Garden Witchery

by Ellen Dugan

  Snip some blooming roses off your bushes and use garden flowers and blooming fragrant herbs for a centerpiece. For faery lights you can use old glass canning jars with a tealight inside and set them in a row down the center of the table or place them throughout the garden. After the sun goes down, light up some sparklers for the kids and the adults. Have an enchanted midsummer’s night!

  Summer afternoon—summer afternoon;

  to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

  Henry James

  Lughnasadh/Lammas

  Lughnasadh is the first of three harvest festivals, and baking bread is traditional. However, I use a bread machine. I love those things! If time is an issue, you could make cornbread. Pick up a mix at the store and whip it together. My kids like to make cornbread, it doesn’t take any longer than a few minutes to mix it up and pop it into the oven. Serve it with butter, honey, or maple syrup.

  Decorate your home and altar with sunflowers, gourds, wheat, and scarecrows. Make a basket centerpiece with gourds and ornamental corn. Use a flat-bottom basket and arrange the gourds and corn around a central yellow or orange pillar candle.

  In the garden, the Indian corn is ready to be harvested and the tomatoes are putting out lots of fruit. This is the time of year I start to get a little anxious over the pumpkin crop. How are they doing? Will we have a good crop this year?

  Blackberries are ripening and if time permits I make the drive with my sister-in-law to her husband’s family property to go blackberry picking. The kids are getting ready to go back to school in a few weeks, and mothers everywhere are counting down the days. I usually perform a little abundance/prosperity work at this time of year, in thanks for the harvest from the garden and to help me stretch the budget in our annual “time to buy school clothes” season.

  On the day of Lughnasadh/Lammas, August 1, fix a tealight inside of a small cauldron. Place around the outside of the cauldron an arrangement of fruits and vegetables from the garden. Suggested garden items would be decorative Indian corn, gourds, garden tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, a dish of blackberries set to the side or a ring of different-colored apples from the market. These would be nice if your garden isn’t producing anything edible at the moment. Use whatever strikes your fancy—be imaginative, you’ll come up with something clever. As you light the candle, ask for continued blessings for your family in your own words, or try something like this:

  Welcome, the season of the first harvest

  Your continued blessings I now request.

  We give thanks for the gifts bestowed upon us

  May our family prosper and enjoy success.

  Let the candle burn out and then cook up the fruit and vegetables however you prefer for Lughnasadh dinner.

  There is nothing in the world more peaceful than apple leaves with an early moon.

  Alice Meynell

  Mabon/Autumnal Equinox

  Also known as the Witches’ Thanksgiving. Our menu consists of a turkey dinner, all the trimmings, and pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. Seasonal decorations include fall leaves, a cornucopia, pumpkins, and apples. In the garden I am watching the pumpkin crop and starting to harvest them. The pumpkins get lined up on wooden planks in the backyard until the end of the month, when the kids will start to sell them. Fall mums are everywhere and I pump up the color in the autumn garden by picking up a few mums and planting them in spots that could use a dash of color. A garland of fall leaves intertwined with orange lights is draped over the outside front door.

  On Mabon we put up our corn stalks in the front yard. Six-Foot Stanley comes out of the attic and is displayed in the front yard gardens. Stanley is a scarecrow that my husband rigged up on a two-by-four frame and dressed in some old jeans and a shirt, many years ago. I added a bandanna and hat. Ken then painted an “Autumn Greetings” sign to be placed by Stanley’s side. Stanley stays with us, watching over the yard, until after Samhain/Halloween.

  Stanley stands about six feet tall and his head is one of those realistic-looking, light-up, carved jack-o’-lanterns that is bolted onto the frame. We place an old fishing hat on his head and put the jack-o’-lantern light on a timer so when the sun goes down his head lights up. The neighborhood children love Stanley. He seems to have his own fan club. In late September and throughout October, carloads of families go by, waving and shouting hello to Stanley. He seems to have started a decorating trend of his own as well. After Stanley makes his Mabon appearance, other variations of Stanley, sitting on benches and sprawled in yards, start to appear in the neighborhood front yards by the very next day.

  One family tradition that I insist on is going apple picking on Mabon. Depending on my son’s football games and our work schedules, we try to go on the actual day of the equinox, or as close as we can get. I take my family out to the same farm that my parents took me to. They give you a tractor ride out to the orchard and turn you loose. There is nothing like eating an apple as soon as you pick it off the tree!

  Someone always starts an apple fight by throwing fallen apples at somebody else (the culprit is usually my husband). I snap lots of pictures of the kids who, of course, roll their eyes at me and tell me they’re too old to have their pictures taken. I start by asking nicely. Then I get tougher and start barking orders—“You stand there . . . You, quit smacking your sister . . . You, take off your sunglasses . . . Come on, guys, smile. Act like you like each other!”—and finally, they give in. I wouldn’t trade that family outing for anything.

  Listen! The wind is rising and

  the air is wild with leaves.

  We have had our summer evenings,

  now for October eves!

  Humbert Wolfe

  Halloween/Samhain

  The serious Halloween decorations go out October 1. I have more Halloween accessories than some folks have Christmas decorations. No kidding. I have a collection of folk-art style, kitchen-witch dolls that stays displayed on shelves in the kitchen year ’round. With the dolls are a couple of framed Victorian-style Halloween postcards. I collect anything clever that has a Halloween theme on it, or an attractive representation of a witch. No green-faced hags! In this small collection of mine there are dolls, tins, mugs, a teapot, and my own witchy needlework.

  Every room in the house, except for the bathrooms, gets decorated with a little something. I usually can talk one of my sons into hanging up my orange Halloween lights across the front of the house. A spinoff of those white winter icicle lights, these lights are orange icicle types that some enterprising soul named Witch-cicles. I found them on sale. Who could resist? Certainly not me. Besides, they look terrific as a backdrop for Stanley. It is about this time of year that we can hear carloads of families with kids who have been admiring Stanley shouting, “That house! I wanna go to that house!” as they drive by. Even my “cool” teens smile and get a kick out of that.

  About a week before Samhain, I put up spiderwebs and set out a couple of hay bales to display all the pumpkins on. I might, if I can find some on sale, buy a few bright red or orange mums for the front porch and place them in pots, just for decoration. That’s my Martha Stewart side coming out again. Can’t help it, it’s a sickness.

  As a family, we argue over which pumpkin carving patterns to buy that year, and then the race is on to claim a pattern and find the perfect pumpkin to fit it. Some patterns we save and reuse from year to year. As you can imagine, we carve up around a dozen pumpkins or so. On Halloween night, the kids arrange them by lining them up on hay bales and along the garden sidewalk. They look pretty impressive from the street.

  Owing to all the decorations that are clever, spirited, and attractive—not gross or scary—we get many trick-or-treaters every year. It is always amusing to hear the parents as their kids drag them up the sidewalk on Halloween night. Many parents walk up to the porch and ask where we got all the pumpkins, an
d how did we carve them up so neatly? Most have told me how their kids have been hounding them for weeks to come to our house. I have come to be known in the neighborhood as the “lady with all the pumpkins on the corner.” Believe it or not, I get asked many gardening questions on that night. While the trick-or-treaters check out the pumpkins, their parents usually check out the front garden.

  A interesting way to make a seasonal arrangement for your Samhain table is to hollow out a medium-sized pumpkin. Insert a block of florist’s foam called Oasis. Presoak the Oasis in water overnight, then trim to size and slip into the pumpkin shell. Leave about a half an inch of the foam sticking above the opening of your pumpkin. Cover the exposed foam with moss, and secure with a few floral pins.

  Clip blooming mums, sedum, roses, cosmos, and whatever other flowers your fall garden is producing, and make a simple round arrangement in the pumpkin. If you don’t want to mess with the foam, try hiding an old clean jar inside the pumpkin. Then fill the jar with water and arrange your flowers inside of that.

  Another fun idea is to clean out mini pumpkins or small round gourds and carve primitive or folk-art style little stars and crescent moons on their sides. Place a tealight inside of the mini pumpkins and then arrange them down your buffet table and light them up. These tiny pumpkin luminaries are also quite dramatic and different when placed on a candelabra instead of bigger candles.

  When my crew of ghouls and goblins were smaller, we started putting out a buffet of finger foods and sandwiches to get them to eat dinner and to keep them from devouring all of their candy. The menu habitually includes rye bread and dill dip, carrots, celery, chicken salad sandwiches on rolls, and assorted cheese and crackers, dips and chips. For dessert, a pumpkin pie. When our nieces and nephews arrive that night they often find their way to the buffet table for a snack.

  Now that my kids are older and only one of them is trick-or-treating, they still enjoy the buffet. It amuses me to have them haul out the Halloween tablecloth and argue with me over the menu and which centerpiece to use on the table. Another family tradition is to watch the movie Young Frankenstein together on Halloween. Each of us knows all the lines by heart.

  After the trick-or-treaters are gone and my kids stagger off to bed, I head outside for a private Samhain celebration. I leave a candle lit for the spirits of the dead to burn all night in the big iron cauldron in the living room. I take a few moments to honor the souls of those who have passed away that year. Then I welcome the season of winter, reflect on that year’s growing season, and start to anticipate my time of rest from the hard work of gardening.

  The holly and the ivy

  When they are both full grown,

  Of all the trees that are in the wood,

  The holly bears the crown.

  Traditional Carol

  Yule/Winter Solstice

  The winter solstice or Yule is both the longest night and the shortest day. From this point on, the sun becomes stronger and stronger and the daylight hours begin to slowly increase. The birth of the newborn sun is celebrated, as well as the official beginning of winter. Yule logs decorated with fresh pine, sprigs of holly, and red taper candles are traditional Pagan accessories. So are large, red, cinnamon-scented “sun” candles.

  Speaking of candles, those pillars are on sale during late November and December, so go snag some for your seasonal candle magick. Dark green pillars with the familiar scents of pine and bayberry add their own magickal aromatherapy to the home; pine for abundance and protection, the scent of bayberry for bringing good luck in the new year, the fragrance of cinnamon for love and prosperity, and off-white candles in vanilla scents to soothe the nerves and encourage loving vibrations.

  For a natural, rustic-looking arrangement for your holiday altar or mantle, try either live or artificial pine swags with white lights sprinkled throughout. Add red, off-white, and green pillar candles in various heights and group them together on either end of the altar/mantle. Create some rustic twig pentagrams by cutting fallen twigs into twelve-inch sections and then binding the ends together with wire. Tuck those into your display.

  For your Yule tree, look for outdoor theme ornaments. Hunting and fishing ornaments, bears, birds, small reindeer, a silk cardinal for a tree topper. Fill in with decorative bird’s nests and lots of bright red berries and pine cones to finish up your woodland Yule decorations.

  For a solstice or celestial theme, decorate with golds and blues, and gilded ornaments in the shape of suns, stars, and moons. Watch for Pagan-friendly ornaments like a stag or oak leaves, and add as many sun ornaments as you can find. White lights, crystal-looking icicles, and snowflakes will add a wintery sparkle. Try looping iridescent ribbon through your greenery on the mantle and group together gold, white, and a few red pillar candles.

  My last suggestion is inspired by a miniature tree that I redecorated a few years ago. This small tabletop tree looked like a Charlie Brown tree. It sat on a table at the end of the hall and was pretty sad-looking. All the odds and ends over the years were thrown on it. One day the floral designer in me snuck out and I pulled everything but the white lights off that little tree and took a critical look at it. I had three very nice ornaments with angels and Santas on them—these were the old-fashioned, card-type ornaments that are heavy cardboard with gold edges and have reproduction Victorian-looking designs on them. There were two angels that looked like faeries and one Santa. All the ornaments were in shades of mauve, white, and gold.

  With visions of flower faeries and sugarplums dancing through my head, I went to the craft store and hunted through their sale holiday floral picks. I found roses dusted in glitter in shades of mauve and deep pink. I dug deeper and found some grape clusters and tiny apples in coordinating shades, also dusted in that sugary-looking glitter.

  In a half-price bin, my husband unearthed a set of a dozen tiny glass ball ornaments. They were mauve, frosted white, and celadon green. We discovered a tiny tree topper star in glittery white and I bought a spool of sale ribbon in sheer white with gold wire edges. We added some mushroom birds in pink and a butterfly to that little tree, and created a knockout miniature garden faery/sugarplum tree. The whole project cost me about ten dollars.

  The three trees described for you are all theme trees that we have in our home. The solstice/celestial tree is the only big tree, however. The woodland tree is a four-foot tree for the family room. The faery tree is a tabletop tree and it is about two feet tall.

  Before you toss up your hands in disgust at the decorating maniac in me, I want to tell you that all of the decorations I have described have taken me years to build up slowly. I watch for sales and make what I can’t afford to buy.

  Do I have any projects left? Oh, yeah, I have to redo my artificial pine wreath for the front door, it’s looking a little worse for wear. I have a great big three-dimensional sun ornament that hangs in the middle of the holiday wreath and I want to incorporate that in somehow, maybe add some glittery fruit or golden pears . . . I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with it. But I promise you, I’ll come up with something.

  [contents]

  Everybody needs places to play in and pray in,

  where nature may heal and cheer

  and give strength . . .

  John Muir

  10

  Garden Magick from the Ground Up

  What, do you suppose, turns a typical flower garden into an enchanted garden? What elements do you imagine would have to be incorporated to transform an outdoor area, such as the typical backyard, into a sacred space? Think about this for a moment. You could work with the four basic elements of natural magick, earth, air, fire, and water. Incorporating those into your sacred space would be a fantastic way to start. Are any other ideas coming to mind? Yes, there are various statues and representations of the God and Goddess available. Those could make nifty, magickal garden decorations. I can just imagine the little w
heels in your mind busily turning away . . .

  However, before you start thinking too much in terms of garden accessories and knickknacks, hang on for a minute. I wasn’t speaking of something corporeal that you’ll have to go out and purchase. No, I was thinking like a witch. I was envisioning more along the lines of the metaphysical and the spiritual. Now I’ve intrigued you, haven’t I?

  The single most important and powerful aspect of turning the mundane yard into the magickal sanctuary would be you. Yes, you. You and your magickal will and intentions. In truth, the difference between the magickal and the mundane garden is the deliberate act of consecrating the area for the purpose of creating a permanent sacred space. This sacred garden space would be both an area in which to raise your enchanted plants and a place to perform magick. If we are to enter into the world of herbal enchantments and garden magick, we need to leave our excuses and preconceptions behind. It is time to step up and go to work. The easiest way to accomplish this is to get off your rump and start to work in the garden.

  Now is the moment to get your hands dirty. You need to begin to put what you’ve learned about flower folklore and magickal herbalism into practice. Let’s make it a part of your everyday life. As you work within the traditions of garden witchery, the garden becomes a place where both our metaphysical and ordinary lives begin to thrive together.

  Sweet is the lore which Nature brings.

  Wordsworth

  Nature, the Ultimate Sacred Space

  In chapter 2 we talked briefly about creating your own outdoor sanctuary. Let’s expand on that a bit. Find a relaxing, private place outside, a natural sacred space for you to perform your herbal spells and to garden. Go outside right now, and scout out a likely spot, someplace private that feels right to you. You will know it when you’ve found it. You may get a bit of a tingle or even a rush. Some folks get a sense of peace, and they’ll notice more activity from birds and insects, like butterflies or bees for example.