So maybe you’re a college witch with limited space and money, limited to the one window in your dorm. Or, maybe you’re a witch without extensive backyard space who wants to start up a magical garden. Perhaps you’re a kitchen witch who wants the freshest herbs right at her fingertips.
For many witches, having a garden seems to be a bit of a no-brainer. After all, plants and magic go hand-in-hand. Plus, when thinking of a witch, it’s hard not to think of a cottage in the woods with a little vegetable garden out front. Unfortunately for the majority of us, our cottage in the woods is a tiny flat, and our garden out front is a windowsill with limited space.
This is when it comes time to embrace your craftiness and bring your garden indoors! Not only does it place your garden in a convenient location, it also allows you to freshen the air, recycle what would otherwise harm the earth, and embrace your witchy green thumb!
Gardening for Your Familiar
This past weekend, I went to one of my coven sisters’ place to run a game of Dungeons and Dragons. This in itself isn’t that unusual – I usually play about a game a week, and every other week is held at her place. However, she is definitely a witch who spends plenty of time both in the garden and in the kitchen! A fellow animal lover, with three cats and a couple of dogs, it’s always enjoyable to visit. What surprised me, though was an addition to her home’s normal features: a little garden close to the ground meant for her cats!
Whether a college witch or a witch who’d been practicing for a long time, it’s fair to say that many of us – dare I say that perhaps most of us – have dogs, cats, or some other kind of pet. And while there are plenty of spells out there for familiars and pets, it’s rare that I see spells focusing on gardens for them. So of course, my sister’s garden is featured this week, because it is absolutely brilliant!
A simple project, done in the same way you would any container garden, consider growing plants that your furry friends can safely consume. Where the magic comes in is the intent with which you grow your plants and with which you pot them. The example above makes use of cat grass, catnip, mint (which the kitties love to rub up against), cilantro, and parsley.
But let’s take it a step further, as there are plenty of other animals out there!
Aquatic Gardens: Just like with terrestrial pets and plants, live plants can be added to an aquarium with care. Not only do they breathe new life into your fishes’ home, but they help oxygenate the water and depending on the species of plant and fish in the environment, could provide a food source. Sometimes the plant itself is the pet, as in the case of marimo moss balls!
Terrarium Gardens: In the past, I’ve mentioned bottled gardens and terrarium gardens. Whether reptile or amphibian, plants can help provide a more natural surface for climbing, can provide a food source for herbivorous friends, and – as before – help bring more life to the terrarium!
Formicarium Gardens?: Admittedly, not everyone has a colony of ants as a domestic pet. But as with any animal, ants require care and maintenance, and a proper formicarium usually has a larger area for foraging. Though the ants will be healthy with a steady supply of feeder insects and sugars, adding plants will not only make the “outworld” a more aesthetically pleasing environment, but a more diverse one for the colony as well. In addition, ants have been known to tend to plants, harvesting sap and nectars while also keeping the plant nourished and maintained. Take it a step further by adding pitcher plants – a plant that could easily be a pet itself – which not only help control the colony population, but also promote a mutual relationship with ants (the plant offers nectar to the ants from its inactive pitchers, and while it does “eat” ants, the ants will still take care of the pitcher for the sake of the nectar).
Bringing it Outside: Some of us count horses and other outdoor animals as pets. The same principle applies – set aside a box garden specifically to help nourish your friends and bring some joy to the stable. Similarly, if you don’t have any pets, you could set up a garden to encourage wildlife. It’s not uncommon to see beautiful flower gardens for hummingbirds, fruit trees and berry bushes to encourage wild birds to visit, and gardens set off to the side specifically for deer.
What This Brings to a Witch
Part of being a witch or of being pagan is nurturing a relationship with nature. There are many ways of doing this, from adopting an organic lifestyle to assisting in conservation efforts, to even learning how to forage and to recognize various plants. But it goes without saying that pets, plants, and animals can all do much to help us learn about our role in the world. They teach us how to be ourselves, how to live in the moment. Even the ants in a formicarium can teach us about how to naturally be efficient and productive.
This in itself is magical. It’s a natural spell that is meant to enliven the spirit and while it does do quite a bit to make the animals in our lives happy and healthy (even more so when planted and grown with intent), it also turns around and gives us the very same blessing.
Grow your garden, and tend to it and your animal friends with love, and they will teach you far more than you may realize!
Does anyone know how to trip/propagate this lacy leaf philodendron? It’s growing like crazy! The leaf in the third picture wasn’t there 2 days ago ????????? If it gets any bigger, I won’t be able to bring it inside for the winter! Please help me!!
So maybe you’re a college witch with limited space and money, limited to the one window in your dorm. Or, maybe you’re a witch without extensive backyard space who wants to start up a magical garden. Perhaps you’re a kitchen witch who wants the freshest herbs right at her fingertips.
For many witches, having a garden seems to be a bit of a no-brainer. After all, plants and magic go hand-in-hand. Plus, when thinking of a witch, it’s hard not to think of a cottage in the woods with a little vegetable garden out front. Unfortunately for the majority of us, our cottage in the woods is a tiny flat, and our garden out front is a windowsill with limited space.
This is when it comes time to embrace your craftiness and bring your garden indoors! Not only does it place your garden in a convenient location, it also allows you to freshen the air, recycle what would otherwise harm the earth, and embrace your witchy green thumb!
Soup and Coffee Tins? Perfect!
So spring break is over and students all over the country are hunkering down for another quarter (or semester) of frantic studying, testing, and praying for sleep while pulling all-nighters. However, what’s likely also on the minds of these students is the need to have access to fresh ingredients on a budget. Well, college witches, search no more!
Chances are that in packing up some food for your dorm, you’ve also managed to amass a sizeable collection of soup cans and coffee tins. Whether your diet is exclusively cold Spaghetti-O’s and coffee or if you’ve just never gotten rid of the can from your sick day chicken noodle soup, these tin cans are useful as seed starters, herb planters, and rustic decoration.
Like any container garden, the process is simple. Carefully puncture a few drainage holes at the bottom of the can, provide a layer of gravel, add soil and seedlings/seeds, and water. But the fun is in what you can do to make these little DIY planters have a bit of personality! For that, we jump straight to some witchy talk!
How Can I Witch This?
I know, this container seems fairly self-explanatory. Sigils, symbols, runes and whatnot painted or drawn on the can to promote health and whatever else the plant corresponds to, and crystals added to the soil for the same reason. But I wanted to take a step back and consider the container itself for a moment.
In previous Domestic Garden Witch articles, I’ve focused on what you can do with the containers rather than what the containers might link to in witchcraft. In this case, I would like to change that. Tin cans, while inexpensive, are produced today not from tin (usually), but from aluminum or steel. Depending upon what the can stores, it could also be tin-plate steel. Regardless, these metals have some influence in what you can do on a magical level.
First, tin is a wonderful metal with a bit of history in witchcraft. In many traditions, it is most strongly associated with healing, prosperity, and money spells. Consider growing plants such as basil or rosemary in containers made with tin, allowing the metal to correspond with the uses of these herbs in your spells.
Aluminum is inexpensive, fairly plentiful these days, and actually does have a use in modern witchcraft despite its lack of historical magical attributes. Today, it can most often be associated with thriftiness, reflection, malleability, and travel. If you’re looking to work spells which encourage financial responsibility, or introspective thought, consider using aluminum cans with the appropriate plants and crystals.
Man has used steel quite a bit throughout history, and while we tend to have a stronger bond with iron (iron having been one of the first metals we’ve worked with, after copper and bronze), steel does have a few magical properties that have survived. Like iron, steel is most strongly associated with protection (so much so that in a few practices where metals are significant considerations, it’s acceptable to use an athame of steel in place of iron). If your tin can is actually made of steel, as many coffee cans are, consider growing plants such as rosemary or tomatoes (as starters) whose properties resonate quite strongly with iron and steel.
Not sure what your container is made of? Check to see if it’s magnetic. If it sticks, chances are that it is made of steel or has a high content of iron. If not, then it is most likely aluminum. Ultimately, however, you’re going to want to work with your gut feelings. If you don’t feel that your container brings anything to the magic, then don’t incorporate it into the spell, opting instead to just make use of the thriftiness of the idea. If you have a steel can but feel that it works best for love spells, then by all means grow that lavender in it!
May all your harvests be bountiful! Blessed Be! )O(
I have a friend asking me to do this, so with my care of my succulents of two months I shall share for her sake.
💖Most Succulents should be watered every two weeks to a month. I tend to do mine every two weeks only because I have sand mixed in with actual soil so it dries out fairly quickly.
🌸Note that each succulent is different. Researching the type of succulent it is and how much water, sun and room it needs is important. This goes for every plant you receive or buy.
✨when getting any plant from a store, always repot the plant into a bigger pot at least 2x the size of the original pot. Most succulents just need the root room. So make sure it’s deep enough for it.
💖with how succulents grow they can over crowd the top of their pot. When that happens you may want to put it in a new pot.
🌸when watering soak the soil. It may be best to have a pot the stains incase you accidentally over water the plant.
✨Many Succulents can handle the cold. It does drop temps tires in desert like places after all.
💖be careful when transplanting. Moving any plant into a new pot can put it into shock. Sometimes they will recover other times they won’t.
teakepp 