Customer Reviews

Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ellen Dugan holds `Master Gardener' status through the University of Missouri and according to her bio has many years of nursery and gardening experience. She is also clairvoyant and a witch with a sense of humor. As she is raising three teenagers all these skills are useful.

Dugan's book is a "user-friendly" introduction and guide to witchcraft. GARDEN WITCHERY is also a great resource for mothers and aunts and anyone else interested in fun-filled ideas for creating special gardens, places for divination and spell casting, Sabat holiday decor, and other pagan treats that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. Many of her suggestions, such as dying Easter Eggs with red cabbage leaves, can be found elsewhere, but Dugan is a practical witch and suggests it is not un-witchlike to buy Easter Egg dye. She uses natural materials at hand for many of her projects, but she recommends craft stores and yard sales as great places to stock up on supplies such as orange lights for Samhain or plastic colored eggs for Ostara.

Dugan not only provides the instructions for making and using many scented items, she includes some suggestions for growing the ingredients-although this is not a gardening book per se. I grow many of the herbs she recommends, and can testify it isn't hard to maintain pots of lavender, scented geraniums, and other plants on a patio, porch, or balcony-as long as you have adequate sun and remember to water them occasionally. And, it is extremely rewarding to make sachets and other scented items with plant material you grew yourself. If you intend to use Dugan's recipes and want to grow your own ingredients, however, buy a good gardening book such as Rodale's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERBS which includes detailed information about the cultivation and uses of herbs (as well as how to grow them organically AND when they are noxious!!).

Although Dugan has many nifty ideas about gardening, the one concern I have concerning her advice is her recommended use of pesticides. This is quite ironic as she lists "eagle watching" as a fall pastime her family enjoys. If you can skip the poisons (some witches do use them) and stick to her other suggestions, this is a nifty source for many child-centered or adult "fun" activities.

Ellen Dugan has written a very entertaining book, but I wouldn't suggest it as something to garden by. She leaves out some very important information on the plants she suggests. An example would be her recommendations for shade gardening, while the plants she list will indeed grow in shade, she neglects to mention the soil conditions required for those plants. Shaded areas can vary from bone dry to boggy and if you plant a fern or cardinal flower in a bone dry area failure is certain unless you plan to water constantly to keep the area moist. The other concern is that some of the plants that she recommends are highly invasive, mints (which should always be container grown!!), ivy, morning glories and periwinkle! These plants can over take entire gardens in a short amount of time. Check with your local master gardeners to be sure that these plants aren't listed in the noxious weeds list in your area. If you are going to follow her suggestions make certain that you research the plants that you choose, nothing is more disappointing then buying new plants and then killing them by accident!

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 :)

Dugan's book is fine...but just fine. She draws a lot from Cunningham. I bought this book though for help in the basics, the how-tos, which I thought she would cover. She didn't. She uses terms like mulching and deadheading without ever defining them or saying *how* to do them. Instead she spends a lot of time or correspondences and the practical witchery aspects of gardening. She also talks about crafts and craft projects, which was a real plus for me.

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.

I also would like to disagree with the reader from Jersey who completely slammed Garden Witchery. As a gardener with a couple years experience, I found this book to be quite useful. This book includes help/ideas on how to plan a garden, it goes over the different types of gardens, has info on pH levels in soil, fertilization, how to take care of your garden (i.e. pruning, dead-heading, etc.) and also includes fun "magical" correspondences to plants, flowers and trees. If you love to garden, you will enjoy this book, even if you're not into the whole "magical" aspect of it all. Even then, that information is at least fun and interesting to read. Honestly, when I was finished with the book, I wanted to run out and plant pumpkins! Read the book- you'll see...

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.

I had to post this review after seeing the latest one from "The Reader" in Jersey. I totally disagree with you on this book. It was wonderful! I thought that Garden Witchery had plenty of solid and practical magical gardening information. It is light, funny and I learned quite a bit from this book.
As a gardener for more than 20 years, I found the information that was presented to be useful for both ordinary, and magical gardeners. This is a thorough gardening book that even discusses cold hardiness zones, soil and shade requirements. The chapter on the faeries was great and I really enjoyed the tips, tricks and plant recomendations. The gardening journal is a nice bonus.
If you are looking for a fun, clever and magical book to read this summer, this would be the one to try.

To repeat what others have said, this is a fun and informative book on how to continue your magickal self out to your yard. I love the tips on how to do discreet, subtle things (like knowing someone it the neighborhood is a witch because they plant red geraniums or red begonias in circles around their trees and in window boxes)as much as the larger, more obvious tricks.
The Author has a GREAT sense of humor and it seems like she is writing just for me.
I only wish their were pictures. Next book maybe??
You will enjoy this book.

Written in a friendly down to earth (no pun intended) style, this book contains gardening advice from both a practical and witchy perspective (with the emphasis on gardening). It includes detailed information on what kinds of plants do best in sun or shade, with the focus being on those that a witch would use most (moonlight gardens too). Tying into this are chapters on flower, tree and grown cover magick.

The chapters on flower folklore, faery magick and specialty gardens are "good to knows", especially for green witches. Those on the Esbats and Sabbats contain something for any witch interested in working with their gardens and what they produce during these times.