Last night I watered my garden in darkness by the light of the moon and the stars. I whispered to their spirits and burned tobacco leaf as offering to each one – my Saturnian solanaceae, the subtlely narcotic catnip, my ever growing mullein and great avens, my small grove of rowan, cedar, elder, and oak…
Henbane in flower and fruit with Bittersweet Nightshade behind
Orange and White Tree Daturas
Rowan in darkness
This look really nice and healthy! I used to grow belladonna – the berries were beautiful, but the leaves were always decimated by something that just ate them up.
Curiously, the only plant in my garden getting eaten is the Great Avens. Tobacco acts as a natural pesticide/insecticide. You can use the smoke or grow some tobacco and infuse it with water in a spray bottle and spray your plants with it to keep away bugs. How witchy is it to use a solanaceae (tobacco) on your other solanaceae plants to keep away pests?
Sarah, are you drying the tobacco leaves before the water infusion, or are you macerating them fresh?
Fresh or dried seems to be used alternately in recipes, but you shouldn’t use it on food plants due to its toxicity. However, you can wait a few days for the spray to work and then spray your plants again with clean water to wash off the residue and give them a good watering to flush out the nicotine. It’s why I prefer to use the smoke so it affects the bugs and not the plants.
That makes a lot of sense. I don’t mind drying leaves and rolling up puros to smoke out the bugs. Great way to welcome spirits into the garden, too.