bearded-iris

Already starting to plan this years garden so I thought I should do a post on Witch Gardens

Moonlight Garden

A garden that blooms in the moonlight, a great place to perform night time rituals, meditations, or to just take a midnight stroll. A garden that is full of magick even after the sun sets. 

Plants to add in your moonlight garden:

Moonflower: (Ipomoea alba) A nocturnal relative of the morning glory. Has fragrant flowers that open at dusk and close by dawn.    

Evening Primrose: (Oenothera biennis) Has beautiful, scented flowers that bloom only at dusk. 

Night Flox: (Zaluzianskya capensis) A sweetly fragranced flower that only unfurls its pinwheeled shaped flowers after dusk. 

Four O’Clock: (Mirabilis jalapa) Its scented flowers bloom at around 4:00pm (hence its name) and do not close up until morning. 

Queen of the Night: (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) A species of cactus whose flowers only open at night. Attracts moths and bats!!!

Night Blooming Jessamine: (Cestrum nocturnum) Strong, sweet scented star shaped flowers that only bloom at night. Attracts moths and bats!!! All parts are toxic, do not ingest!

Angel’s Trumpet: (Brugmansia) Produces a strong scent on warm summer evenings. All parts are toxic, do not ingest!

Evening Stock: (Matthiola longipetala) Produces lots of small blossoms that produce a perfume described as a mix of vanilla, rose, spice, and cloves only after the sun sets.

Ever-Flowering Gladiolus: (Gladiolus tristis) Release a strong almond fragrance after dusk.  

Lilac: (Syringa vulgaris) Although has a perfume during the day, it is said to be a lot stronger after dark. 

Flowering Tobacco: (Nicotiana) Open in the late afternoon and have a fragrance that smells of jasmine. All parts are toxic if ingested!

Summer Snapdragon: (Angelonia angustifolia) Preferably in white, to reflect the moonlight. Has a scent apple-scented foliage. 

Silvermound: (Artemisia schmidtiana) Has thick foliage that will shimmer under the moonlight.

Jack Frost: (Brunnera macrophylla) Hdeart shaped leaves of silver and green, perfect to add more highlights of silver to your moon lit garden. 

Any plant that blooms after dark or has white, lavender, pale pink, pale yellow on it is a perfect addition to your moonlight garden. 

Things to add:

Stepping stones that have the phases of the moon.

Fairy lights

A place to sit

Candles

A small fountain to sing along with the insects and birds of the night

String charms and bells on tree branches for a soft jingling every time a gentle breeze passes. 

Herb Garden

For witches who need a more practical garden for uses of healing, tea crafting, drying, and growing plants used in their practices.

Plants to add to your herb garden:

Anise: Helps to ward of the evil eye, find happiness, and stimulates psychic abilities. 

Basil: Use for anything pertaining with love, exorcism, wealth, sympathy, and protection. Dispels confusion, fears & weakness. Drives off hostile spirits.

Bergamont: Corresponds with money and prosperity. Provides with protection from evil and illness, improves memory, stops interference, and promotes restful sleep.

Borage: Corresponds with courage and psychic powers. 

Cat Nip: Is sacred to the Goddess Bast. Brings forth beauty, happiness, good luck, and good spirits.

Chamomile: Corresponds with love, healing, and sleep. Is known to reduce stress.

Chervil: Brings a sense of the higher self, placing you in touch with your divine, immortal spirit.

Coriander: Corresponds with love, health, immortality, and protection.

Dill: Corresponds with money, protection, luck and lust. 

Lemon Balm: Corresponds with love, success, healing, and psychic/spiritual development. 

Marjoram: Used to cleanse, purify, and to dispel negative energy.  

Mint: Promotes energy, communication and vitality.

Oregano: Corresponds with joy, strength, vitality, and added energy 

Parsley: Calms and protects the home.

Rosemary: Protects, cleanses, purifies, and aids memory. 

Sage: Used for self purification and dealing with grief and loss.

Thyme: Attracts loyalty, affection, and the good opinion of others.

Things to add:

A place to dry herbs

A place to compost any herb scraps

Rocks

A place to leave offerings before you harvest

Bee Garden

Make yourself a sanctuary to watch bees frolic and thrive

Plants to add to your bee garden:

Bee balm

Lavender

Crocus

Snow Drop

Wildflowers/Any native species

Catmint

Borage

Anise hyssop

Heliotrope

Sunflower

Oregano

Yarrow

Coneflower

Black eyed susan

Asters

Goldenrod

Foxglove

Marigold

Pansies

Sweet peas

Nasturtiums

Things to add:

Bee houses

Bee waterers/bee baths

Bee feeders

A place for offerings to the bees

Some other ideas for your garden:

Hummingbird garden

Medicinal garden

A garden whose plants and decorations represent/correspond with your practice.

Butterfly Garden

Faerie Garden 

The options are endless! I hope this gives you some ideas for this years garden.

Happy planting!

The Boroughs really emphasizes this point: they’re treated like oversized children when in reality they’re simply retired professionals who are still fully capable, and it’s precisely those skills and experiences that allow them to move the story forward. Judy is an experienced reporter, a Black woman who fought her way into a professional career in the 1970s and obviously isn’t going to sit quietly in the face of a mystery or an injustice. Sam is an aerospace engineer. Wally is a doctor with decades of experience. Renee spent her whole life as a manager and knows exactly how to deal with assholes.

I've been waiting over 50 years for this.

The Narrows

meeting your sweetie for tea time

Returning a dear friend back to the Earth

when you aren't born into the inferior subspecies

you must always tip your cap for the train, son!

1. Heartfelt Pentecostal Greetings (phrased mildly differently)

2.Happy Pentecost

3. Happy Pentecost [again; the cursive is very hard it read, but I'm certain that it contains Pentecost greetings, a personal message and the name of the person who sent the postcard]

4. Happy Pentecost (once more), wishes you Aurelius/Aurelis Bemmel [?] [it's hard to read, it's probably one of these names but I can't tell which one]

5. Happy Pentecost, at the top it says "please hold [the postcard] against the light" at the bottom it says "Greetings from Hannover (a large German city), sends I. Ihnresy (the last name is very hard to read, sorry, but it's something similar to that)

6. Poem at the top: "When you see the beetles merrily jump / around the Pentecost tree¹ here / O, so let the Pentecost give you / only merry hours. [I changed the grammar around a bit bc German poetry, especially the old one, like to play around with the sentence structure]

Bottom: Happy Pentecost. [I sadly can't read that] your Mister Johannes [two other names].

¹ The Pentecost tree (also called May tree or May pole) is a German tradition that often involves branches from young birch trees that are decorated with colorful crepe paper, and those are hung from high polls (see the picture for reference). It is most often seen in Lower Saxony, but it can even be seen in other parts of Germany and Europe.

reference picture (every Pentecost tree looks completely different and some also more closely resemble trees):

link for further reading if you're REALLY interested (in English):

The challenge of adapting a story where the protagonists are a group of sheep who solve a murder required an authorial hand capable of balancing the absurdity of the premise with the seriousness of a true detective mystery.