| The Magickal Garden by Susan Baxter of Starwood Many people enjoy growing herbs for use in magick and ritual. But you don't have to wait till they are harvested and dried to start using them. Your herb garden itself can be your spell! The plants you choose and the design of your garden can begin working toward your goal from the planting of the first seed. For instance, someone seeking love or newlyweds sealing love could plant a love garden. To start, I suggest old fashioned fragrance roses in pinks or reds. (Hybrids don't have as strong a fragrance. There are mail order catalogs that specialize in these old roses if you can't find a dealer near you.) Other good choices are basil, lemon balm, lovage, rosemary, lavender, yarrow, violets and vervain. Most magickal gardens are laid out in a circle, but a love garden could be in a heart shape bed. Do not make the bed any wider than your arms can reach edge to center so you can tend all plants. Roses would be your largest plants, so plant them in the center of the bed. Yarrow, lovage, lemon balm, vervain will all reach about 2 feet in height and rosemary, basil and lavender will be 1 to 1.5 feet. Violets will grow to about 8 inches. If you can find the English fragrant violet it will beautifully complement your garden's fragrance. The violets will be the first to bloom, the roses second. The less showy herb blooms will come along in summer. Lavender is the exceptionits bloom is all important and is a summer glory to harvest and enjoy all year. Enjoy the violets in vases, dried and most of all, candied. The colorful flower of the plant is a rusethe seed is in a green capsuleso use all the Violet flowers you like and your plants will still multiply. You can buy violets in dark purple, light purple, white and white with violet throatseven a variety having a dark leaf with a purple back. Enjoy trying new types or collect wild plants in February as soon as the snow begins to melt. Wild yarrow is white but garden varieties can be purchased in red, pink and yellow. Avoid the yellow as it usually denotes jealousy. Basil comes in a variety of leaf colors. You might like the opal basil with its reddish purple leaf. Rosemary comes in varieties with blue or white flowers. Both are pretty. Lovage and vervain are not in my garden yet but I'm sure commercial herb gardens can advise you about these plants. Lavender comes in many, many varieties with dark to light purple flowerssome are even white. Sizes and tolerance to heat, drought, wet and freeze vary greatly. Explore them with a good local nursery. Most herbs like full sun but violets enjoy shade. They can be tucked in the edging or under the other tall plants and thrive. If you don't have a garden, try miniature roses and the smallest varieties of the herbs that you can find. Put them in pots on your patio or a sunny window. Once your herbs are ready to harvest, they will have been part of your spell ever since you chose them and designed your garden. Now instead of being merely the beginning, it will be the culmination of your spell when you snip, clip and dry your herbs to make love potporries, pillows, oils, bath sachets or a Tussie Mussie to carry on a special day. For recipes & Tussie Mussie directions send $2 cash to: 9736 Hassetown Rd., Morgantown IN 46160. | 
