlic, mandrake.

Yule: bayberry, holly, sandalwood, ivy, comfrey, chamomile, sunflower, myrrh, wintergreen.

Imbolg: heather, sage, chamomile, garlic, rose hips, sunflower, vervain, violets, wheat, corn, grains, myrrh.

Ostara: lily of the valley, tansy, lavender, marjoram, thyme, tarragon, lilac, violets, lemon balm, honeysuckle, crocus, daffodil, jonquil, tulip, broom (Scotch or Iris), meadowsweet, acorn, trefoil (purple clover), vervain.

Beltane: all-heal, blessed thistle, broom, daffodil, coriander, fern, fireweed, flax, marjoram, radish, rue, snapdragon, meadowsweet, rose, woodruff, strawberries, tansy.

Midsummer: vervain, St. John's Wort, heartsease, lavender, sage, mint, basil, fennel, chive, chervil, tarragon, parsley, rosemary, thyme, hyssop, honeysuckle, red heather, white heather, rue, sunflower, fern, mugwort, vervain, meadowsweet.

Lammas: peony, nasturtium, clover, yarrow, heliotrope, boneset, vervain, Queen Anne's lace, myrtle, rose, sunflower, poppy, milkweed, garlic, onion, basil, mint, aloe, acacia, meadowsweet, mugwort, hops, holly, comfrey, marigold.

Mabon: Rue, yarrow, rosemary, marigold, sage, chamomile, passionflower, rose hips, sunflower, wheat.

Notice many of these herbs can be used for more than one sabbat, so you could economize on space if you took advantage of that.

More Ideas

Druid Garden -- angelica, blue vervain, bilberry, holly, and lady's mantle.

Old World Medicinal/Magickal -- aconite, belladonna, datura, henbane, mandrake, poppy.

Zodiac Garden -- create a round garden designed like an astrological chart with 12 houses. Insert plants that correspond to the planets in each house as it relates to your natal chart.

Pentacle Garden -- plant in the form of a pentacle using "the daylillies named Merry Witch and Wicked Witch, Witch's Thimble and Moon Witch; and Magic Lilies, whose flowers bolt surprisingly directly from the ground, to bloom with extravagant fragrance.

Plant the arms of your starry pentacle with light green chamomile around a filling of darker green mint; then place round clumps of Dianthus Essex Witch at each point of the star. Surround this whole design with a circle of green parsley, and densely plant dainty sweet alyssum as the pentacle's background. Your pentacle is now ready to shine back at the night's stars-and at you." --from Magickal Gardens by Patricia Monaghan

Sacred Direction Garden -- plant flowers and herbs sacred to the four directions in the corresponding corners of your yard. A shrine or garden altar in the center of the yard would make a beautiful touch.


parts by by Ellen Dugan C2000