THE WITCHES GARDEN



All gardens are magickal and all gardeners are magicians. With the
wizardry of earth and seed, the gardener transforms the world
into a place of beauty, power, and healing. Through this power, we
can create some of the most beautiful and serene places right
within our own backyards. We can acknowledge the connection
between gardening and magick by creating just such a sacred spot
dedicated to your craft, filled with significant plants and symbols.
Make it small or even large enough to do your craft work in. 

Your garden can may be dedicated to a specific diety or divinity. It
might be planted with foilage in symbols full of myth and legends.
Using your inner mind, your garden will take form, and come
spring, you can start planting. There are endless ideas for gardens
based in myth and magic. Try planting a garden with a variety of
shades of red to represent the planet Mars, or maybe one of white
and gray flowers to form the moon. You might try planting a
zodiac garden with herbs for each of the different planets or signs. 

Divide the year according to the wheel of the year, and create a
planting for each festival. You can place sculptures and symbols
among your garden, inscribed with runes of power to help attract
energies, faeries, dragons, and anything else you can imagine. Place
bubbling fountains or fishpools in the center.

Anything you would like in your garden can be; your imagination
is the limit.

Some examples are listed below. Remember, these are just examples,
and use your imagination to its fullest. 

Happy Gardening!!!

The Artemmia Glade

The common garden plant artemisia is said to have so delighted the
wildwood goddess Artemis that she named it after herself. In her
honor, establish a little glade of her favorite flower. Find a narrow
area with good Sun, then fill it with drifts of the silverleafed
plants. Given Artemis' penchant for wilderness; be sure to avoid
regimented rows! 

Begin by establishing focal points with tall Artemisia lactiflora
(white mugwort). Then add sculptural accents with fragrant
Artemisia tridentata (big sage). Add drifts of Artemisia California
montara (California sagebrush), a gracefully cast ceding mounding
shrub that will grow to two feet tall. Opposite, place Artemis
fiffolia, a small native shrub with airy, feathery foliage. Finally, fill
in the remaining sections near the pathways with Artemisias
Silver Mound and Canescens, both smallish perennials which, once
established, create attractive mounds of silvery gray, feathery
foliage. 

Artemisias, once established, thrive and expand. You may find
gardener friends with older Artemisia beds which they are willing
to divide. You might substitute some of the above suggestions with
gift plants of similar heights and shapes. You can't really mismatch
Artemisias; the family demands similar culture and location, and
the varieties of related foliage will be invariably pleasing. 

Written by Patricia Monaghan 



Two Headed Flower Dragon

Dragons in the gardens Why not? As symbols of the element of
water, dragons should be welcome among your flowers. Try
constructing a garden in the shape of a two headed dragon, called
an amphisbaena. Use a hose to outline a circle. Making an opening
in the circle, create an inner circle offset from the first, forming
snaky "dragon reads'' et the entry. Then build a scaly back at the
thickest part of the circle, with two trellises planted with Magic
Dragon roses and separated by several feet. Opposite, make eyes
with dwarf japanese holly called Green Dragon; surround them
with the ground covering liriope called Silver Dragon, which will
form a soft hair to offset the dragon's eyes. 

A band of perennial creeper Dragon's Blood sedum forms the belly
of your dragon. Behind it and before the trellises, establish drifts
of False Dragonhead. Finally, on the outer edges of the garden,
plant the scaly spurge called Jade Dragon. Between the trellises,
place a bench, then add porcelain pots with dragon designs at its
sides. Your garden will never thirst with such a protector
guarding it! 

Written by Patricia Monaghan 

 

Witches' Pentacle Garden

The pentacle, the witch's symbol, makes a simple shape for a garden
of mixed perennial and arinu' al flowers. To construct such a
garden, find a sunny spot of any size and dig out a circular bed.
Within it, "draw" a pentacle by stringing twine among five posts,
set equally distant around the circle. This will create a central
pentagon. Fill it with plants whose names express your craft:
Diana; 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 extravagent
fragrance. 

Plant the arms of your starry pentacle with lightgreen chamomile
around a filling of darker green mint; then place round clumps of
Dianthus Essex Witch at each point of the star. Surrourrd this
whole design with a circle of green parsley, and densely plant
dainty sweet alyssum as the penta:le's background. Your pentacle
is now ready to shine back at the night's stars—and at you. 

Written by Patricia Monaghan