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Episode 60: A Witch's Garden
655 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! Have you started prepping and planting your gardens yet? Do you grow one year round? Is your garden your kitchen window?? We're here to talk about the Witch's Garden and even some ways to grow with little to no outdoor space!! So get in losers and let's talk about the Witch's Garden.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References
- Amethyst and Amaria. Create a Magical Witch’s Garden with our 17 Top Pointers. Wicca Now. https://wiccanow.com/create-a-witchs-garden-with-our-17-top-pointers/
- Youtube:
- Scarlet Ravenswood
- Beyer, Rebecca. Wild Witchcraft. (2022). Simon Element, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
- Nock, Judy Ann. The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs. (2019). Adams Media, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
- Michael, Coby. The Poison Path Herbal. (2021). Park Street Press, a division of Inner Traditions International.
- Facebook Plant Identification group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/156706504394635/
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Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft and Gardening
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft. So get in witches as we talk about the witch's garden.
00:00:34
Speaker
Wow. Wow. That was a strong call.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hopefully the rest of the episode doesn't go that way. Yeah, I hope so too. Because that was rough. So just FYI, if we keep this in the episode, we were on the struggle abuzz hardcore trying to record our intros and outros. It is what it is though. That took us seven minutes.
00:01:11
Speaker
Of course it does. So as a disclaimer, my husband is away in his flight school for the night. So the dogs are all downstairs by themselves. And my dog is being a psycho. So if you hear her bark in the background, or your little puppy is whining and yapping in the background, look, it's life. I can't control it. Yeah, dogs will dog.
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, you sure will. And sweet little Nix, she can do no wrong. You know, you say that. I love her to death, but sometimes that dog is a turd man. Yeah. A major, major turd. But she's cute while doing things. She is. She is. I can't control her. Like I said, she's a mess. She's probably gonna bark a million times.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's okay. So we're going to be talking about a witch's garden with our special guest Nyx. Yeah. Nyx has a lot to say about gardening. Yeah, she does. Mainly she gets mad when she gets yelled at for trying to eat the plants. And she has a lot to say about this. Oh, she does. She's very vocal about it. So hope you guys like our first guest on the podcast. Yeah. So we're talking about gardening today.
00:02:30
Speaker
Your favorite topic? One of my favorite topics, yes. Yes. I want to start this episode off by just saying that basically when it comes to gardening and working with plants in general, it's okay to fail. You're going to fail. You're going to fail and you're going to do good in some areas and then you're going to fail again in others. That's just how plants and gardening work, right?
00:02:56
Speaker
Sometimes plants die. Sometimes they don't produce and some might never even sprout. Like you might plant seeds and then they never even come out. That's normal. It happens. It doesn't make you a bad gardener. Like it's all a learning process, right? So when you garden, failure helps you to learn.
00:03:15
Speaker
So I've been gardening since I was like a little girl. I still fail all the time. I just failed with like an entire tomato crop that I'm super sad about. I started them indoors. I transplanted them outside. I did everything right. They had all the right amount of sunlight and water and care and they still died, which I'm very upset. I know. I was like, uh, so I've re-sown seeds straight into the ground and we're hoping
00:03:42
Speaker
crossing our fingers. If not, I'm just going to go buy a plant and call it good for the summer. But sometimes failure happens and you can't like, you just can't prevent it in gardening. Plants are living things just like humans and animals. So it's just it's bound to happen sometimes. And it's not a failure as long as you're learning as you go. So don't like beat yourself up. Don't like
00:04:04
Speaker
get down on yourself if you try to start a garden or try to like even indoor plants, this happens all the time. So like, if it happens, it's okay. Just learn as you go.
00:04:15
Speaker
We have, that is such a good point. We have a, um, a palm, a raca palm. I don't know if I'm saying it right that we got. And it was like beautiful and luscious and everything. We got it looked at how to care for it. And they're like, Oh, it's like such an easy plant to care for and everything. No, this bitch started like leaves are all turning Brown. And I'm like, okay, well maybe it's getting too much sunlight or not enough sunlight. And like, we're trying to figure it out and like,
00:04:43
Speaker
We put it outside, Mike repotted it and everything just to like.
00:04:48
Speaker
give it more space. Maybe the roots were constricted. I mean, there's just so many things. But if you we look at like what it says online, how we're supposed to take care of this plant, literally everything we've done. Yeah, doing and it's still like it's finally coming back. But it has been strong. It's been a struggle bus. I feel so bad. I'm like, I'm sorry, we don't mean to kill you. But we don't know what's wrong. Sometimes it just happens. Like I have two money trees. And like,
00:05:17
Speaker
One is thriving. I've had it for years. It's, you know, it's always growing. It has so many beautiful green leaves. And the other one I'm down to like one twig with like five leaves on it. And it's like slowly they just yellow and wilt away. And I take care of them in the same way. They're the same exact like species of plant. I even made sure that like the species name was matching because I'm like, maybe this one's a different species and I'm not caring for it. Right. No, I take care of them the exact same way. They're the same exact plant.
00:05:47
Speaker
one is like struggling to thrive and the other one's been thriving for years. So it's like you can't like get down on yourself when your plants die. It's just they're living organisms. It's going to happen. Yeah, that is true. Yeah.
Gardening Benefits and Starting Tips
00:06:05
Speaker
some background on witchy gardening. Historically, we've mentioned this many, many, many times on many different episodes. There is tons of evidence pointing to the use of herbs for healing purposes as early as 60,000 years ago. Before doctors were popular for ailments, people would find someone in their village who was knowledgeable in herbal medicine to cure themselves.
00:06:30
Speaker
As we know and as we've discussed so many times in this podcast, later this was used as evidence to accuse someone of witchcraft, which is terrible because- And also dumb if they're your healers. Right. These people are just trying to help you and you're like, actually? Which I would rather die of dysentery.
00:06:53
Speaker
Um, yeah, that just goes to show you how fucked up these people are. Like they would rather suffer and have like diarrhea until they die. And instead of like getting, Oh, Hey, I have this like. Poultice. I'm going to give it to you. You know what I mean? Like to kill you. No, you're a witch. I can blend you a tea that'll help your cough. No, you're a witch, witch. Yeah. Yeah. But my kids now dead.
00:07:24
Speaker
Not much has changed. Not much has changed. Oh, that is true. That is freaking true.
00:07:29
Speaker
Um, yeah. So gardening is a really easy way to get connected with the natural world, even if it's just owning a few plants. Like we're going to be talking a lot about gardening and ways to keep a garden. And if this doesn't speak to you because you live in an apartment or you're in a place where you can't plant outside, that is fine. Like just owning a few plants around your house is totally fine.
00:07:55
Speaker
But being able to garden or just repotting a plant or taking care of a plant helps us to reconnect ground and center. We have a whole episode on grounding, which was episode 18. Definitely take a look at that episode. But I remember specifically when we were recording that episode and doing research, Tiffany, I know you discussed a lot about how gardening in itself, there's scientific evidence that shows how great it is for grounding purposes as well as your mental health and makes you feel happier.
00:08:24
Speaker
And there's a lot of scientific backing for it. So check out that episode if you want more information on it. And if you really want to fall down a rabbit hole, just Google it because there's actual scientific research papers written on this. It's one of my favorite things about the podcast is when we find these topics that have
00:08:45
Speaker
scientific backing to them, where it's like, we're not just making these things up. People that aren't part of the witchy community will be like, oh, they just make this stuff up. They're just crazy. They're just trying to be like Harry Potter. There is scientific backing to so much that's in witchcraft. And I fucking love it when we find these topics. Yes. It ties in so well. And one of the things that I love about gardening, whenever I was doing research about this,
00:09:14
Speaker
I was finding a hard time putting this into words, but I think Scarlet Ravens would really put it nicely, she said, at the foundation of our spiritual journey as pagans and witches is the natural world. Being connected to the natural world
00:09:30
Speaker
is going to help your practice so much more. And gardening is an easy way to do that. And you don't have to have, like I said, a huge outdoor space or an outdoor space at all. This can be as simple as having a few plants and keeping them in your window sill or just buying some herbs. You don't even have to plant the herbs. You can go to a grocery store and buy some herbs, keep them, and
00:09:52
Speaker
take care of them and then use them in like any culinary purposes, medicinal and magical purposes, whatever you want. But like just that active caring for a plant helps you as well. And when you're buying, sorry, when you're buying them with herbs, a lot of people don't know if you just take a small little like if you have a small mason jar or a small like cup,
00:10:14
Speaker
fill it with a little bit of water in the bottom and put your herbs in it in the fridge. They're going to keep for so long. And some of them, especially if you buy things like chives are going to, or even lettuce you can do this with, celery you can do this with. If you put those bases in water, they're going to keep growing new food, new herbs, new plant. So just add a little bit of water to jars, stick it in your fridge, and they'll be fine.
00:10:39
Speaker
Absolutely. I do this with green onions. I don't buy green onions because like every time, I mean I didn't when we moved here because I had to get rid of all of our plants, which was a sad day. But like my first bundle of green onions that I bought kept the bottom parts, put it in some water. Now I got green onions all the time.
00:10:55
Speaker
I don't have to buy them ever. We did that and then we planted one and I swear it's like, I know you guys can't see this. I'm literally using my hands. It's like this big outside right now. I love it. It's getting ready to bloom a bunch of flowers. I'll take a picture of it and post it when this episode releases because
00:11:13
Speaker
we were just like laughing about it cuz we were renewing the garden this past week like planting stuff down into the soil like getting ready for like growing season essentially and we were like what do we do with this because it's taking over like an entire like small we have these small standing garden boxes that we usually put our peppers in
00:11:31
Speaker
But we put that in there because they keep away pests, too. And our peppers thrived with it. But this thing has taken over the whole box. I'm like, I don't even know what to do with it. Just make all the Korean food. Yeah. We're just going to dig it out and put it in its own pot and let it thrive all summer because we use green onions almost every day. So I'm just going to skip them off. Plus the little flowers are precious.
00:11:54
Speaker
I haven't even seen the flowers. Oh, we have so many bulbs. They haven't like bloomed yet, but there's probably like 20 bulbs on this plant that are getting ready to bloom flowers. They're so cute. Oh my God, I love it. I'll send you pictures. Yeah. So when we're talking about like gardening, we really want to kind of break down some easy ways to get started.
00:12:18
Speaker
So some things that you can do, like first of all, you should take some time to get to know your gardening space and build a relationship with it. And that might be an actual piece of land that you put a full like huge garden on. It might be just a raised bed or two. It could be a couple of planters or even just your kitchen window, like
00:12:37
Speaker
literally any space could serve as your garden, whatever space you have. Whatever your space is, we're going to help you understand how to best utilize it today in this episode. And we know that everyone might not own land to build up like your dream garden, and that's okay. We're going to discuss some ways that you can still garden even if you don't have a ton of property for a giant garden.
00:13:01
Speaker
And honestly, if this is your first attempt, you should start small and just add a little more each year as you get more comfortable with gardening. You're going to learn better that way, first of all. And like I was saying at the beginning, you're going to learn that a lot of your plants are going to die at like no fault of your own. Starting small is the best way to learn this whole process.
Creating a Witch's Garden
00:13:21
Speaker
For our non-landowning listeners, here's just a few ideas for garden spaces.
00:13:27
Speaker
So community gardens, this was something that I just, I didn't realize existed until I got into the job that I'm doing. And we have been building them up in like the East St. Louis area. But you might be surprised to learn that you have some community gardens in your area that will actually rent a plot to you. And some of them will even just give you the space if you volunteer to help like take care of the other garden beds. So if you weed them or help harvest them or water them,
00:13:56
Speaker
when no one else has the time to, they might just give you some garden space as compensation for that. If you're in the St. Clair County in Illinois and you're interested in an option like that, just email us and I might be able to connect you with someone in the local area that has a couple of garden plots. I know we have a few that they have some empty beds that they're trying to fill, but they don't want to tend them themselves, so they're looking for other people to come and take care of them.
00:14:23
Speaker
Another option is yard sharing if you know someone local to you with a large piece of property they might be willing to let you have a small area of it for gardening. I know personally in our own neighborhood we have a couple people that actually do this and some of them will split crops so like instead of like sharing actual land.
00:14:42
Speaker
If they want to like grow more than they have space for they'll grow you know two to three different things in their small space and then their neighbor will grow two to three different things and they both take care of the gardens together and share the harvest which i think is great so that is an opportunity if you.
00:15:00
Speaker
Have a small space that you could garden on and you know someone else that has a small space You guys can just plan out what you're gonna grow together and then split the harvest and care for the gardens together Another is container gardening. This is a great option for our listeners that might only have like a Really small space or just a patio or maybe even a balcony if you live in an apartment Just pick a few things plant them in their appropriate planters. This could be like a pot It doesn't have to be anything crazy
00:15:29
Speaker
And then, you know, just enjoy the fruits of your labor. Like literally, you just have this tiny little garden on your balcony or wherever, and you're growing like maybe just one tomato plant and, you know, you're buying a cucumber from a pot and maybe just like a couple of herbs. It's maybe not a lot, but you get to like also garden and learn the plants and work with them and then use what you can in your magic and your cooking as well. And then if you only have indoor space,
00:15:58
Speaker
but you have a great window seal with tons of light, you can still grow some things on there. Herbs do fantastic in kitchen windows. I've been in that situation where I've only had a small space, and so we just use window seals for herbs. Perfect. They grow great as long as you have sun coming in that window. And then when it comes to the plants that you want to grow, it's also important to research the best way to start them. So some plants, you can just directly sow your seeds into the ground
00:16:28
Speaker
after the last frost of the season and they'll grow without any issues and they'll thrive. But other plants are going to have a whole process to like quote unquote like wake the seeds up and start the growing process. Like some of them you have to pop them in the freezer before you can bring them and put them in dirt like because you have to simulate like winter for them before they'll actually start growing. So you have to do a little bit of research for that to like know the growing process for whatever you're going to
00:16:57
Speaker
try to start growing from seeds or some plants you can do that with but you have to start them indoors first before you can transplant them outside like they'll have to get to where they're like stable enough to be outside it really just it depends there's no like one way to garden so you just need to understand your plants and your land and just really build that relationship with both to help them thrive
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah. The idea of a witch's garden is really that you should have all of the things you need in it for spells and ritual purposes. And then also for like eating purposes too, because I mean, like for real, like I'm going to be eating the basil that I'm planting, like, you know what I mean? I use my arms for everything that for food, for tea, for medicinal purposes, for magical purposes, they're like all purpose things. Yes.
00:17:46
Speaker
and a lot of or i guess many ancient pagan practices they planted along the solar and moon cycles and gardening just in general give you that tangible experience of understanding the wheel of the year and doing research on the environment and nature how it all connects and grows and thrives throughout the year can help you understand when to plant certain things when to harvest certain things etc
00:18:10
Speaker
So you can use your garden in a way as an extension of your spiritual self. And there are some ways that you can do this that are incredibly witchy or connected back to paganism and witchcraft. One of those ways is by creating an outdoor altar. And this can be as simple as a tree stump or an outdoor table or something. It could just be on the ground too. It doesn't have to be anything big.
00:18:37
Speaker
You could even do rituals outside by creating a magical working space, having a meditation spot, doing your divination outside, whether this be like tarot or runes or anything like that. Another way that you can do this as well is creating a fire pit. Fire is used as a centerpiece and many pagan rituals. So if you've listened to any of our previous episodes, especially the Sabbath episodes, you know that a lot of Sabbaths are
00:19:04
Speaker
based around fire. And fire is such a transformational aspect of each sabbat. And I mean, it's so heavily used and was used a lot by our ancestors. So having a fire pit in your garden is a great way to connect back to your pagan emoji self.
00:19:23
Speaker
So what I think looks like a really good first step is basically doing your research and figuring out what naturally occurs in your area. When I was doing research for this, I found this app. It's called Picture This, and it's an app that helps you identify what is naturally growing in your area.
00:19:41
Speaker
Another thing that you can use too is if you have a Google phone, they have the Google lens. And this is what I used to do whenever we first moved into our house in England. We had a bunch of plants that I've never seen before or I wasn't used to and I didn't know what they were. And so I took my phone out and literally like took pictures of everything and figured out what every plant was. And it was really helpful. If you want an app like an actual app, I use Blossom.
00:20:09
Speaker
It's created by the spruce so you can create your own garden in it like whatever you're growing you put it in there and it'll set like watering tables for you it'll tell you when it's time to fertilize and all of that but it also has a spot where you can just take a picture of the plants.
00:20:25
Speaker
and it'll identify what it thinks it is based on the pictures you've taken and it'll give you a few options of what else it could be. The only thing I will say is that one is I think it's $10 a year but to me it's worth it because I do so much work with plants and I'm also trying to like work with the natural plants in our area which I'll talk about later.
00:20:48
Speaker
But that app has been fantastic for me. And there's also a great group on Facebook called Plant Identification. I'll make sure that it's in our resources for you guys. But that is a great group to be in if you're trying to figure out what any local plants are. People sometimes too, well, I saw one today. Someone bought a plant at Aldi's and it wasn't marked on what it was. So they just took a picture of it and said, this is where I live and where I bought it.
00:21:18
Speaker
Because that's part of the thing is you have to tell them what region you're in so they know what they're trying to identify based on where you live. But there are so many knowledgeable people in that group that can just off a picture, spot what the plan is, tell you about it, how to use it, how not to use it. It's a fantastic group. So I'll make sure it's in our resources for you guys. Another thing that you can do is investing in a good compost and mulch
00:21:48
Speaker
and give the earth love. I saw this online. Give the earth love before you put anything into it. And I thought that was really sweet. You really should.
00:21:58
Speaker
When I said at the beginning, build a relationship with your land and your plants, if you want your garden to thrive, you'll see leaps and bounds difference in plants that you just plant into the ground and water every day and harvest when it's time to harvest versus plants that you spend time with. And Anthony and I, this is something we do because it was something I did with my grandparents when I was a kid. Every day we tickled the tomato plants.
00:22:22
Speaker
They have like little fibrous hairs on them. Anyone that's ever grown a tomato will know it's a fuzzy little plant. Tickle those plants because they produce more tomatoes when you do. It's something my grandparents taught me. It's something that I've always done. And when we first got married, the first time we had a garden as like a married couple, he was like, what the hell are you doing? And I'm like, you do tomato plants. If you do this, they produce more tomatoes.
Soil, Composting, and Plant Needs
00:22:46
Speaker
And so like I'll catch him out there all the time, like tickling the tomato plants. And we always talk to our plants. We name all of our plants.
00:22:52
Speaker
you'd be surprised at like how much more a plant will thrive when you really build a relationship with it and you care for it and you nurture it. Also like just know your soil. So make sure that you mix the appropriate soil that your plants need because different plants are going to require different types of soil. So you can't necessarily plant everything you want to plant in one
00:23:17
Speaker
space because certain plants need super aerated soil that doesn't hold a whole lot of moisture like peppers. Peppers need to have their soil dry out before you water them again. But something like a tomato or a cucumber is going to need soil that might be a little more clay based and holds a little more water to it. So
00:23:36
Speaker
Make sure you just research what your plants need and mix the appropriate soil. As we always literally tell you, do your research. A little research is going to go a long way when it comes to a garden. Composting, like Sam said, composting is going to be your best friend if you have the means to do this.
00:23:53
Speaker
It allows the worms and bacteria and other beneficial organisms to aerate and allow water to move through the ground. And this helps prevent water logging your plants, but it also helps keep your plants fed. And there's a whole discussion that we could have on the nutrients of the soil, but we don't have that kind of time. I could literally, you guys know every time we have a plant episode, I can nerd out all day on this kind of stuff because this is what I love. But essentially,
00:24:21
Speaker
I'll just note that there's around 18 different nutrients that a plant needs to thrive in their environment. So just make sure you're looking into that and you're doing your research and you're building a soil mix that's going to provide your plants with the nutrients that they need.
00:24:36
Speaker
It helps to have organic matter in the mix, too, to up your nutrient levels. And this could be something as simple as lawn clippings, leaves that have fallen out of the trees, sticks that have fallen off your trees. You don't have to overcomplicate the organic matter process. As long as the soil has some organic matter in it, I start every garden bed with sticks, leaves, and lawn clippings, and my plants thrive. So don't overcomplicate that process.
00:25:06
Speaker
And then something that a lot of people skip is identifying your growing zone. But this is a completely necessary step when it comes to gardening or planning, like even just landscaping. Plants respond to the changing of the seasons. So they flourish in the warmer months. And then in the colder months, your annuals are going to die off and your perennials are going to go dormant. So if you live somewhere like Southern California, Florida,
00:25:32
Speaker
or even like Japan where Sam lives, where the weather is just nice all the time and it's never freezing. This step isn't that important for you. It might be important for certain types of plants that might need more shade or less heat, but for the most part, you're not going to have to worry about this.
00:25:50
Speaker
But if you're someone that lives somewhere like me where we experience like cooler temperatures and longer winters, you need to identify your growing zone because this is going to help you have a successful garden. This can be found on Google or you can just buy the farmer's almanac even to help figure out what your growing zone is. And that will tell you when you should start planting certain things.
00:26:13
Speaker
when you should start working on harvesting because it's gonna freeze and everything's gonna start dying off. It's really important to know and it's a step that pretty much everyone just skips over.
00:26:25
Speaker
I can definitely say that anytime I've ever tried to buy seeds and garden anything, when we lived in the States, on the back is it'll have that growing zone on the back with it shows you when to plant by colors. I'm like, yeah, it's not important. 99.9% of people go, yeah, anyways, and they just plant, and they're like, why didn't my plant grow?
00:26:50
Speaker
That's why. Yes, I need to. Well, and so Avery really wants to like start a like flower garden and stuff. And so I bought a bunch of stuff to help her with that. And like, we're we have like the little like mini it's like an eggshell thing, you know, talking about or not eggshell egg. It looks like an egg container.
00:27:15
Speaker
but it's like seed starters. Yes, seed starters, yes. So we bought all this stuff or whatever, and then she's looking at the back and she's just like, okay, what does this mean? And I'm like, actually, we don't have to worry about that. This is warm already and perfectly. Yeah, we are in a subtropical climate, we're fine. But since you mentioned it, eggshells are another great organic matter. Anytime you make eggs for breakfast, save those shells, rinse them off, and then you have to bake them because
00:27:44
Speaker
they still hold salmonella. So make sure you bake them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, and then it's fine. And then just crumble them up into your garden soil, and it's perfect. And you can also use your coffee grounds. Oh, I love it.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah. So after you've found out your growing zone, figured out your soil, all of that, figured out your compost, everything, something that you can do whenever you are about to plant things or even during the process of planting is performing a garden ritual.
Rituals and Specialized Gardens
00:28:20
Speaker
So you can perform a ritual to protect the plant and provide it with abundance.
00:28:25
Speaker
And I saw this on a website called Wiccan Now, and I thought it was so awesome. Basically, what they do is they draw a protection or an abundant symbol or sign in the soil with their fingers, and then they will focus on the soil and visualize. And I pulled this quote directly from their website. They say, imagine the seeds
00:28:49
Speaker
that will germinate there or the roots that will grow down into the soil. Imagine the plants you will plant and how they will thrive in the rich soil you provided them.
00:28:59
Speaker
I love this. Isn't that amazing? Having that visualization piece, you're basically performing a spell. I just love it. You're going to also have prepared a mantra, a statement, a spell if you want to, and read it when you're planting and just keep repeating it. Even if it's just in your head, you can repeat it out loud. I think our voices
00:29:22
Speaker
hold a lot of power so I'm that type of person that I would just repeat it out loud. But I love this idea because it's something so simple that anyone can do and I think it would, you know, benefit anybody's garden. So let's discuss some different types of witches gardens. And there's, I mean, I'm sure there's like endless, we just have like a few in here.
00:29:45
Speaker
Um the first is a moon garden which I think sounds fabulous and I would love to do something like this. So the first plant is that's typically seen in a moon garden is detoura. It is also known as jimson weed or thorn apple and the species name is detoura stromonium. This is a highly poisonous plant so if this is something that you plan to plant in your garden make sure
00:30:12
Speaker
that it is not in reaching distance of children or pets.
00:30:17
Speaker
You're someone who thinks that a poison garden is something that you plan on doing. As always, we say this time and time again, we've already said it on this episode multiple times, but do your research cross-reference and then do some more research before you even jump into this. This can be so dangerous, but I do have a few herbal creators that I follow that practice with poisonous plants, so it definitely can be done. But again, just do your research with that.
00:30:44
Speaker
A couple of recommendations that I can give you that will also be in our resources for you. If you feel like poisonous is the path that you want to work with. The first one is going to be the poison path herbal. This is by Colby Michael and you can follow them on social media too. Their IG handle is poisoners apothecary. They post so much great content.
00:31:06
Speaker
It's like very educational content on poisonous plants that they work with. They wrote this book. It's fantastic. I own it. I've read it.
00:31:17
Speaker
just so much information, but again remember that these plants are very dangerous. And then a book that I reference time and time and time again is Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Byer. This has an entire chapter on the poison garden and she gives the disclaimer to not attempt to ingest, apply, smoke, or even handle these plants without extreme caution or a wish for certain death.
00:31:41
Speaker
or a fate worse than being trapped in the mouth of madness, which I love. The chapter like this, her book is amazing. She put a lot of work into this book is so full of information and not a whole lot of pages. It's 100% a recommendation on my end. And it's her poison chapter is fantastic. And then
00:32:07
Speaker
The last one that I'll give you is a podcast. So this one's called The Elder Hour. It's with Juliet Diaz and Chelsea Selby. And these are two practicing witches with loads of information on magical and medicinal plants. They do cover poisonous plants as well. And they're getting ready to start their new season. They haven't put out an episode in about a year, but the whole like, I think there's like three seasons of it already. So you have a ton to listen to.
00:32:36
Speaker
They're both practicing witches. If you've ever heard of Witch Baby Soap, one of the hosts owns that company as well. They're great. I absolutely love them and highly recommend the podcast.
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah. So other plants that you can use that I don't believe any of the rest of these are poisonous, but that you can use in your moon gardens are things like mock orange, tuberose, Dutchman's pipe cactus, moonflower vine, jasmine, and evening primrose. And those are just some, like there are tons of plants that you can put in your moon garden. These are just like
00:33:14
Speaker
some of the basic ones that I saw on the internet. But also, you know, like we'll say time and again, do your research, because if one of these that I've just mentioned is poisonous, and I didn't know, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to take the responsibility of that. Sometimes too, they might be poisonous if you have a cat or a dog that eats them, but they won't be poisonous to a human. So like, especially when you're working with plants,
00:33:37
Speaker
do your research because they can be dangerous. Some plants you can't even ingest if you're pregnant or lactating or things like that. But if you ate them just without any of those things being part of your life, it would be perfectly fine. So you should always be researching when working with plants in any capacity. It doesn't matter if you're
00:33:57
Speaker
using them in incense if you're eating them if you're putting them on your skin or just touching them in general like know what you're touching know what you're working with because it could be dangerous in different forms. Yeah and so another type of garden is called an elemental garden and the purpose here is to create four different sections
00:34:18
Speaker
that correspond to the elements. And so, obviously, we're not going to go into what all the four elements are and different things, because if you've listened to this podcast, you already know. We talked about it last week, too. So just FYI, know your elements, because we're going to talk about them. But so for Earth, the garden is usually in the Earth. So you can be really creative with this area. Things that you can use are wood carvings, mushrooms, lichen, or moss.
00:34:48
Speaker
And then some others that might be more like common to you, think about like your roots, your root vegetables are tied to the earth, so like carrots and potatoes. And then just a few plants that you might know of that are also tied to the earth and you might not know that part are mugwort, oats, and sage. There are a million more, but we just wanted to give you a few examples. Yes.
00:35:11
Speaker
And so for air, the plants you want to use with this are plants that are plants with any lightness to them. So anything that attracts bees or climbs. And so this would be any insect friendly plants, climbing plants, passion fruit, beehive or jasmine. And then moss, lavender, cilantro and lemongrass. And another thing that I read for this is that they're also like very fragrant plants.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, because like the fragrance travels in the air so it connects them to air as well. So like honeysuckle, that would be another one in this room in there. That is my favorite smelling. Like outside of lavender, honeysuckle is where it's at. It smells so good. I love jasmine too and that was such a great example.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah. So for fire, any plants that are bright in color or yield spicy vegetables or herbs. So, garlics, shallots, capsicum, which are bell peppers to all of our American friends. I'm just kidding because we're American, but I love calling them capsicum whenever we moved to England and that's what they were called. I'm like, what's capsicum from now on? That's what they're called. When we moved to Germany, I was like, the hell is a capsicum? Yeah.
00:36:26
Speaker
That's all they're known by now. Chilies and red roses are some really good examples. You can also do sunflowers, wormwood, amaranth, and stinging nettle. I hate stinging nettle. It's so good for you, Samantha. It stings though. It doesn't if you dry it out. Make a tea with it. It's a nutritive. It also hurts.
00:36:56
Speaker
So just be careful if you're gonna grow stinging nettle just know
00:36:59
Speaker
if your kids brush up against it, if you brush up against it, even if you're trimming it and you get some of the liquidy shit from the inside of the stem on you, it hurts like a motherfucker. Wear some gloves, dry it out, make a tea with it. We actually use Nettle in a daily tea infusion that we drink. It's very nourishing. It does a bajillion things for your body. It's fantastic.
00:37:28
Speaker
It kind of tastes like grass, but you can mask it with other things. So basically it's like a matcha latte. It's fine. Which I also love.
00:37:39
Speaker
And then lastly, water. Anything with a water feature, this may be even include just having a bird bath in that part of your garden would suffice. But anything that resembles or reminds you of water works great. And anything with water in the name, so things like water lilies, water cress, lavender is also another good one for this part of your garden, and blue flowers.
00:38:05
Speaker
You could also use lemon balm, aloe vera, because it is a very watery plant. Cucumbers, again, watery apples. And then if you're feeling a little spicy, you can throw belladonna, which is a tropa belladonna. This is a poisonous plant. So again, do your research.
00:38:24
Speaker
But it is known to have a watery nature and it's therefore associated with water because of that. So I'm going to keep saying it. Do your research because working with them is not for like an everyday gardener.
00:38:37
Speaker
Yeah, I would accidentally poison all of us and we die like that's I know that so I will not for Sam.
Safety in Gardening with Poisonous Plants
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'd forget all about it and then be like, Oh, yeah, we're having this salad. Look at this beautiful flower I put in there. Smell this. Yeah, smell this. Oh, yeah. So
00:38:58
Speaker
I will not ever be fucking with poisonous plants. No, thank you. Another type of garden is a medicinal herb garden. And this is anything that has healing properties or can be used in healing magic. So literally anything that you plant in here that can be used for healing purposes is great for a medicinal herb garden. So these are things like witch hazel, poppies,
00:39:22
Speaker
herbs, insect friendly plants and flowers. Also willow trees I saw on the list and I'm not sure why. I don't know very much about them medicinally. You can do a lot with willow bark.
00:39:34
Speaker
Oh, oh, Jesus Christ. I'm like, oh, leaves, willow bark. I literally go on for days for these types of plants, but I just added a couple. St. John's wort, mullein, ladies mantle, chamomile and sage are great ones to add to a medicinal herb garden. A lot of people don't know the benefits of sage and that is
00:40:00
Speaker
sage and oregano should be in anyone's regular culinary garden and your medicinal garden because you need those when the apocalypse hits. You can also do a natural garden. This is just allowing a piece of your property or even your whole yard if you're up for it to just grow naturally and this is something that I actually have started doing the last couple of years. I don't do my whole yard because I think it would drive my husband insane because
00:40:25
Speaker
You know, I think I want to say in America, but I feel like worldwide the standard has become that we kill off all of the natural and we just plant grass and hedges and pretty flowers and it has to be aesthetically pleasing. But this practice, it's going to vary for everyone and it's going to depend on your region, on what's actually going to grow.
00:40:45
Speaker
So, plant ID groups, apps like we talked about earlier, and books are just necessary for this type of gardening. Some of the things that I've come across in this process are dandelions, and these are like by far right now, these are my favorite plant for so many reasons. There are so many uses for this plant medicinally. They are edible in their entirety. You can eat the flowers, the leaves, and the root.
00:41:11
Speaker
and it's going to do different things for your body. They also make a fantastic wine. I'm on my second year of doing this, and I've tripled my batch this year, so maybe you'll actually get to taste some of it, Samantha. I can't wait! I'm making a dandelion jam tomorrow. I cannot wait for this.
00:41:30
Speaker
I have the tea steeping in my fridge because you have to steep it for 24 hours right now so you could just honestly so much more. There are so many things you can do with dandelion. I could talk about this singular plant for days. Another thing that I get is wild violets. I get plantain, I get chickweed, henbit, purple dead nettle, fleabane, cleavers, Indian berries. These are also known as falseberries and they're basically just edible tiny little strawberries, garlic chives, and
00:41:59
Speaker
clovers. I love clovers. I read and white clovers are great for you medicinally for so many things. Really? Well, only pick them if you know it's not a chemically treated space because you don't want to test treated plants. But yeah, pick them, dry them, and you can use them in teas. You can make tinctures. You can use them in salves. They're fantastic.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah, we have a bunch growing and I've been like I make like flower crowns and stuff with them for the kids. Just because I don't know like because we live on an Air Force base. You never know. You never know what that grass was treated with before and people a lot of times, especially where we're at, because we get those fucking massive cockroaches. A lot of people treat all the grass like all the time. Yeah.
00:42:48
Speaker
I wouldn't pick anything from our lawns specifically for it just because I don't know. And I just see. We don't treat our yard. Anthony will leave our yard until I've harvested what I want to. It drives him insane because he is very like beautiful grass, nice neat hedges kind of person when it comes to his yard. So I love him for letting me do this. But we also only treat with organic stuff that
00:43:17
Speaker
isn't going to like hold in the ground for the next season. So it's he has to treat it multiple times. So bless him. My husband is fantastic in this aspect because he has to do so much more work to allow me to do this safely for us. But I also make us a lot of really cool stuff like dandelion wine and jam and this year we're going to try as soon as
00:43:43
Speaker
or dandelion wine is fermenting in the first stage right now. So once it goes into its second stage, we're starting a wild violet wine this year, which I'm really excited about. But like we get to try all these really cool things. So he thinks it's worth it to have to do extra work throughout the season. It is worth it.
00:44:03
Speaker
And then another garden that I love this idea so much is an astrological garden. And so the purpose here is to split the garden or your gardening space into 12 different sections, each of which are dedicated to a particular sign. But what I think would be so cool for this is if you make this more personal to you by designating it to go along with your birth chart,
00:44:29
Speaker
Yeah, this would be fabulous. So I've heard of astrological gardens, one of my books that I have does cover it and I didn't go into it because I saw you had it on here. I think that's fantastic. I think
00:44:43
Speaker
it should be done at some point. Maybe next season I'll plan it out because how cool would that be? Not only are you building that relationship with these plants, but you're also like spending more time learning about your birth chart, which hello, we all know that makes up who we are as a person. So it's great.
00:45:02
Speaker
I love that you included this. I just love this idea so much. So I've listed for each sign just like one example. There's so many different examples and check out our resources for more information about this if you would like.
00:45:18
Speaker
But the ones that I included for each astrological sign are ones that are like, you could easily find this or grow this. I mean, this isn't something that's super easy to find. That is the word I'm looking for. So for Aries, this could be honeysuckle.
00:45:37
Speaker
Taurus would be poppy, Gemini, lavender, cancer, mugwort, Leo, chamomile, Virgo, rosemary, Libra, marjoram, Scorpio, basil, Sagittarius, tomatoes, Capricorn, vervain. I saw this when I was merging our notes and I laughed really hard because
00:46:01
Speaker
I use blue vervain in so many of my tea blends, like my nighttime tea blends, because it helps you sleep and it relaxes you. But I also came across this quote when I was doing a little research on vervain not too long ago, and I find it so funny considering this plant is a Capricorn correspondence. But Thomas Easley says that blue vervain is for tight-necked, overachieving list makers who can't ask for help. And I was like, oh,
00:46:30
Speaker
Wow. What does that sound like? Thanks, Thomas. I can't think of anyone that reminds me of this. I laughed real hard. I had a really good laugh at the whole merging our notes and seeing that. I was like, wow. Yeah, I love that. To just finish off the astrological signs, Aquarius, this could be peppermint, and for Pisces, tarragon.
Beginner-Friendly Plants and Personal Favorites
00:47:00
Speaker
nice. And something I wanted to include because
00:47:05
Speaker
I'm sure a lot of our listeners probably garden in some capacity and have a little bit of knowledge, but for the ones that don't, I wanted to add some things that would be great for beginners, like a beginner's garden. And if we're looking at medicinal and magical herbs, I'm going to list just a couple, but I would, again, I would highly suggest looking at Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Byer. I swear I'm fangirling over her in this.
00:47:31
Speaker
episode, but this book has so much information. I've mentioned it several times on the podcast, not just in this episode. She puts so much work into covering pertinent gardening information along with folklore, magical uses, and medicinal uses for so many plants in a witch's garden. So just a few that would be great for your beginner
00:47:53
Speaker
You have calendula, this is sometimes classified as marigold. Though marigolds are different, they don't have the same properties. So when you're looking for calendula, make sure you're getting the species name, calendula officinalis.
00:48:09
Speaker
The parts used are the flower petals and this is a sacred herb of midsummer. It's representative of the sun. It also works great as a great deterrent to mini garden pests. It's been used medicinally since 1100 CE and is well known to treat melancholy. It's also a go-to for skin ailments and it makes fantastic salves.
00:48:31
Speaker
I could literally talk about this little flower all day. I use it in tea blends. I make salves out of it. It's great. Everyone should grow it in their garden. Another one is catnip, and this is napita cataria. The parts used are the leaves and the flowering tops.
00:48:48
Speaker
Historically, catnip was used as a rat repellent, which I found hilarious. And this is both because rats hate the plant and because cats love it. So not only do the rats like smell it and they're like, absolutely not. Don't want to go near that. But on top of it, you're bringing cats to your space.
00:49:04
Speaker
to eat the rats or chase them. Our house when we bought it came with a catnip plant planted in the flower bed. I wasn't sure why it was there, but I absolutely love it because we get so many cats on our porch and I'm like a bleeding heart for all animals.
00:49:21
Speaker
So it's a win-win plant, right? Chewing the plant is believed to soothe the nerves and adding it to a pillowcase or a sachet will help with sleeplessness. It's been used since the 11th century to calm nervousness and promote restful sleep.
00:49:37
Speaker
chamomile and this is going to be species named matricaria recutida. The parts used are the flowers and the leaves. It's one of the nine sacred anglo-saxon herbs from the nine herbs charm. You can sprinkle it around your house to keep out negative magic and it's associated with divination and dream work. Because of its yellow center it's marked as an herb of the sun and placing it in your wallet is also said to attract money which I think is precious.
00:50:04
Speaker
It's also known as the plant's physician because it helps keep other plants healthy when they grow in the same space. There's so many medicinal and culinary uses for chamomile, but my favorite obscure use is as an eye wash. So if for whatever reason you have eye irritation or somehow you contract pink eye, chamomile tea can actually be used as an eye wash to help soothe that and cure it.
00:50:29
Speaker
I love that. Yeah, you just brew a little cup of tea, let it cool and flush your eyes out with it. You can also just put the wet the tea bag and put it on your eye like an eye patch for like 30 minutes to an hour and do that a couple times and it'll clear away. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah. Another one is comfrey and this is some phytum aficionel. The parts used are the roots, the leaves and the flowers. Some fun folklore on comfrey is that
00:50:58
Speaker
wreaths of it were worn to show maidenhood, but it was believed that drinking a decoction of the tea was believed to restore the hymen. The Latin name for this plant means to grow together, which speaks to its uses as a bone healer. The root matter can be boiled down and applied too dry as a hard plaster to help heal broken bones. In days of old, the
00:51:24
Speaker
incantation of our Lord raid, the full slayed, sinew to sinew and bone to bone in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit would be said three times over during the application of the root, like basically jelly to help heal the bones essentially. Huh, sounds like witchcraft. Right? I love it. I have another one that I'm going to talk about that's mentioned in the Bible too. Because you know I love poking that bear.
00:51:52
Speaker
It's also well known as being a wound herb, but it shouldn't be ingested without copious amounts of research on the proper ways to do so because it can be toxic in some preparations. Again, this is why I'm always saying, like, do your research when it comes to plants. Ellicampane, which is also known as elf-dock. Its species name is Enula hulinum.
00:52:14
Speaker
The parts used are the roots. Its Latin name shows its association with Helen of Troy, and it was said that she clutched a branch of Ella campaign when she was carried off by Paris, though some legends say that it was born from the tears that she shed. It has often been used as a love charm in England.
00:52:34
Speaker
and it's considered a lucky plant in Welsh folklore. It's been used for centuries as a valued medicine, having been mentioned both by Dioscorides and Pliny. The root can help stimulate the appetite and has been featured as quote-unquote the reviver of the dead in medieval mumbing clays. It can also be used as a cough medicine for both humans and animals. Hysop, which is hysopis officinalis,
00:53:03
Speaker
The parts used are the aerial parts.
00:53:05
Speaker
And the Bible actually mentions hysop that was imbued with many powers and was used in the ancient Jewish rites of purification. It's a traditional herb of cleansing and purification, and newlyweds even hung it in their homes historically to bring good luck. Hanging it can also help to spiritually cleanse a home, as it's said to be hated by evil spirits. Medicinally, it has been used as a respiratory medicine, and it is also an antiviral.
00:53:35
Speaker
It's been used as a long-standing remedy for asthma, and if you drink a cup of high-stop tea with some honey at the first signs of a cold or flu, it could help alleviate those symptoms, especially when a low fever is present.
00:53:49
Speaker
You should avoid prolonged use and don't use this if you're pregnant or lactating. Rosemary, which I feel like everyone should know, apparently not my grandmother. I don't know if I told you about this. She had no clue what rosemary is. And you know how rosemary is tied to like memory and it helps like with memory and the brain. She has memory problems. And I'm like, she has literally never eaten rosemary in her life. Yeah.
00:54:12
Speaker
Probably. So Rosemary, its species name is Rosemarinus officinalis. The parts used are sprigs and leaves. Rosemary is an herb of remembrance, and it's ideal for Samhain and ancestral work. In Roman times, it was used to help preserve the dead, and it was used as an emblem of eternity. In Sicily and Portugal, it's considered a heathen plant where the fairies nestled under it disguised as snakes.
00:54:41
Speaker
Rosemary is thought to alleviate sadness and grief and it's a powerful antioxidant. It's antiseptic and it helps to support the heart and stimulate good circulation. So use some rosemary in your food, please. It's delicious. Yes. The last one I wanted to include for a beginner's garden, because again, this is such an easy plant to grow and it will come back year after year as long as you take care of it.
00:55:04
Speaker
and that's garden sage. The species name for this is Salvia officianalis. The parts used are the leaves, though the woody stems can also be used for incense. Salvia literally means to be saved, and it speaks to this plant's diverse medicinal and magical powers.
00:55:21
Speaker
It has historically been used in women's medicine as an abortive fashion and as a way to dry up milk and lactating persons. So some beliefs also say that it repels serpents and toads, though there's contradicting beliefs that it actually attracts them. Sage tea is great for colds. It's commonly used in Appalachian folk magic for most types of respiratory infections.
00:55:45
Speaker
It's a strong antibacterial and antifungal. And as most of our listeners know, sage can be used in smoke cleansing. And while white sage seems to be the only sage talked about, you can literally use any variety of sage, and we encourage you to grow your own.
00:56:01
Speaker
do your research on your sage and don't buy white sage. Growing a traditional garden sage will also double for your kitchen and your magical practices. And like another like little side fun fact, you can actually make a mouthwash out of sage that will help with any gum infections or teeth issues. I love that. I love sage. Oh my God, there's nothing better than just like a simple
00:56:27
Speaker
Sage pasta that you've like taken the leaves and like sauteed butter. Oh my God. It is so fucking good. And if you haven't tried it, please go try it today. It is delicious. So good.
00:56:42
Speaker
I just like those are all very easy plants to find. You can find them already started. You can find them as seeds and they're all very easy plants to grow. So I thought it would be really good to include in our episode. If you're like just starting out or you've never gardened before, those are plants that like you can learn with so easily.
00:57:02
Speaker
Yeah. So just to kind of finish up this episode and tie it all up, we wanted to give a few of our favorite garden staples. And these are things that we use often in many different ways. So the amazing thing about all of these is that they have so many purposes, at least, I mean, well, for yours too, obviously.
00:57:22
Speaker
I'm an idiot. They have so many purposes. And you can use them in so many different ways, whether they be for prosperity and luck, protection, self-love, and bonus, obviously. You can cook with them except for like, I guess you can cook with aloe too, but I just don't. I will rub it on my skin.
00:57:40
Speaker
You can put it out. It's amazing. It's very hydrating. Oh, really? I mean, I've drank aloe drinks here. They're super popular in Japan, but I've never actually used the aloe in anything else except for just rubbing it on my skin. It's a whole process if you grow the plant. You have to cut it, and then wash it, and then you cut out the gel, and then you have to wash the gel. It's a weird process. It's zero to five. That's too much work. It is a lot of work.
00:58:06
Speaker
So I just like to trim the little leaves and squeeze out the gel and rub it on my sunburn. That is what I like to do. Or cuts and stuff too. So my short little list of my favorite garden herbs are lavender, rosemary, basil, mint, thyme,
00:58:26
Speaker
garden sage and aloe. And then my staples that I grow every year to use in cooking, to use magically and medicinally are garden sage, lemon thyme. You can use any time. All time has the same properties. I just like lemon thyme because I like the citrus and the smell of it. Chamomile, basil,
00:58:46
Speaker
meant and just know, again, there's a bajillion varieties of meant. The only thing I would like preface this with is don't just plant it in the ground, put it in its own pot because a mint is so invasive, it will take over your entire yard if it's given the chance.
00:59:01
Speaker
calendula, catnip, and this one again I mostly use this medicinally rather than magically. Catnip is good for so many things like I talked about earlier and something I didn't know is if you're a person that gets chronic migraines, catnip tea is great for that. Everything else in my garden rotates depending on how I feel in that season so I just kind of plant intuitively when it comes to like my medicinal area of my garden. My vegetable garden is just
00:59:28
Speaker
always like tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and zucchini but when we're talking about just like the staples that I grow every year that I use magically and medicinally and in my food those are the ones that I like constantly have.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, and they're so easy. Yeah, so herbs are probably some of the easiest things. And like, if you want a really cute little plant to have chamomile, that should be your go to like there's a running joke in the herbal group that I'm in for school that like, the more you trample a chamomile plant, the more it spreads.
01:00:05
Speaker
They're really pretty. They make fantastic teas. You can work with them magically. They have medicinal properties, and then they're a plant's physician. So if you put them in your yard, they're going to help all your other plants thrive. But that's
Episode Wrap-Up and Contact Information
01:00:20
Speaker
all I have. I'll stop talking about plants now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:32
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you lose a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft.
01:00:55
Speaker
There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and to exclusive like any news it's early, shout outs on the show, access to our Ask Me Anything forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Get In Witches or email us at we'redoingwitchcraft.gmail.com. Check us out next week where we talk about low effort witchcraft. Until then, blessed be witches.