The poetic scent of Honeysuckle has inspired the poets, as well as lovers for centuries. Shakespeare wrote “Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms … So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist.” For Chaucer, Honeysuckle was a poetic metaphor for faithfulness in love, steadfast. The Victorians didn’t allow Honeysuckle into […]
Valerian blooming in the Witch’s Garden, June 1
Valerian has had a place in the magical pharmacy since ancient Rome and Greece. The Roman physician and philosopher Aelius Galenus remarked on its use as an aid to insomnia, which was also known by the Greeks, as it was written up by Hippocrates a few centuries earlier. Our old friend, Nicholas Culpeper described Valerian in […]
Night Scented Stock turns the night upside down in the moon garden, May 27, 2020
Night Scented Stock, or Matthiola longipetala is a new addition to the moon garden this year. Francis Bacon wrote “And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know […]
Henbane in the Witch’s Garden, May 27, 2020
Henbane’s place in the Witch’s Garden is that of inducement … hallucinations, dreams, light, euphoria, for the Greeks it inspired oracles and it’s thought it was the ingredient taken by the Vikings to inspire the berserkers. Highly toxic and if you live it’s a safe bet you’ll never be quite the same. This is the […]
On the beach at Eaton’s Neck, Long Island, Blue Oyster Cult looks to the stars & discovers the origin of storms … the meaning of Astronomy
Author’s Note I started this piece about twelve years ago, when I was living on the north shore of Long Island. I was researching the effect the landscape has on artists, and had long been a fan of Blue Oyster Cult, who once lived and worked in the same area I was then living. I […]
Journal Entry: Spring 2020 in the witch’s garden – on delayed plants, medicinal herbs, fairy garden planning and a warning to reptiles
The witch’s garden theme this year has been self sufficiency. It’s not the black plague, but hopefully it’s the worst we’ll see in our lifetimes. My plan was to put more focus on the moon garden and cottage garden, but I made the mistake of ordering those plants from Spring Hill Nurseries. Back in February, […]
Valerian blooms for a second year
I’ve tried some commercial Valerian Root products and they do work. It’s a subtle somnolent, relaxing you more than hammering you with sleep. Some believe that the Pied Piper of Hamelin had Valerian in his pocket, as rats are known to love the scent of the plant. Witches used Valerian in love potions to attract […]
Peonies in the witch’s garden, May 13, 2020
Perhaps we should turn to folklore for help in keeping out Peonies and other garden plants safe from deer and other critters? In the first book written in English dedicated to gardening, Thomas Hill related in 1577 that if Peonies were grown at the edges of your garden, that they “are after (as by a […]
