How could such sweet and wholesome hours
be reckoned but in herbs and flowers?
Andrew Marvell
Enchanted Specialty Gardens
Specialty gardens, such as enchanted shade and moonlight gardens, are the focus of this chapter. We’ll cover children’s harvest gardens and container gardens as well. All of these plants or container combinations I have successfully grown myself. By no means are these the only plants you have available to you. Take these ideas and then make them your own. Feel free to try different variations—the sky is the limit! These are merely some plants that have grown well for me and will work in many gardens in the United States.
Shady Sorceress Gardens
If you have a vast amount of shade, don’t fret. A shady magick garden can be a hauntingly beautiful place. I have gardens that surround my house—front, back, and side yards. However, the garden that gets the most compliments is the shade garden.
When you start a garden under older, established trees, you already have structure. Amending the soil with composted manure and peat moss is your first step. Shade plants require fertile soil, rich in organic matter. Keeping your plants watered in high summer and for the rest of the growing season is critical. You want moist soil, not soggy.
Mulch your plants, but no more than two inches deep. It helps retain moisture and, in time, as the mulch breaks down, it will add organic matter to your soil. Here are four words for you to live by: “Mulch is our friend.”
Magickal herbs and plants that grow well in the part shade to full shade gardens are not difficult to find. Here is another witch’s dozen of plants for you to try. As before, the common name is listed in bold print, followed by the botanical name in italics. These are followed by the plant’s magickal correspondences and gardening growing tips.
A Witch’s Dozen of Shady Plants
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis). Magickal uses include recovering from a broken heart and lost love. (Well, I mean honestly, were you expecting anything else?) Bleeding heart’s pendant, heart-shaped flowers bloom in early spring. It grows about three feet tall. A cottage garden classic, bleeding heart is an excellent cut flower, and the foliage is attractive in the vase as well. Plants will die back to the ground in summer. Also available in a white variety. Zones 3–9.
Columbine (Aquilegia). Utilized in spells for courage and love. Seeds were crushed and used to attract a mate. A favorite shady plant grown in the garden for centuries, these flowers reseed and grow two to three feet in height. Many colors are available (use different colors according to magickal need). Many hybrid columbines are hardy in zones 5–9.
Ferns. For faery magick and invisibility. Burn the dried fronds to attract rain. Many species are available. Check with other gardeners to see which variety grows well in your area. Ostrich fern (Matteucia pensylvancia) is usually a hardy, easy variety to try. They send out lots of babies after they are established. The ostrich fern is hardy in zones 2–8.
Forget-me-nots (Myosotis). Improves memory, and also may be used to help another remember you, i.e., a job interview or a new friend. Another shady plant that’s admired by the faeries, it bears small clusters of blue flowers. Plants grow eight inches to two feet high, depending on the variety. A great plant for woodland gardens, there are new varieties that are available in pink as well. Forget-me-nots will grow in most zones—3–11.
Foxglove (Digitalis). Magickally used for protection, and also a faery favorite, foxglove bears many folk names: fairy fingers, folk’s gloves, witches’ bells, and witches’ thimbles, just to name a few. A great perennial species is yellow foxglove (Digitalis grandiflora), which grows to about two feet tall and blooms in late spring–early summer. It will sometimes rebloom if you dead-head it. Foxglove is toxic, and should not be ingested. Yellow foxglove is hardy from zones 4–9.
Hostas (Hosta species and cultivars). A leaf or two tucked into a vase full of other magickal flowers will add good luck and health. Hostas are a shade-loving perennial, also known as “Funkia.” These old standards of the shade garden add mystery to your shade gardens and come in dozens of colors, from all shades of green, chartreuse, leaves with white stripes, and leaves that have contrasting edges. There is also a dusky blue-green variety. Choose your favorite—if you can. Height and leaf size depends on the variety. Plant height may range anywhere from one to four feet tall. The hosta produces pale purple flowers in midsummer. There are some new fragrant varieties available. Most varieties of hostas are hardy in zones 3–8.
Iris. The three main petals of the flower stand for faith, knowledge, and bravery. The root is most often employed in magick. Orris root comes from the roots or rhizomes of the Iris germanica var. florentina iris plant. Orris root is used to draw love and as a fixative in potpourris and sachets (it helps to hold the scent). The iris is a popular spring bloomer, available in many colors. This is the sacred flower of Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. The iris has been cultivated for centuries. There are two most common species of the iris: The Japanese iris is hardy to zones 5–10, and the Siberian iris is hardy from zones 4–9.
Lady's Mantle(Alchemilla). Love and attraction. Traditionally an alchemist’s favorite, lady’s mantle is a compact plant with round, fuzzy, gray-green leaves. A folk name is dewdrop, owing to the manner in which the plant’s fluted leaves hold water droplets (they look like liquid silver on the leaves). In late spring or early summer, lady’s mantle will bloom a spray of chartreuse green flowers. This perennial grows eighteen inches in height. It makes a pretty front-of-the-border plant. Zones 3–9.
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). Love, weddings, and peace. Meadowsweet was a favorite fragrant herb in Elizabethan times. So often was it in demand for bridal flowers and weddings that it became known as bride-wort. Meadowsweet has creamy white flowers with an almond scent. It will bloom off and on during the summer. Grown best in partial shade, this hardy perennial can grow from two to four feet in height and prefers alkaline soils. Zones 4–7 or 8.
Pansies (Viola). Sacred to Cupid, these bright, happy flowers are for easing an aching heart and lovesickness. Folk names include johnny jump-ups, heartsease, love-in-idleness, and kiss-me-at-the-garden-gate. Pansies may be grown as an annual or perennial. I use them in pots and containers in early spring. They will tolerate cold and even some snow. If planted in the garden in the fall and mulched with leaves, pansies will bloom even heavier again the following spring. Pansies thrive in partial or full shade. They do not tolerate hot summers.
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus). Protection and breaking hexes. Snapdragons are fun annuals to grow in your shade gardens, and in containers too! In Missouri, we have very intense, hot summers with high humidity; snaps planted with a full sun exposure in my garden tend to get a little toasty, but they thrive in part shade.
The elemental correspondence for snapdragons is fire. A faery plant that is popular with children, snaps are available in many colors and sizes. They also make an excellent cut flower. If your winter season is mild, they may survive the cold or reseed themselves for the next season.
Soomon's Seal (Polygonatum). The root is employed in protection and exorcism rituals. Adding a few blooms to a vase of flowers may be used to fight off negativity. A woodland plant and a wildflower native to the eastern United States, the lightly scented flowers bloom in late spring. There are several species, including a variegated variety. Zones 5–9.
Touch-me-not (Impatiens). To be magickally used when time is of the essence. Another folk name is “Busy Lizzy.” The most popular annual shade bedding plant, impatiens come in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Easy to grow and free blooming, they are a great border plant for adding seasonal color to shade gardens. Impatiens are annuals and will not survive a frost or any cold temperatures. Try white and pastel-colored impatiens for moonlight gardens.
Types of Shade and Plant Suggestions
Types of shade will vary from garden to garden. Understanding what type of shade you are working with will make it easier for you to achieve success in the garden. There are varying degrees of shade: partial shade (sometimes called dappled), medium shade, and full shade.
Partial Shade is to be found in areas that receive three to six hours of sunlight per day, or dappled sunlight all day. This dappled type of shade is usually found under the canopies of younger trees or older trees with a higher, more open canopy. Try these magickal flowering herbs: angelica, betony, catmint, coneflowers, obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), foxglove, heliotrope, iris, lady’s mantle, lilies, mallows, meadowsweet, mints, and soapwort.
Medium Shade can be classified as an area that is shady during the brightest hours of the day (the hours from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). This type of garden will catch some early morning rays if it faces the east or, conversely, late evening sun if the garden faces the west. Try these mystical plants and shrubs: astilbe, bleeding heart, coleus, ferns, forget-me-nots, hosta, monarda, impatiens, lobelia, lungwort (Pulmonaria species), and European wild ginger. Try planting these shrubs at the back of your shade garden for structure: oak leaf hydrangea, big leaf hydrangeas, and viburnum.
Full Shade exists beneath the canopies of mature trees that have thick foliage, or in areas where shadows are cast by a neighboring house or garden structure, such as a shed or a privacy fence. These gardens may receive only a few hours of sunlight per day. These plants should perform well for you: bugleweed (Ajuga), columbine, dead nettle, ferns, ivy, lily of the valley, mints, Solomon’s seal, tansy, and the violet.
A black cat among roses,
phlox, lilac-misted under a quarter moon,
the sweet smells of heliotrope and night-
scented stock. The garden is very still.
It is dazed with moonlight,
contented with perfume . . .
Amy Lowell, the Garden by Moonlight
Flowers and Foliage for Moonlight Gardens
There is something entrancing about a moonlight garden. Moonlight gardens are all about fragrance, subtle color, and atmosphere, with the emphasis placed on flowers that release their perfumes after sundown. Fragrance is often our most powerful memory trigger. I still associate lilacs with my Grandma Doris. She had huge lilac shrubs growing alongside her house in the city. When I was a child, my sister and I used to play underneath and inside of them—it was like being inside a fragrant, purple cave.
Color is an all-important aspect of moonlight gardens. Pastel colors, silvery or pale green foliage, and as many white blooming plants as you can find will perform their own magick at twilight. Flower colors that really pop at night include white, cream, yellow, and pale pink. If you want to try your hand at moonlight gardens, look for those colors in bedding plants this year. You can add some of these colors to the perennial garden layout on page 78.
Shady or Moonlight Garden Layout
1 Hosta
2 Impatiens
3 Lady's Mantle
4 Columbine
5 Foxglove
6 Ferns
7 Lily of the Valley
8 Forget-me-nots
If you have sunny gardens and would like to try growing a moonlight garden, try these annual plants: geraniums, cleome, allysum, stock, cosmos, and white and yellow zinnias. Just to make things interesting, try adding dark purple petunias—not for their color, for their fragrance. You won’t be able to see those velvety-looking purple blooms at night, but trust me, you won’t have to. The fragrance they pump out after sundown will lead you right to them every time. Want to try a fragrant blooming shrub? The white variety of the lilac is another sunny garden option. Here is a tip: All varieties of blooming plants that are white will have the term alba behind the name.
For a night-fragrant blooming bulb, try the perfumed fairy lilies (Chlidanthus fragrans) and Madonna lilies (Lilium candidum). The Madonna lily is an excellent magickal plant, with the attributes of protection and breaking love spells. The flower is also sacred to the Lady.
For an easy to grow perennial, try other varieties of daylilies (Hemerocallis). Hit the nursery early in the season, before Mother’s Day, for the best selection. Many daylilies are fragrant, and the paler the color, the more they will stand out in your moonlight garden. Look for these varieties: Green Ice, a pale yellow flower with a green throat; Fairy Tale Pink, a pink flower with a pale green throat; Happy Treasure, a yellow and rose-pink mixture, and Java Sea, a neon-yellow bloom with an acid-green throat. For the magickal associations, match up the colors of the blooms with your Flower Color Magick Chart.
Nicotiana (pronounced niko-SHEE-anna), the flowering tobacco, has a pale green variety that is very aromatic at night. These star-shaped annuals are another beloved flower that I add to my gardens every year. Nicotiana will last until frost and requires only occasional dead-heading to keep them blooming at their peak all summer long. If the flower production fades, cut them back to the leaves and they will shoot up again and bloom with more vigor. Also available in reds and pinks, try to get as many of the white and pale green as you can find. Your nose will be glad that you did. Nicotiana’s magickal qualities are healing and purification.
Pale climbing roses, such as New Dawn, are a bewitching choice to climb over an arbor. A lovely ivory-pink color, climbing New Dawn is rated one of the best climbers for the Midwest region. Other climbing vines include the white clematis, wisteria, honeysuckle, and night-blooming jasmine. Any of these would be gorgeous alternatives.
It is with flowers as with moral qualities;
the bright are sometimes poisonous,
but I believe never the sweet.
Park Benjamin, American Editor
(1809‒1864)
Shady Characters and Poisonous Plants
Some of my favorite cottage garden plants for the moonlight/shade garden are, unfortunately, poisonous: lily of the valley, moonflower vine (Impomea alba), and white and yellow foxgloves. I bided my time and waited until my kids were older before I planted these. You may want to do the same. There is a list of poisonous plants at the end of this section.
The first year we grew moonflower vines in the garden, all of the neighborhood kids started hanging out in the backyard to watch the moonflowers bloom. Every night at dusk the kids would show up to watch them open. Some evenings it would be just my family on the back patio enjoying the show. Other nights we had anywhere from six to a dozen kids and their assorted lawn chairs spread out across the garden. (And yes, the kids were supervised.) I even had a neighbor videotape the six-inch blooms as they shuddered open one evening.
As the moonflowers start to unfurl, they tremble and quiver. Before your eyes they slowly open up, like in a time-lapse special effect. The scent is haunting and downright enchanting. On an interesting note, moonflowers will attract both hawk moths and luna moths to your garden.
Moonflower vines are something that we continue to grow every year. (As I have no toddlers running amok through the garden, the moonflowers are safe enough for growing up the privacy fence.) If one of my young nieces or nephews should arrive, they are never left unsupervised in the garden anyway.
Another fascinating plant is the datura or angel’s trumpet (Datura inoxia subspecies). This is a gothic witch garden plant, with a capitol G for gothic and grim. It is an absolutely extraordinary night-scented flower, but I want to warn you to be careful with this plant! They are incredibly poisonous.
As a young gardener who didn’t know any better, I once bought a home-grown shade plant from a vender at a flea market. He had photographs of it in bloom and he told me that the plant was called a “moonflower bush.” Captivated with my find, I planted it in my shade garden, fertilized it, and watched. As the summer progressed, it started to form huge trumpet-shaped buds.
The first time that it bloomed was on the night of a full moon. Excited by the timing, I checked on it periodically throughout the evening to discover that the flower had an amazingly heady, musky-lemony fragrance. It was so strong that it made my stomach turn over, and it immediately made me suspicious. I sat down in the garden and had a little chat with this two-foot plant. My shade gardens are behind a privacy fence and under old maple trees, so I settled there under the full moon, alone and unobserved.
I closed my eyes and held my hands out over the blooms and asked (in my mind) for the plant to tell me who it really was. The answer that came into my mind was just one word . . . death. I fell over backward in my haste to get away from the plant and scooted away from a safe distance of three feet to stare at it.
“Okay,” I said to myself, as my heart pounded hard in my throat, “that was different.”
I had never had anything like that happen to me before. I wanted another opinion. So, after a few moments, I called all the kids outside and showed them the plant. I told them nothing of my “discovery” and asked them what they thought about it. My kids are usually a fool-proof barometer if something is wrong, whether it’s people or situations. To my consternation all three of them frowned and two of the three made no move to touch it. My second son started to reach out and then yanked his hand away at the last moment. (He’s the one with the most pronounced psychic abilities, I might add.) They all told me immediately that they didn’t like it. Since the children were young at that time, I warned all three of them to stay away from it until I could correctly identify this “moonflower bush.” I then herded everyone inside to wash their hands, just in case.
The next day I headed to the library and hit the books. To my dismay I discovered that my moonflower bush was actually a datura. All parts of this plant—flowers, leaves, and seed pods—are extremely toxic. It was even in capital bold-faced letters in all the books: ALL PARTS OF THIS PLANT ARE DEADLY. Damn. Well, I learned my lesson. So much for buying unmarked flowers. It was a lovely plant and I didn’t want to just kill it. I kept the kids away from it and then when it started to fade and set seed pods, I used surgical gloves and ripped the plant out and disposed of it inside of a few garbage bags. I had my husband carefully apply a weed killer on the area, just in case I missed anything.
The other perennials eventually crept back in but, to this day, nothing will grow in the original spot where the datura was planted. After a while I planted an oak leaf hydrangea shrub (Hydrangea quercifolia) in the area. Its off-white, cone-shaped blooms are an accent to the shade/moonlight garden, as are its orange leaves in the fall. One of my favorite blooming shrubs, this hydrangea has grown well and it now covers up the bare spot. Magickally, you may use the bark of hydrangeas to ward off negativity and for hex breaking.
For more shady/moonlight garden perennials, try campanula, pale yellow daffodils, snowy white tulips, snowdrops, spiderwort, the pearly astilbe Snowdrift, and white phlox. Some other varieties of herbs that will thrive in shade are angelica, which will grow best for you in part shade, as will mallows and catnip. As mentioned before, pastel impatiens and white begonias are charming additions, as they will stand out well at night in a shady bed. Silver lamb’s ears and the white-edged hosta are also good choices. Chartreuse shades of the hosta are an option for foliage that will glow after sundown. Finally, to accent your moonlight garden, string up a strand of white lights to add a magickal sparkle.
Poisonous Garden Plants
By no means is this list all inclusive, it is only meant to be informative. There are many other poisonous plants that are not represented here. If you are interested in pursuing this topic further, check with your local botanical garden or call your county’s Master Gardeners for more information. Also, there are several excellent “Poisonous Plants” websites available to you on the Internet. Some of the best are from Cornell University, North Carolina State University, and Pennsylvania University.
If situations occur where poisoning concerns exist, then I recommend contacting a poison control hotline right away. The National Poison Control Hotline (for adults and children) is 1-800-222-1222. This number will connect you to your local hotlines. The National Animal Poison Control Center’s number is 1-888-426-4435.
Please note the * denotes popular landscaping shrubs that are toxic when eaten in large quantities.
Amaryllis
American holly
Azaleas
Angel’s trumpet (Datura)
Baby’s breath
Baneberry
Belladonna
Blackberry lily
Bleeding heart
Bittersweet
Bouncing bet (seeds are toxic)
Burning bush *
Caladium
Chinese lantern
Clematis
Coleus
Crocus (all parts)
Daffodils
Daphne (berries are toxic)
Datura
Delphinium, a.k.a. larkspur
Dock
Dutchman’s breeches
Flax
Four o’clock
Foxglove
Helleborus
Niger
Hyacinth
Hydrangea *
Great lobelia, cardinal flower
Iris (rhizomes)
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Japanese honeysuckle (berries)
Lantana
Lily of the valley
Lobelia
Monkshood (Aconite), a.k.a. wolf’s bane
Moonflower (mildly toxic)
Morning glories (mildly toxic)
Oak leaf hydrangea *
Oleander
Peace lily
Plumbago
Poinsettia
Pokeweed (all parts)
Poppies
Rhubarb (the leaves)
Rue
Stonecrop (Sedum)
Snow-on-the-mountain
Sorrel
Star of Bethlehem (Orithogalum umbellatum)
Sweet pea
Tobacco
Tomato (foliage )
Trumpet creeper
Virginia creeper (highly toxic)
White snakeroot
Windflower
Wisteria
Yew
Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
And wholesome harvest reaps.
Amos Bronson Alcott
Samhain/Harvest Pumpkin Garden
Here are some tips and tricks that I have learned over the years while growing pumpkins, gourds, and Indian corn. My husband, kids, and I have been raising pumpkins and fall ornamentals for years. We select the ones we want for ourselves and then we invite all of our nieces and nephews over (at last count there were fifteen of them) to choose their pumpkins. My sisters-in-law pick from the gourds, mini pumpkins, and corn to decorate their homes. See a sample garden layout on page 88.
In late September, my kids set up a little pumpkin stand in the front yard and then sell their harvest to the neighborhood families for Halloween. We don’t make a huge amount of money, they do it for fun. I split the profit in half, and divide it between the three of them and let them spend the first half however they want. The other half of the money is put away for Yule, for their gift exchange with each other.
Growing
First things first. You need a lot of space to grow pumpkins. If you are limited to a small backyard vegetable garden, try the mini varieties such as Baby Boo or Jack Be Little. Pumpkins require very fertile, rich soil. We grow our pumpkins down at the family farm. The soil at the farm is incredibly black and rich, as it’s flood-plain soil. However, we still make our hills for the pumpkins with bags of composted manure—not raw manure, the composted kind that you buy in twenty-five pound bags at the garden center.
For my part of the country, farmers recommend having your pumpkins and gourds planted by June 7. I live in zone 5. Check with the local farmers or your county’s extension office to see what planting time they recommend.
For directions in planting Indian or ornamental corn, check the seed packet for variety-specific planting dates, which are usually after the last frost date, when the soil temperature is warm, at least sixty-five degrees. Plant in side-by-side rows for pollination purposes, and try a nitrogen-rich fertilizer for the corn.
Stake your pumpkin hills with a tall stake when you plant the seeds. Pumpkin foliage grows anywhere from one foot to three feet tall, and then you can’t find the hills to water them. (Learned that lesson the hard way, myself.) Don’t step on the vines! Fertilize your pumpkins regularly with a water-soluble fertilizer like Miracle-gro.
Watch for signs of squash beetle activity and be prepared to dust the pumpkins. I recommend Sevin, or Bug Be Gone. It’s an all-purpose powdered pesticide that kills those bugs. Sevin is a fairly safe chemical to apply topically to pumpkins and other vegetables. It is not absorbed into the plant, and washes off easily (the residual life of Sevin is fairly short). Dust safely! Wear a mask and gloves. The first time I grew pumpkins I announced that we would not use any chemicals. We had a beauty of a crop that year, too, hundreds of them. Then the squash beetles found us. They attach themselves to the vines and drain all the juice out of the pumpkins, so they look like deflated playground balls. The attack of the vampire pumpkin bugs! Nasty. We lost the entire patch that year, and I changed my mind about chemicals.
To discourage squash beetles, you can try planting marigolds, catnip, tansy, and nasturtiums. Also, when choosing your varieties for pumpkins, look for mildew-resistant varieties. A problem with mildew widely affected the pumpkin crops in Missouri last year. It’s just one of those things. For the first time in years, we had to buy pumpkins for Samhain. We lost our whole patch.
Harvesting
By late July or early August, the Indian corn should be mature. After gathering them, gently peel back the husks. String up some rope to hang the ears on and let the corn dry out completely. Use a protected area, like your garage or a shed. If you leave them outside the birds will get them.
In mid to late September, watch your foliage on the pumpkin and gourd vines. I know the pumpkins are starting to turn orange, but sit tight. Wait until the foliage dies back and the stems start to turn brown before you harvest them. Use a sharp pocket knife to cut the vines, remembering to leave yourself a good stem length.
Carry pumpkins like a ball, not by the stem. Wash them in a solution of bleach and water when you get them home. The bleach water helps stop mildew and washes off any chemical residue. Store your pumpkins and gourds on wood planks or hay bales, not on concrete (they’ll rot).
Selling
Open your yard stand in late September–early October. Let the kids do the selling. Just keep them supervised. Once a stretch limo pulled up in front of our house and the chauffeur, in uniform, hopped out to buy some pumpkins for his kids. He scared the hell out of my youngest son and daughter, who were about seven and eight years old at the time. (They thought the limo was a hearse.) Once I explained to them that he was driving a bride and groom around in there, not a dead body, they thought that was kind of cool.
I watch my kids through the front window, even now. If there is a problem I just step up to the door or walk out onto the front porch. Usually it’s just someone who wants to know where we grew the pumpkins, or needs to break a large bill. Have change available.
Let your kids make up a few signs. People love to buy from children. Toss gourds into a wheelbarrow and let people root around through them. They enjoy doing it and I’ve yet to figure out why. Also the wheelbarrow is handy; when you’re done for the day, just roll the wheelbarrow around back.
Display Indian corn or really pretty mini pumpkins on a card table. Ornamental corn is fragile when it dries, so don’t be too rough on the husks.
Don’t haggle over prices, clearly mark on the pumpkins close to the stem with a ballpoint pen. Make your prices very reasonable, price them to move. You don’t want to get stuck with thirty extra pumpkins, do you? Either give away any extras that are left over, donate them to a shelter for troubled kids, carve them up for a large Halloween display, or use them as compost.
But a little garden, the littler the better, is your richest chance of happiness and success.
Reginald Farrrer
Bewitching Container Gardens
Container gardening is at an all-time level of popularity. If you are limited in space, this may be your only option. You can create a fabulous garden simply with containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets in all different shapes and sizes. Turn your patio, balcony, or deck into a miniature garden that is easy to move around or rearrange.
Children's Harvest Garden Layout
1 Pumpkins
2 Mini Pumpkins
3 Gourds
4 Marigolds
5 Tomato
6 Peppers
7 Indian Corn
8 Dwarf Sunflowers
9 Giant Sunflowers
Remember, you’re not limited to flowers. There is more to container gardens than just annuals. You can grow herbs and vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers. Strawberries can be successfully grown in hanging baskets. Lettuce may be grown in containers; I have even seen a shorter variety of carrots grown in large pots.
In the past when I have taught the public how to make their own container gardens, I gave them several themes to choose from. So I’ll do the same for you as well. Of the many different combinations of plants that I have suggested, I also included some popular cooking herbs.
Experiment with these suggestions. When you plant your flower containers, plant them full. You will be dead-heading these as the season progresses. You want those pots to look full when you start. It’s depressing to see a half-filled container because you’re waiting for the plants to get larger. Remember to fertilize your containers every two weeks, and water them every day.
To maintain vigorous plant growth and to keep your plants attractive, remove spent, dried-up flowers and seed pods. By removing these, the plant puts its energies into producing more flowers, as opposed to putting its energies into seed production. To prune, follow the stem down to the first leaf junction and clip the stem there.
Kitchen Witch Container Garden
In a large pot, try planting together rosemary, parsley, sage, chives, bouquet dill, garlic, and basil. These practical seasonings and cooking herbs (that’s what I tell the general public anyway) are very easy to grow together in a sunny location. To my witch friends, I pass along these magickal correspondences. In order, they include love and healing from the rosemary; protection and purification from the parsley; wisdom from sage; chives are great for absorbing negativity; we get protection again from the dill; garlic is worked into exorcism rituals; and the basil gives us wealth and good luck. Now that is a handy little combination to have around, don’t you think?
Fragrant Container Garden
For a fabulous mixture of textures and scents, try an arrangement of any of the following fragrant plants: miniature roses, catnip, lavender, mint, or scented geraniums. Plant these in a large pot and place in a sunny location. If you want the roses to survive the winter, transplant them into your garden to winter over. Magickal uses are as follows: roses for love and, depending on the color, other applications (see pages 11 and 38); mint bestows prosperity; catnip is for, oddly enough, cat magick; and scented geraniums are protective.
Veggie Combos
For vegetable container gardening, go with a classic: a patio tomato variety and mari-golds. Planting marigolds and tomatoes together are beneficial, and is called companion planting. Marigolds prevent bugs from infesting the tomatoes, and the plants are usually stronger and more disease resistant as well. Cherry tomatoes are a fun variety for children to try, as are green peppers and marigolds. Make sure that you give them lots of sun, fertilizer, and water. This planter would work well for growing on your deck or balcony. The magickal correspondence for tomatoes is love; in fact, an old folk name for the tomato was the “love apple.”
Also, according to Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, “when a tomato is placed on the window sill or any other household entrance, it repels evil from entering.” Hmm . . . good to know.
Would that this garland fair
Might weave around thy life
A spell to shield from care
A guard from every strife.
Anonymous
House-Warding Plant Combinations
To ward your home and property is like placing a permanent protective psychic shield against outside influences around your house and yard. Our homes naturally exude a shield of energy. Usually witches and other magick users deliberately strengthen theirs. How? They grow plants with protective properties around the house, place crystals inside the home, display hex signs on the outside of the house, or often hang a horseshoe, open end up, over the inside front door.
Garden witch containers for protection are a subtle type of magick. It’s not expensive or hard to do. Start with some good potting mix and your container of choice, and add a little garden witch flair.
Pagan Family Protection Combo
For a part sun–afternoon shade spot, plant trailing ivy, snapdragons, allysum, pink geraniums, and dark purple petunias in a hanging basket or container by your front door. Why these plants? Ivy is protective; snaps ward off negative spells; allysum expels charms; pink geraniums are for love; and dark purple petunias add power and are very fragrant at night.
Hot Spot Container
For a very hot and sunny location, this plant combo will hold up to intense summer heat and then last into the fall. Group together zinnias, coxcomb, and marigolds in a container of your choosing. Zinnias are pretty annuals that make great cut flowers for the vase, come in an array of hot colors, and attract butterflies as well. The red coxcomb is protective and aids in healing. Marigolds have the astrological correspondence of the sun; this flower is used to repel evil and nightmares. It features prominently in the Mexican festival El Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. This celebration begins at midnight on November 1, and is a national holiday in Mexico that honors the spirits of deceased ancestors and loved ones.
White Witch Window Box
Red geraniums for protection and to guard the home; vinca vine for its many magickal properties that I listed before—okay, okay, I’ll list them again: bindings, protection, love, and prosperity. Allysum for fragrance and to break manipulative spells, and blue lobelia to halt gossip. This container will tolerate part sun/part shade. Be advised that the lobelia will wither back in intense summer heat, but when it cools off again it should bloom back out.
White Witch Combo for the Shade
Instead of geraniums, plant shade-loving double begonias in the window box. Double begonias resemble a rose in full bloom. They have heavy, waxy petals, and are available in many colors, such as reds, pinks, orange-coral shades, and yellow. Use the color correspondence chart from chapter 3 to match the color to your intent. Use the vinca vine, blue lobelia, and white or purple allysum to fill out your boxes.
The last two combinations are inspired by a lady that I met years ago at the very first nursery job that I ever had, which taught me many invaluable lessons. But by far the most memorable experience was the day an elderly lady came strolling into the nursery, demanding some assistance in choosing flowers for her window boxes. All the other staff took one look at her and scattered. She seemed harmless enough to me, leaning on her cane and grinning at me.
As I walked around the nursery with her and helped her choose her flowers, she told me little tidbits of plant lore that I had never heard of before. She pointed, I fetched and carried. It was an interesting half hour. I thought I was being very discreet. I made sure I said “folklore” when I asked a question, or I said something like, “What’s the story of this one?” There was no talk of magick.
Later, when I was able to double-check on those meanings of all the flowers that she had told me about, they matched up. Every one of them.
We ended up going with one of my favorite window box combinations, the one listed previously—red geraniums, vinca vines, blue lobelia, and white allysum. As I helped her load her purchases in the back of an old station wagon, she turned to me and said, “When I was a girl, my grandmother always told me that you could spot the good witches in the neighborhood by the red geraniums in their window boxes.”
I almost dropped the flats of flowers, I was so surprised by her comment. She just smiled blandly and continued by telling me, “Another way to tell was to look and see if they planted red geraniums or red begonias in circles around their trees.” She cackled at my startled expression, patted me on the arm, and started for the driver’s side of her car. So much for being discreet. She tossed her cane in, turned back to look at me, and asked, “What color of geraniums do you have in your boxes at home, girl?”
“Red ones,” I told her honestly.
“I thought so.” She laughed, climbed into her old car, and gunned it out of the parking lot. I never saw her again, but I have never forgotten her.
So wherever you are, Ma’am, thanks . . . and blessed be.