After discovering The Secret Garden as a child something in my brain clicked. I don’t know if it was all the subtle folk magic that made so much sense to me or the fascinating cycle of death and rebirth of the garden in the story, but I started planning my own secret garden. It would be completely walled in so no one could see it or enter it. I even built rectangular models using cardboard and scotch tape (I was an industrious 9-year old) in my old backyard by the fish pond. I dreamed my garden would be full of beautiful and mysterious plants, but on the surface would look just like weeds to everyone else.
I stood outside on my giant rectangular terrace garden with its three walls and one half wall facing nothing but the two-storey-high tops of trees on the downslope of the mountain and I realized that I had created my secret garden. When I was away the mountain wept, the sun did not shine, and the garden did not grow. Now the sun has arrived and almost alchemical transformations happen every day.
Black Henbane unfurls its sleepy head of flowers, each one slowly waking up after the other until they are spread out in long line of purple-veined flowers and green seed pods. Henbane belongs to Old Man. It is beautiful and seemingly friendly from a distance, but up close it smells of onions and rotting meat and the hairy sticky leaves try to hold on to those who would dare caress it to pull them close, too close, and make them drink in its poison. It is like a tall stately man covered in leaves, vines, flowers, and snakes, but at second glance you see the man’s face is a rotting skull.
Bittersweet nightshade schemes to take over the garden and overrun the other plants by strangling them with purple vines. I untangle them from the Rowan tree and the Catnip and move them a safe distance away from the others with their very own wall to climb. They whisper to me to dig up the Solomon’s Seal for the roots so they can have the planter to themselves. I laugh and tell them they are the ones who will be cut back.
Black Nightshade is much healthier this year, still so slow compared to its cousin Bittersweet, but it may produce flowers and berries this year if I am lucky, if I give it many offerings of tobacco smoke. It quietly asks for more shade and more water and then responds with new healthy vines.
Belladonna has been waiting for the sun. New to the garden, she is very quiet. She wants to be wooed, not the other way around. Be careful when she does whisper, she makes promises of beauty that often lead to death (as vanity has a habit of doing).
Viper’s Bugloss, one of Odin’s nine sacred herbs, grows taller and taller producing more and more fuzzy prickly leaves and brilliant blue-pink flowers with stamens like insect antenna. Every time I visit and touch it Echium gives me its flowers. “Eat them”, it says. It is a creature of healing and of destruction and has no qualms – the mercenary of the medicine basket.
The Foxgloves finally grew from small seedlings into plants. They may not flower this year due to spending too much time on their roots. This is a good thing as I will need to thin them out before they get too big. Unlike the other poisons, I’ve found foxglove friendly without any sinister undertones. It is soft and welcoming with it’s rabbit-ear leaves, but never tries to convince me to eat it or use it for anything but charms. Foxgloves says “turn me into a black ink and use it to paint symbols of protection on your threshold”.
I find a mother spider protecting her eggs with layer upon layer of finest and strongest silk. My garden is already full of spiders and their webs. I have also seen honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, lady bugs, and more beetles. Once upon a time there were no insects in my garden. Their presence is an indicator of good health and biodiversity. They will attract bats and birds and perhaps other beneficial friends.
The poisons and magicians grow side by side with the healing plants of alfalfa, bergamot, catnip, lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, thyme, oregano, Solomon’s seal, lavender, rosemary, and clary sage. They all intermingle which keeps the poisons from plotting together and the healers from getting too gentle and intermarrying with their cousins (as mints have a habit of doing).
And at the front of the house, right by the front door only touched by the setting sun, is my Devil’s Club. Tyson saved it for me when cleaning up a trail at his cabin and I transplanted it this winter. To my delight, spikey shoots appeared in the spring and then later came the splays of bright green leaves covered in the finest nasty spines.
Maybe it will flower and fruit this year… I want to try crafting an extract with the berries to use in a dandruff shampoo or for a lice rinse. I have loved Devil’s Club since the first time I met it and smelled it’s enticing ginger-ginseng fragrance. It is friendly despite its thorns. It is a warrior of medicine and of magic and will fiercely protect and defend anyone who befriends it. I collect and cure the wood to make protective beads and charcoal. It is a blessing to have one so close, protecting my house, instead of having to travel deep into the mountains to find them.
This post made me go a bit dreamy with yearning.
Can you give any pointers to a novice wanting to work with plant spirits? The jerusalem artichokes feel like they have something to say and violets keep turning but and I’m more than a little lost over how to listen properly
My usual first point of call is the library, but the books I have been able to get hold of have been very new-agey and on the fluffy side.
Would be so grateful for any advice at all!
Try my booklist: The Witch’s Favourite Green Reads
And the non-Pagan Herbal Medicine Maker’s Handbook by James Green also has some great pointers
Just treat it like a new friendship – woo them with presents (offerings – tobacco, bonemeal, compost tea), talk to them, let them know what you’re doing before you harvest them or move them around. Just treat them like they are aware of you. I used to know a nun who did this with her plants and they always grew way bigger than they were supposed to and kept growing out of season in the freezing winters.
Thanks Sarah, I’ve just started talking to my hyacinth beans and noodle beans – they’ve not put out much growth for some reason and I figured it might help? Told them I wasn’t fussed about getting beans from them just wanted to see how beautiful they are first hand
Thanks for the advice. Think it’s time to stop waiting to find good information and just go out there and figure it out. ^_^
What a beautiful garden!
Although helpful, I could do without the spiders. Yuck.
Ah Sarah! With that one reference “The Secret garden”, you transported me back to a long time ago when first i saw that movie! I showed it to my girls when they were young and to this day they also remember the magic in that Garden. My own Secret Garden is having very hard times since we’ve had so much rain! The soil is so saturated that everything has become waterlogged. I’m trying to save what I can but, it is Winter and the time is not right to take cuttings or to transplant….*sigh*…now I’m just waiting! Enjoy your magical place! It is beautiful xxx
That happened to me in my old community garden, it usually flooded pretty nastily in the spring! I was always taught that winter was transplanting time, cuttings too in some cases (depends on the plant). Best of luck saving your preciouses!
I wish your foxglove luck in flowering. I found an enormous spider the color of my purple and white foxglove devouring a giant black bee yesterday and I grew a new respect for that plant lol.
What a lovely garden! I’ve always liked secret gardens too…
Plant spirits: I love working with them. My method, which I learnt with two experienced shamans (at two different times, so they are complementary) – is to do a walking journey among your plant, perhaps carrying the one you want to communicate with (but don’t discount the others, they might have something to say to you about themselves or another, or you). For the walking journey you can work with or without a rattle, and you can work with an animal familiar if you have one that has an affinity with plants (I have bee, so she’s perfect).
You put yourself in a light trance through slow repetitive walking, let your mind follow your steps and then click out of your body, the way it would in a sitting or lying down trance; and when you feel ready, you let your eyes float to whatever plant attracts you. Sit with it for a while and let it come to you… and then you can gently ask questions. Have your Jerusalem artichoke nearby and either try and draw it out towards you, or ask the other plant if it has anything to tell you about the artichoke.
You can also put yourself in that kind of trance while holding your artichoke and try and draw it directly to you. If you have an animal familiar that is at ease with plants, it can help and direct you – otherwise, find a ‘friendly’ plant that will act as a bridge.
I hope that helps. I love love love working with plants. They are so wise and such strong spirits!
Sophie
Thanks for the advice Sophie
Lovely, thanks for the great pix as well. Educating and delighting!
Thanks for the beautiful pictures and teachings! I mostly stuck to vegetables and culinary herbs this year so it’s exciting to see the progress of your Solonacae. For those who don’t have a garden of their own your blog is an evocative way to keep in touch with the wheel of the year.
That is one pretty garden! I like the idea of growing both the healing & baneful herbs together; I just grow them where ever the best conditions I have available.
We have a little patch of viper’s bugloss, and I agree they are quite the saucy plants. So pretty and the bumblers just love them!
BTW, how do you find the hanging tomato planters?
The planters are everywhere here – I’ve seen them at garden centers, dollar stores, and hardware stores anywhere from $15 to $7 each. You can put peppers, zucchini, and other goodies in them too.
Sorry, I should of been more clear. I meant how do you like them?
Sarah are you sure you posted the right image, that doesn’t look like foxglove.
I’m 100% sure. They grow everywhere wild here and my friends think I’m daft for growing it on purpose. They’re just little seedlings so they don’t have the length to the leaves more mature ones do.
Just lovely! I’m glad I’m not the only one who has conversations with her plants as I work my way through them.
Hello,
I’ve only recently discovered your site and I’m already hooked. I spend FAR too much time pouring over your archives while I should be focusing on work
I’m intrigued by your mention of Viper’s Bugloss. I’m Australian, and here this plant has many names, including Riverina Bluebell and the more commonly known Patterson’s curse. I’ve always felt a strong attraction to the plant, but have never understood why, and my research has never turned up any magical uses for the plant.
Perhaps I shall have to search deeper.
Thank you for sharing this post, it is enchanting.
Thanks for reading Grant!
I’ve had some kind of thing with henbane for over a decade now. i have not used it though. it is always appearing to me in different places, but i am afraid. when i first saw it, i knew it was magical. it looked like Lily Munster’s dress to me. i knew it was magic, sleep, death, journeying, the last sleep. it appeared overnight in our yard. i went to my sister’s land on the 4th, and there it was again, several of them. i still did not take any. i acknowledged it. told my sister what it was, since she has children about. said they used to gather it for medicine during WWII. i touched it lightly, the leaves, the flowers, in respect but no more than that.
I LOVE henbane I think it’s beautiful and its always friendly to me, even up close, but that’s because I work with the solanaceae. I’ve found it very easy to grow, but I’ve heard of others having trouble with it. I crumble its dried leaves into flying ointments and incenses and I hope to make a traditional henbane beer once I’ve made a few batches of regular beer (that taste good). I also use the seeds for magic, not to ingest, but to represent the spirit of henbane in workings.
Thanks for the tips, Sarah
I’ve been wanting to make beer for a couple of years, but live in a 1 room apartment with no room.
Oh I love that movie The Secret Garden. Yours is magnicifent. thank you for sharing your wonderful plants. Hugs Sara
Black Nightshade and Belladonna? That doesn’t make…wait…wait, Black Nightshade is Solanum Nigra, not Atropa Belladonna isn’t it? I’m used to the folkname Garden Nightshade, got confused…
Solanum Dulcamara is my favorite! Brilliant color that dazzles as it quietly strangles…
For black nightshade’s there’s solanum nigrum from Europe and solanum americanum (which I have) from N. America. Thank goodness I didn’t plant white nightshade this year or y’all would be even more confused! Sometimes you just don’t know which is which until they flower!
I don’t exactly ‘grow’ Blueweed, all I have to do is welcome it wherever it pops up. But I love it, and had no idea that it’s edible
Do you eat just the flowers or leaves too?
Just the flowers, the leaves are bit too irritating. I saw it growing EVERYWHERE wild while I was visiting in Ontario – it was pretty awesome!
Just want to say I love your blog and the other site you have created is really beautiful. And your garden is gorgeous. I am a fellow gardener too. Love me garden. Its where I spend most of my time. Sometimes just looking and having a feel around. I adored the secret garden, it reminds me of a time when I use to sneak into other peoples gardens as a kid, I was a bit naughty. There was one particular garden that had lots of little corners and crannies. Gardens have always been full of magic and secrets to me
Ah, Devil’s Club. I too have loved it long from childhood. Something about it has fascinated me and called me but never tempted me. Very cool…
I have learned more from reading your blog in two weeks than I’ve learned in six years of reading witchy 101 books! Thank you so much! But I wonder, to what use do you put viper’s bugloss? Is there a spiritual or magical purpose, or do you use it for medicinal purposes?
Such a beautiful garden! I started with a very small kitchen “garden” (because I live in an apartment). Right now I work with Sweet Marjoram and Parsley. I talk to them about their care and sometimes sing to them. They seem to respond with rich green leaves and healthy growth. I plan to do more in depth plant spirit work with them and to also begin growing two or three additional plants. Your posts have inspired me to move forward with that plan asap!