Autumn wonders

Merry meet all,

I am proud to announce I graduated from the Intermediate level at the Herbal Academy. I look forward to new challenges and learn about new ways to use herbs in the next level, Advanced. I am sure there will be many challenges ahead for me. Bring it on!

I found new  fun ways to use herbs this summer. I dyed a big pile of plain muslin cloth with goldenrod. The fabric dyed a beautiful muted gold/ yellow shade. I’m infusing garlic cloves and garden grown basil in vinegar. I made a potent rose petal elixir, I concocted a St.John’s wort tincture and two salves, and I plan to make a jar of elderberry syrup. I look forward to using my herbal potions and learning more about herbs at the Herbal Academy. This fall I have a grow light. I just transferred the herbs I began from seed and my root cuttings of mint, basil, rue, nettles calendula, thyme and dill. The thyme and dill are growing in a yogurt container so their deep roots have room to grow. The other herbs were transferred to a deeper pot. They are all growing under the grow light. I wonder how I ever managed without a grow light. Grow lights are awesome! I’m trying to grow root veggies too. I hope that goes well. 

I even used herbs on my witch’s broom. I know that cinnamon brooms can be bought online. Why not do it yourself? I coated the broom with glue and dabbed the ground cinnamon onto the broom then I sprinkled cinnamon essential oil. It has dried in a large clear plastic bag for two weeks. The broom that I also made myself smells lovely now. Argh I do believe I have been stung by the very nettle I just transplanted. I grew a big lovely pumpkin vine but no pumpkins. The bees love the male flower pollen but all their hard work is for naught. Every female pumpkin flower has turned brown, shrivelled and died. There are many male pumpkin flowers. The tomatoes are finally growing and the scarlet runner bean vines are flush with beans. I plan to harvest all the herbs from my garden soon and bring the rosemary and oregano in for the winter. 

I’m harvesting lovage which I did earlier and made a lovely jar of lovage salt! Lemon balm, lemon basil, lavender, calendula, mint, sage, borage leaves, chamomile, chives, raspberry leaves, astilbe seeds, elecampane seeds and roots, dandelion roots, cucumbers, shallots, kale ( may overwinter it). The nasturtiums are annuals. I will miss them, I find the leaves so tasty. I will be busy this fall harvesting roots, flowers and seeds!

Being near this abundance of nature sure saves me money for studying at the Herbal Academy. It’s expensive enough to purchase and store the herbs. I have to have enough jars and room to store the jars. I don’t have enough room so I just don’t splurge on a huge amount of herbs at once. I buy 5 grams or more at least and then I can just refill the labeled and dated jars in my apothecary. 

I have to make sure I downloaded all the PDFs for the Intermediate level at the Herbal Academy. I left a glowing testimonial on how much I enjoyed the fun yet mentally stimulating. Herbs have taken over my life. Maybe I should say this course has taken over my life. I find I don’t have much time to do all the other things I need to do, like get back into my writing horror fiction for one. I hope I can manage it all. 

The fall season is off to a great start. On top of that, Mabon and Samhain are not far away. I can’t wait. I look forward to hearing about how all of you readers are spending your fall season too. Comment below!

Blessings, Spiderwitch

 

 

Herbal Crafts )O(

Merry meet all,

I am enjoying my herbal studies at the Herbal Academy. The flowers I’m pressing are beautiful. I plan to press a good deal more flowers soon. I”m making a flower essence out of the local summery flowers here. That includes borage, mint, lavender petals, red clover, chamomile. Mmmmm I can’t wait. I am steeping the essence outdoors in a glass bowl in my garden. Soon in another hour or two I shall strain the flowers and make the potion with brandy! Sounds good to me. 

There are so many herbs outside in my garden and the nature trail. I sure have my pick of plants. Borage, lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, burdock, goldenrod, clover, and many others. I love living here as it makes my studies at the Academy much easier. The herbs I need grow in abundance around me. This encourages me to be more sustainable in my practice and to be an earth steward! Right now, I am loving the ample sunshine and loving that that will aid my floral essence in my garden. The bowl of flowers must absorb the sunlight. It is crucial to the floral essence being made properly. I plan to strain the flowers with a strainer outdoors. I am sure the glass bowl of flowers soaking in water will have some bugs in it!

I plan to do a bookbinding project of the herbal course material too. I will finish it this coming weekend. I just have to complete some stuff before that. It really is a weekend project. I promise to show photos here once I am done. I already have the supplies and I have bound/ covered the book covers in bookbinding cloth. I am not anywhere near done. I have to sew the folios together and still cover the book covers with more layers. That will give it a nice seamless look. I hope this goes well. I want to decorate the pages with pressed flowers and of course, butterfly stickers. 

There are so many crafts I can do! Flower pressing, flower essences, bookbinding, or making floral handmade paper – I am only limited by my imagination! I am covered in mosquito bites. I’m also waiting for the delivery of a beautiful embroidered leather binder from Etsy. It’s traveling as I type from the UK to Canada. I hope I don’t have to wait too long. I am using the binder for my materia medica. I can’t wait! It’s so beautiful. I think my herb notes deserve to be stored in something truly beautiful. 

On top of the herbal crafts I mentioned above, I am also helping the other plants in my garden grow to their very best. I’m growing veggies too. Celery, tomatoes, squash, parsley, coriander, lovage, basil, mint, pumpkin, potatoes, a carrot or two, beans, root veggies like turnip and radish and beets. I’m also growing chives, shallots, tons of nasturtiums, raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry. The haskap berries are past their season now. The bean vines are so aggressive. I bought two poles to support the scarlet runner bean vines. They are growing a little too well. The elecampane is yet to flower. The flower buds are formed. I am just waiting on pins and needles for it to blossom! 

I bought a big tool chest from Canadian Tire. It doesn’t hold hammers and nails. Instead, the huge chest holds all my craft supplies. I now have more room in my broom closet. It filled up fast. I got the big chest on sale. I just love it. Everything I need is finally in one place and I have a place for everything! I can now enjoy doing more herbal crafts with a lot less stress. I just love the big ‘pirate’ chest. 

I wish you dear readers would let me know what herbal crafts you are doing now. Do let me know in the comments below. 

BB Spiderwitch

Summer seeds

Merry meet all,

My garden is growing beautifully. This weekend, I direct seeded echinacea, poppies, foxglove and root veggies seeds – beets, radish and turnip. Some of the root veggie seeds have germinated which is so cool. I had planted garlic originally in that box but they never came up. The garlic is growing fine in the garden but not in the box. I also transplanted Solomon’s seal and pretty blue bachelor’s buttons in the garden from my Mom’s garden. I planted my green and purple beans and nasturtium seeds, mugwort and more calendula. I love summer. It is not even spring yet. My  pumpkin vine flowered this morning!

I hope that my elecampane flowers this year. The garden is so beautiful. The air is still cold here. I have no idea why. I love my garden, it’s so beautiful. The bleeding hearts plant is bigger this year. I am so glad it survived being trampled. My herbs are growing well – sage, lavender, lemon balm, mint, chives, lovage, comfrey and now rosemary.

I’m still studying at the Herbal Academy. This summer, I’m studying a mini course about flower pressing. I get a flower press to use with the course. I really really wanted one. I am so happy about that.

I binge watched all the awesome Stranger Things episodes. I love that show. I want more, lots more Stranger Things. This season was darker than the previous ones.

Oh and I want to issue a warning here: Pretty Litter is the biggest scam EVER. They sell cat litter online. Well I just got ripped off. Don’t ever buy their cat litter from them. My Mom emailed me some cash for something and before I could blink, the money was withdrawn from my account. I knew immediately who stole it. Yup Pretty Litter- the worst scam ever. They refuse to refund my Mom too. Worst scam ever. I will never buy cat litter from them again.

I will post more later. This is a quick post here today. Don’t trap your pooches in hot cars. Wear a mask and be safe, everyone. 

 

Blessed Be, Spiderwitch

 

Seeds of hope, flowers of glory )O(

Merry meet all,

Oh my goddess ! I have so many seedlings in my apartment I could fill a store up with them. I’m running out of room. I decided I would share tips on how I successfully began my seedlings in this post today. Grab a cuppa herbal tea and enjoy this post!!!

First, let’s begin with you figuring out what your intentions are. Do you want to grow lots of veggies to hold off on a possible food shortage? Do you want to grow a witch’s garden for teas and potions? Do you like a conventional garden of just flowers and herbs? Do you dare to grow some poisonous witch’s herbs? ( in which case, if so, research them first and please, PLEASE don’t plant them if kids and pets visit your garden. Or grow in pots indoors away from kids and pets- and wildlife and adults.)

Do you have the room and the budget and the time to devote to a garden? Once you have fully realized your intentions and answered the other questions, we can move to the next step. Growing the witchy herbs that you can harvest and enjoy all summer long. My intention is easy. I am studying herbalism and so I want to grow herbs that I can learn about at the Academy. I want to grow a lot of herbs to save money and not need to buy them at a local organic food store. I want to learn how to use these herbs medicinally and for my witchy path too. See how I did that?

Growing your own herbs helps you get to know the plants on a deeper level too. Herbs like mint, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme and sage are good herbs  for healing and can be used in cooking. Yarrow, white, sage, nettles, mugwort are also witchy! Choose organic or heirloom seeds. Use good quality potting soil. Do use good soil. Don’t waste your money on low quality soil. The care you give the seeds and seedlings now pays off hugely in the future. Good quality soil encourages stronger root growth and helps you grow stronger plants and is affordable. The benefits you will receive of growing stronger plants outweights opting for cheap soil from a dollar store. Go with the strong seedlings and then you can choose which ones to thin out later.

Use a grow light or a big sunny window to grow your plants. I don’t own a grow light. I just arrange the pots at a window and sacrifice the space in my home until the frost passes. I water them frequently when the soil is dry. The trick is not to overwater the seedlings. Get a spray bottle to mist the plants. Don’t drown them or the roots will rot. 

So, now you know why you want to grow herbs, you have your grow lights and/ or a sunny window, your soil and your organic heirloom seeds. Now what? Here is the fun part and the hardest part- you have to have patience. Plant one or more seeds- just a few- in each starter pot. Label the pots to know what you planted where. That makes it easier on you unless you have an amazing memory. I can never remember. You can use popsicle sticks for labels. You can even draw sigils on them or witchy pentacles! Use your imagination!

If you have a plastic dome, cover the starter pots with the dome. This traps the moisture which seeds like to grow. You can empower the seed pots with your witchy intentions for them to grow strong. If you don’t have a dome, use saran wrap to cover the pots. Don’t layer it on to smother the plants. Leave an inch or two of space because that might kill the plants. Every so often, lift the saran wrap and let them get full sun. When they grow their true leaves, keep the dome or wrap off. Have lots of patience here. You get more life out of the green babies with tons of sweet talk and coaxing than using brute force. Trust me. Now is the time to cultivate a nurturing nature. I am not saying you would be cruel but gently guiding them and not getting angry if you don’t get the results you want is much better. Sometimes, plants just won’t grow for whatever reason.

When they outgrow the starter pots, you can gently tuck them into slightly bigger plant pots. That is the fun part! I love watching plants I began from seed grow into these beautiful herbs. I just love that, that and their scent. There are just so many amazing things about herbs.  I can’t list them all here but I know you know what I mean. 

The tips:

• Remember, don’t over water them!
• Keep the soil just moist.
• Practice organic gardening methods.
• Choose good quality soil and good starter pots. 
• Be gentle and don’t use pesticides. You kill the beneficial insects. 
• Trust that the herbs will grow into beautiful plants. Let go and let mama earth do what she do best. 

I can’t wait till the frost passes. I can’t wait to grow the white sage, sage, yarrow, kale, leeks, peppers, tomatoes, borage, anise, calendula, cucumbers, echinacea, dill, and lemon basil – all begun from seeds – outdoors. I cannot wait. I have saved scarlet runner beans, the seeds I have mentioned here and rue and yarrow seeds on order. I can’t wait to get growing! 

It is all predetermined in a single tiny seed. That seed can grow into a huge plant. Each seed contains the DNA of the plant. If that doesn’t amaze you, it sure amazes me. Some seeds have to be planted 1/4 inch under the soil and some need to be planted deeper into the soil. I go by the sizes of the seeds to determine that. Bigger seeds can go deeper into the starter pots. Seeds, like chamomile, are just spread over the surface of the soil. They are so tiny and fine. 

Here is the link to a company using organic methods and seeds: https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com. 

If you get dark, rainy weather like we do here in the Maritimes, then you can turn a lamp on and place it next to your plants. This helps them get maximum light. A grow light does help plants grow well. You can also use a fan to trick the plants into growing thicker stalks and stems. It mimics the wind. 

I hope the above tips and tricks inspire you to get growing your own amazing herbs! Blessings, 

Spiderwitch