The Real Witches’ Garden: Spells, Herbs, Plants and Magical Spaces Outdoors

If I were to ask you to describe a Witch’s garden you would probably envisage climbers growing up the walls of a thatched cottage, a profuse array of colourful and traditional country-cottage-type plants, and herbs to tend all kinds of ailments. But the reality is often nowhere near the dream. For just as Witches appear just like everyone else, so their gardens are as varied as those of other people. They could be large or small; they may be a scrap of concrete, a window box or just the kitchen windowsill. They are often overlooked by neighbours, close to busy roads and shared with children and pets. We describe Witchcraft as a nature-based spirituality, but most of us do not live in an ideal rural idyll with a scenic cottage and enough land, let alone time, to have an established garden full of healing herbs and ‘witchy’ plants. We have busy lives with many commitments and little time to tend and love our herbs and plants. Whilst our Craft seeks to be one with the elements and the land, our personal ‘land’ may be a small scrap of ill-lit soggy soil, a wilderness of rocks and concrete, and full of discarded toys or the evidence of a love of dogs and cats! As Witches we seek to live as a part of the world, not apart from it, and hence we must be realistic. However, we can make the most of what we have, and tend it with a love of the land and of the Goddess, rather than wishing and waiting for some kind of ideal.

Firstly, let me say that this is not a gardening book in the usual way. Here I am not talking about ‘how to garden’; making fertilizer, landscaping, installing water features, cement and decking, but rather how to make the most of your garden. How to use it as a part of your Craft, to make it a sacred place in its own right. A place where you can meet your Gods, where you can grow plants to help you work your magic. A place where you can pre-pay and repay the Goddess and the God, and the land, for what you take and are given. There will be ways of using your garden to enhance your Craft and ways of using your Craft to enhance your garden. Yes, there will be suggestions on what to plant, and how you might like to arrange them, but in the context of working from what you have, rather than creating a whole new outdoors!

Those of you who do have the luxury of being able to make a fresh start, in the fashion of so many modern gardening programmes, will be able to use the ideas here, but those of you with constraints on what you can do will still be able to take the ideas that do fit and discard the rest.

Whilst I have given some plant suggestions I am aware that, with a readership which includes the whole of the English-speaking world, you may not be able to grow the same things. So I have tried to give ideas of the types of plant rather than always being specific. It is my hope that, whatever your kind of soil type, climate, landscape, etc, you will be able to make use of this book. I also hope that you will try to do so using plants native to your area, as these are the ones with a magical connection to your land, your Goddesses and your Gods.

Let me also say that, in my life I have had the pleasure of keeping gardens of all shapes, sizes and conditions. These include a moderate-sized rural near-idyll, a walled but landscaped and shared green patch, many windowsills, 30 square feet of shaded concrete in an area of heavy industrial pollution, a landscaped, gravelled and decked modern travesty of the concept of contact with the earth, and just recently over 180 square metres of untended land given over to thistles! I’ve also worked in gardens where the concept of natural growth has been allowed to run riot, those with enough clay to start a decent-sized pottery, others where the half inch of topsoil covers several tons of concrete and rubble, and even one where the soil was made of, just for once, real growing-type earth! I’ve also shared my garden with dogs, cats, ardent sunbathers and various other life forms.

In this book I hope to incorporate ideas for all types of garden, or growing area, in ways which are compatible with having a full and busy life. Ways of being at one with the land, of sharing it with our near and dear, and still being able to work it in honour of the Goddess and the God. I will include lists of plants and herbs, not so that you can rush out and buy them all, but so that you can choose those which are most applicable to your life, your needs and your Craft.

And just as you can use your garden to celebrate and enhance your Craft, so too you can use magic to enhance your garden. Not everyone, not even those who practise the Craft, is blessed with ‘green fingers’, so here I shall also look at the magics you can work to enhance your ‘green life’: the seasons and times for the best results; spells for sowing, planting and growing, to protect delicate plants, to deter pests and even to influence the weather a little; the Goddesses and Gods who might look more favourably on your piece of the earth. This book is not intended to be the ultimate answer to all your gardening queries, but rather a starting point to blending what you have with what you would like.

As with all the other Real Witches’ books this one is written for real people with real, busy lives who probably don’t have huge amounts of time or money to spend on their gardens but who still want to become closer to the earth. Even if you have no interest in the Craft at all I hope that this book will be of interest to the gardener who seeks a more natural approach to what is, for some, our only work with nature.

Blessed Be

Kate

ONE A NATURE-BASED BELIEF SYSTEM (#ulink_54f41331-3242-5984-a746-038187a9ea89)

I call on Earth to bind my spell, Air to speed its passage well. Bright as fire shall it glow, And deep as ocean’s tides shall flow. Count the elements fourfold, For in the Fifth the spell shall hold. Blessed Be.

Why Witches and gardening? Witchcraft is often described as a nature-based spirituality but what does that mean? Well, early Witches would have worked and tended the land, cared for and healed the people and the livestock. Their daily lives and their magical work would have been for the prosperity and the future of their community. Indeed, it is in part from this that the traditional festivals, the Sabbats, came about. For in amongst the meanings of those festivals is a strong and continuing link to the Wheel of the Year and the seasons which form its basis. For me this was one of the key attractions of the Craft.

One of the ways of looking at the Sabbats is to refer them directly to the passage of the seasons. Very simply we can say that:

Samhain (31 October) marks the start of the resting season and is the harbinger of Winter whilst Yule (21 December) marks the onset of that season. Imbolg (2 February) brings the first buds and shoots rising through the frozen earth as a promise of the Spring which begins in earnest at Oestara (21 March). Beltane (1 May) when the hawthorn blossoms presages Summer and Litha (21 June) marks its beginning. Lughnasadh (1 August) is the first of the harvest, which reaches its height at Madron (21 September), the start of Autumn.

In the Craft we refer to the Sabbats collectively as the Wheel of the Year. In addition, each of these festivals is linked to the yearly cycles of the Goddess and the God. The Triple Goddess moves from Mother to Crone at Samhain, from Crone to Maiden at Imbolg, and from Maiden to Mother at Beltane. The God as her Consort moves alongside her through these changes as well as being the Oak and Holly Kings which preside over the lightening and darkening halves of the year from Yule to Litha and Litha to Yule, respectively.

Not only do we celebrate the passage of the seasons but we draw our magical energy from them; Spring is a time of beginnings, Summer a time of development, Autumn the season of reaping and Winter is the time of rest. Of course from an agricultural perspective, that same seasonality tells us when to sow, tend, harvest and rest the soil. Whether from the perspective of the Witch or that of the gardener, the cycles which Witches celebrate as the Wheel of the Year and the phases of the Moon link everything together. There is a proper time for everything, and everything has its season.

The Magics that Witches work now, as in the past, draw their energies directly from the elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth, all of which are required to create growth and which, when imbued with the fifth element of Spirit, form the foundation of the Craft as well as our magic. Even the most non-natural magic, such as a working to keep your car on the road, derives its power from the energies of the elements. As the spell at the start of the chapter states, the elements are the key to working magic. Without true knowledge and understanding of them it is not possible to work effective magic or to be an effective Witch. And there is no simpler or more natural way to gain that knowledge and understanding than by working with the elements in their most immediate form. For Witches, these are not just the external elements as seen in nature – wind, sun, rain and soil – but also the way those elements are part of ourselves and everything we do. Air is our thoughts, Fire our passions and enthusiasms, Water our emotions and Earth our physical selves. Spirit is the essential ‘self’ as well as the Goddess and the God both within and without. For us to understand and care for ourselves and each other, to develop and grow as individuals, and to work the magics which enhance the lives of our loved ones and our own community, we must harness and balance these elements, both within and without. This is a path of personal exploration, understanding and development which Witches use in all aspects of their daily lives, but perhaps nowhere more so than in their tending of life, whether it be in plants and the soil or in their relationships with family, friends and their wider community of the Craft.

The fifth element of Spirit is personified in the tales, legends and stories of the Goddess and the God, so many of whom are in turn linked to the fertility of the land, the crops, animals and people. From Amalthea, Goddess of plenty, to Zisa of the harvest, the Goddess is inextricably linked to fertility and growth. In her Lunar cycle of Maiden, Mother and Crone we think of her as planting, tending and reaping the life of the people, animals and the land. The God too holds these roles, the Horned God and the Corn King being probably the most obvious examples. There are Gods and Goddesses of sowing and planting, reaping and gathering, and of every kind of plant and animal, from belief systems of almost all times around the world (see here (#litres_trial_promo) for some of these). Actually getting into contact with the elements and the soil brings special benefits in terms of direct contact with the Goddess and the God. Nowhere can you be closer to your Gods than when you are in touch with the life force that flows through the land than when you experience the elements in action, and when you can see the results of their magic which is the life of the land. And nowhere can you come to a greater understanding of the cycles of life, death and rebirth than when working with nature.

One of the other traditional key skills of the Witch is that of herbalist and healer. Witches have long been respected for their knowledge of healing plants and herbs, and many of these ancient remedies are being reintroduced into our daily lives now that the remedies of aromatherapy, homeopathy, etc, are becoming more readily available. Most practising Witches and other herbal therapists know, however, that these remedies are always better when they can be home-grown. And this is just another of the reasons why even the most urban of Witches feels the need to have some kind of practical connection with the earth.

There is another facet of the Craft which links practising Witches to the land and that is in the often forgotten relationship between the practise of magic and the payment for it. As the magic of Witches is worked in balance with the energies of the elements, as well as our personal energies, we must also look to returning something in kind. This is not just a question of repaying what we have been given, i.e. when the magic works, but should also take the form of pre-payment for what we might seek in the future. Whilst this can take the form of tending for the people in our lives and generally upholding the principles of the Craft, many Witches, myself among them, advocate actually working towards repaying nature itself. As I have mentioned in my other books, you could go to a local park or beauty spot and remove the debris and litter left by others, put food out for wild birds, or support an animal charity. But one of the most effective ways is to work the soil and to tend plants. Whilst you could do this in a local park or beauty spot, it is far more immediate and personally satisfying if you can do it in your own space, even if that space is restricted to a couple of pot plants on the windowsill.

But Witches do not just think of the tending of the garden in connection with the Craft. We use our gardens for the practice and enhancement of it. If we are fortunate and not too overlooked, we will be able to hold our Sabbat and Esbat (Full Moon) Rituals there. Casting the Circle outside, amongst the living reality of the Divine, adds a special dimension to our celebrations and workings. It enhances the magic. Even if we cannot practise obvious Rituals in the garden, we can still work our magic there; planting and growing spells, using the remedies that nature provides. We also use our gardens for contemplation, meditation and to grow closer to our Gods. And we find that, through being active and out there on the land we learn more about our Craft, and about healing not only the physical, but also the emotional and spiritual ills in our lives. Furthermore, being outside gives us the opportunity to get to know and understand more about the other living things we share our world with. Through observing the life around us, even if it’s only a few sparrows and pigeons, we get to appreciate the natural cycles and rhythms in our own lives.

The aspects of the Craft covered in this book are those which relate directly to the care and use of the garden. For those of you for whom this is your first book on Witchcraft there is a fuller introduction and a selection of recommended reading in the appendices at the back of this book. Otherwise, let us move on to see how your garden can enhance your Craft and how the Craft can enhance your garden.

TWO A SPACE FOR LIVING AND THE CRAFT (#ulink_d38d4655-8bc4-5296-8d7f-b85f8d56e614)

For many people the garden is the place where they go on the sunnier days of the year. It is a place for occasional barbecues, to have a drink with friends, perhaps to sunbathe or to banish the children when they get too noisy in the house. A few use it to grow herbs and perhaps vegetables for the kitchen. Many will use it to dry laundry, store bicycles and other outdoor equipment. For a Witch, the garden is all this and more. It is our piece of earth, our contact with nature, with the Goddess, the God and the Elements. It is where we grow healing herbs and plants to incorporate into our natural remedies and where we grow the sometimes quite toxic ingredients for inclusion in our incenses and magical spells. It is where we make payment for our magics and where we seek to do our part to enrich the cycle of life and living. It is where we honour the Goddess and the God in the most practical way we can, by tending their creation. It is where we work our Rituals to honour them and where we can work magics in their name, and also where we come to know and understand them through meditation and relaxation. It is where we can actually experience the cycles of the seasons and find the natural indicators for the Sabbats, where we can observe the phases of the Moon and where we can really get to know and understand the cycles of life, death and rebirth. In all of this it is also a place where we recharge our batteries, drawing energy from the earth itself and from our experience of the elements and their part in the rich pageant of growth. The Witches’ garden can also be where we seek to preserve endangered plants and provide a refuge for wildlife. To a Witch, the garden is more than an outdoor room, it is a permanent Sacred Space in its own right, even when being used to hang the washing or amuse the young.

The first thing you need to do is to work out what you really have, what you want and need from it, and what you actually can do. Yes, I currently have a reasonable-sized garden but this is a rented property and so, because it is not truly mine, there are limitations on what I can and cannot do to it. I cannot cut down any trees, move the drive, nor replace the gravelled surface with the thyme and chamomile lawn I would so dearly love to have. Furthermore, I have a young son, so anything I do has to respect his need for a play area, or accept the devastation that a quick game of football might do to my carefully hatched plans! You also almost certainly have constraints on what you can do. These may be like mine, imposed from outside, or they might be the views of other family members, those of nature herself or personal ones like the amount of time and effort you can afford to expend. However, whatever the limitations there is always some kind of way around them. So let us look at some of these issues and some of the potential solutions.

WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT TO USE IT FOR?

In the following chapters I shall look more closely at some of the ways of actually using your garden as a Sacred Space, a space for working magic and celebrating the Sabbats; a place of contemplation and meditation, to grow herbs and other useful plants; a place dedicated to your favourite or personal deities; even a place where you can introduce your children to a love of nature. But you also need to take into account the non-Craft activities you enjoy. If you like sunbathing, then you will need an unshaded space to stretch out in. If you want to hold summer barbecues, then a place where you will not set fire to, or scorch, your plants is essential. If, like me, the winter wind howls across the landscape, then you will need to retain a windbreak hedge. To help you to plan the potential uses of your garden, write a month by month list of the sorts of things you want to do outside, the difficulties they pose and your ideas for solutions. You may find you come up with some difficulties to which you cannot think of an answer. Don’t despair, keep your list for a few months while you look around, watch TV gardening programmes and read books; it can be surprising how much inspiration the Goddess will provide to the patient.

HOW MUCH SPACE DO YOU HAVE?

If you have a reasonable-sized garden, that is well and good, but for those of you with little or no outdoors of your own, try to consider the following: Do you have room to securely fix one or more window boxes? Can you use indoor windowsills? Can you place a table or perhaps a bookcase in front of a window and use that space? If you have a light room, could you perhaps denote a corner or patch to be an indoor garden area? Perhaps you could even transform a gloomy corner. When it comes to the garden as a part of your Craft you do not need much – a reasonable-sized tub on a waterproof dish, or a couple of pots on your windowsill can easily be enough. Chapter 9 focuses on the non-existent, or almost non-existent, garden.

WHAT IS IT CURRENTLY BEING USED FOR?

One of the problems of a garden is that it quickly becomes a multifunctional area, often to the detriment of its garden aspect. Parked cars, secured bikes, children’s toys, washing lines, dustbins and so on all take from your natural space. Not that these things aren’t compatible with growing things and celebrating the Craft, but you may need to give some thought to maximizing your usable space. This could be as simple, if not always easy, as encouraging others to put their things away. On the other hand you might like to think about finding ways of storing things more sympathetically; hooks in a garage, or a storage ‘bin’ into which odds and ends can be packed. One of my somewhat unusual solutions lies in having a large second-hand filing cabinet in the garage. This stores, in a vertical rather than horizontal space, a wide miscellany of outdoor toys, gardening bits and things we have no use for, but are reluctant to get rid of yet! Some of the things you keep outside of the home cannot be put away, dustbins and coalbunkers for example, but they needn’t look quite so ugly. Consider planting climbers on, or in pots around, such items.

WHO ELSE USES IT?

Most of us have to share our garden in some way or another; perhaps with family members who may not practise the Craft, with children who want a play area or with pets who see it as an area of convenience! Not only that, but few of us have the luxury of complete privacy, as so many of today’s gardens are overlooked, or what takes place in them can be overheard. Whilst you can always attempt to place plants in such a way as to minimize this, you don’t want to end up with no natural light ever reaching your garden, or for that matter the windows of your home! Also give some thought to the safety aspect.

For example, ponds and toddlers, yours or visiting, don’t mix. But if you carefully fill your pond with large stones, you can still grow your water plants and keep the young ones safe. Steps, concrete or stone corners and other sharp edges are likewise a hazard to the very young, the very old and the infirm. If these features are already present, consider putting up guard rails, or other obvious identifiers. If you need them as part of your plan, think about rounded edges, or using wood instead.

HOW WILL YOUR ENVIRONMENT AND

CLIMATE AFFECT YOUR PLANS?

Soil type, weather, rainfall, drainage, pollution and so on should also be taken into account. The problems they pose are not insoluble, but give them some thought or you could end up expending a lot of energy counteracting a series of inherent conditions.

The type of soil you have will influence the kinds of plants which will grow in it. Of course you could strip off your topsoil and have it replaced, but that is somewhat extreme and not cheap! Dig a small hole about 8 inches deep and have a good look at what you’ve got. Too much clay and it will be heavy, hard to drain and may set like concrete in the Summer. Too much sand and it will drain freely and dry out quickly in hot weather. Both of these problems can be helped by digging in some organic matter. A friend of mine recently had several tons of ‘mature’ pig manure delivered free, by a farmer only too glad to get rid of it, but this is a bit extreme. Create your own quick compost by sweeping up Autumn leaves and storing them in bin liners until they get smelly. Dig this through and it will help no end. It is also a good idea to test the pH balance of the soil; you can get kits from your garden centre. If your soil is particularly acid or alkaline (chalky), try to choose plants which like these conditions, and grow others either in pots or in ‘wells’ which you have lined generously with potting compost.

Give some thought to local rainfall and the water table. If your 8-inch hole rapidly filled up with water, you’re probably in a damp zone! If in doubt, your local radio weather forecaster may be able to answer a patient enquiry, and you could ask them about hours of sunshine and average temperatures at the same time; alternatively, have a look on the Internet. Too little water is relatively easy to fix, as you can collect rainwater in a barrel and water regularly, but a damp climate will never suit plants which prefer to grow in the desert!

Spend a day tracking the amount of direct light falling onto your garden (it’s easier to do when the Sun is shining). This will tell you where best to plant sun-, or shade-, loving plants.

Take a look at the kinds of industry in your area, for about 5 miles around! If there’s anything that seems likely to produce pollution, seek out tolerant plants. Take a look at roadside growing areas around you, with a good field guide handy, for some really good clues. Also, talk to your neighbours or take a quick look over their fences, briefly to avoid embarrassment, and see what’s doing well there, to give you some ideas.

HOW WILL YOU AFFECT LOCAL WILDLIFE?

Please give a thought to local flora and fauna. Check out holes and tracks to see whether they are in use. A light dusting of cornflour will easily show up prints. Be considerate with weedkillers, insecticides, fertilizers, hedge trimmers and when digging up stuff. If you have huge amounts of weeds, or a thicket of brambles, they’re probably doing a good job of feeding birds, growing caterpillars and so on. Don’t remove these sanctuaries all in one go, plant a refuge in an inconspicuous corner, or clear a portion at a time. Rampant growth is usually good for creatures which benefit the garden, so if you banish them you may acquire all kinds of interesting problems which you could have avoided. Try to find a corner for nettles, brambles and a small heap of decaying wood, as this will attract beneficial insects.

To take your Craft into your garden, whatever it’s like, it is first important to assess what you have got and what you need from it. Being a Witch is being a part of reality so you have to take into account the physical constraints of your location, family and life, not to mention the amount of time and effort you can really devote to it. Having said that, with a little ingenuity, you can make a big difference with just a little thought and effort.

One of the ways of assessing your patch of earth is to look at those around you – if your neighbourhood is knee-deep in lavender then there’s a good chance it will grow in your garden too! Established plants in your garden and those of your neighbours will give you a good indication of soil and climate type.

If you move into a new house, and if you can possibly bear to, wait one year to see what is already in the garden. Or maybe you could ask the previous occupiers if they have any photos, as proud gardeners often do.

The following chapters contain ideas for different ways of designing and using your garden to enhance your Craft. It is not intended that you use all of these ideas, indeed you would need a vast area to do so! Rather take those which most appeal to you and will fit your garden and your life style. Feel free to adapt them, or to use them as a starting point from which to create something personal.

THREE THE GARDEN AS YOUR SACRED SPACE (#ulink_47e525bf-f0cd-5835-bcef-ada74cb7ee45)

As I have often said, Witches do not have special buildings or even rooms set aside as places of Ritual and Magic. We create our Sacred Space wherever and whenever we need it. To do this we need a clear area, large enough for the number of people who are to take part. We then invoke the elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth and invite the Goddess and the God. When working magic, rather than simply celebrating the festivals, we also cast a Circle, which contains the energies raised until it is time to release them. At the end of our working, we then remove the Circle, banish the elements and thank the Goddess and God. It is also usual to have some kind of Altar within the Circle, onto which we place representations of the elements, the Goddess and the God, and any working tools and equipment we may need during our working. This is also cleared away at the end. However, as the Craft is a nature-based belief system, it is always nice to be able to practise at least some of it, weather permitting, outside alongside nature and the elements.