Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up

Great quick reference

Ellen Dugan really proves her stuff, meaning she is the best kept secret in Llewellyn's mostly pretentious list of authors! She is the Garden Witch, like myself. I have been practicing since my Scott Cunningham days in the late 1980s. Ellen is the only author who can follw in his footsteps. This book covers all the basics and assumes we should have a little experience. This is fine with me. Indeed, it as if Ellen knew my grandmother and her friends with many of these hints. I use pesticides according to experience. this is only common sense. Her theme gardens are wonderful and I have a few in my yard. This year, I am trying my first pumpkin garden. What an idea. The list of her shade garden plants are right on the money. The Craft section redefines Witch-craft for me. She is great with this section. The only problem with the book is the language she uses. This is fine for high school students. I hope many of them begin to work the garden at an early age. It is a lifetime reward. I am happy with Ellen's honesty here.

This marvellous book is an instruction manual on how to create your own enchanted garden with trees, shrubs or flowers. It's not all airy-fairy stuff though, as it also deals with very practical matters like cold hardiness zones and soil requirements. In many ways the book provides delightful reading on the magical meaning of plants based on their shapes, fragrances and colours, plus sound advice on designing, maintaining and planning different kinds of enchanted spaces including shade, container, tree, shrub, groundcover, houseplant and fairy gardens. The text is interspersed with charming floral and herbal spells, faerie magick and information on feast days and the making of sachets, wreaths and charm bags. You'll be amazed at the wealth of practical applications and flower spells that are available to make life more interesting.Garden Witchery is an enchanting read as it takes one from practical gardening advice through magickal correspondences and flower folklore to the author's humorous observations and anecdotes. The book contains lovely illustrations and concludes with a glossary of terms, a bibliography and an index.

They say life began in a garden and so it did for me one day - I love gardening so much and to find a book like this pulls together a number of things I love to leartn about and play with. One of the things I love about this book is that its such a fun, easy read. There are quotes from the likes of Milton, Seton, Shakespeare, Wolfe, and lots of authors I'm not familiar with but who came up with some really neat lines. There's a section on moon gardening - something I've been planning to do and bought some additional books on. There's flower folklore which is always fun. There's a section on celebrations for the seasons, as well as a section on crafts (like making dream pillows, charm bags, etc.) For those new to gardening there are zone mapstips on planting certain plants (like trees), lists of magical plants & trees, flowers of the month (e.g. January is the month of the carnation - bestows energy & healing). Its just a really full, fun book that captivated me and inspire me to get rid-of more of the lawn and plant more gardens (using native plants of course :)

When I recieved my copy of Ellen Dugans Garden Witchery, I was impressed because it was so beautiful, as I thumbed through it, I couldn`t put it on the shelf. After reading it, I can tell you not only is this a lovely book, but this little gem is just full of lots of information on plants, flowers, magickal correspondences, and specialty gardens for the magickal practitioner. She inspires the reader to create a sacred space close to nature and commune with the spirits of magickal plants. This is getting back to why many people practice nature religions like Wicca and other forms of Paganism, reverence for the earth and nature! This book was a very refreshing escape from all the 101 books out there, although, I could see it being enjoyed by Witches and non Witches alike. All that is required is a love of nature, and an open mind. It seamlessly combines practical gardening informtion with magickal advice on when to plant, gardening with the cycles of the earth and moon, how to invite blessings into the garden, and more. Ellen Dugans warm and friendly writing style makes this book a joy to read and I even found myself snickering out loud at points. Mrs. Dugan even shares with us information about the language of flowers that she unearthed in a book from 1845! It is a treasure trove of Natural Magick, including practical spells, and Garden Witch crafts like dream pillows and charm bags. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Magick or gardening. I am now planning new additions to my gardens for the spring based on suggestions in Garden Witchery.