Garden Witch's Herbal: Green Magick, Herbalism & Spirituality

by Ellen Dugan

Every Witch needs a little corner of the world to tend. Deepen your connection to the earth and watch your magickal skills blossom. Ellen Dugan presents a variety of ways to honor and work with the plant kingdom in this charming hands-on guide to green magick and spirituality. Designed to enhance any tradition or style of the Craft, this handy herbal reference provides the physical description, folklore, magickal qualities, and spellwork correspondences for a wealth of flowers, trees, and herbs, and features forty-seven botanical drawings. Conjuring a Garden with Heart - Green Witchery in the City Wildflowers and Witchery - Magick of the Hedgerows The Magick and Folklore of Trees - Gothic Herbs and Forbidden PlantsHerbs and Plants of the Sabbats - Herbs of the Stars - Magickal Herbalism "The conversational tone of Garden Witch's Herbal is a refreshing change from other garden-variety horticulture books and makes Dugan's herbal entertaining as well as informative."--New Age Retailer

Genres: Witchcraft, Gardening, Nonfiction, Paganism, Magic, Wicca, Spirituality

292 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Ellen Dugan is the award winning author of over thirty six books and the Witches Tarot. She branched out successfully into paranormal fiction in 2015 with her popular Legacy Of Magick series. Her portfolio of work also includes dozens of articles in the Llewellyn Almanacs and Calendars and 15 non-fiction books. Ellen's non-fiction titles with Llewellyn Worldwide have been translated into over twelve foreign languages. She is a psychic-clairvoyant, and has been a practicing Witch for over thirty-five years.
With over 300K books sold Ellen has a global following. She currently has over twenty published novels, the eleven book Legacy Of Magick series and three other paranormal series: The Gypsy Chronicles, Daughters Of Midnight, and Hemlock Hollow. The first four books in her Legacy Of Magick series were made into audio books with Tantor Audio in 2018.
Ellen was featured on the cover of Witches & Pagans Magazine. She has been interviewed in the studio on KMOV News Channel 4 in St. Louis, done numerous newspaper and radio interviews, and a two hour guest spot on the national syndicated live radio show, Coast to Coast. In 2017 Ellen was also featured in USA TODAY'S HEA column. More information on Ellen's work can be found at www.ellendugan.com on Instagram at www.instagram.com/ellendugan/ or on Facebook www.facebook.com/ellendugan

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gather this herb for a magick spell,
Bring harm to none, may it turn out well.
By the powers of earth and air, fire and water,
I conjure up love, safety, money, health, and laughter.
By all the powers of three time three,
As I will it, then so must it be.

[Carrie (The Butterfly Reader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herbs are my favorite thing to work with, so this book is amazing!

[K.S. Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this book. For those who are well versed in the magical uses for herbs or those who have a naturally green thumb, it may be a bit elementary. But for someone such as myself who is still learning, it's a great resource.

The cover is gorgeous and the illustrations throughout really add to the text. I found it to be informative and thought provoking. It contains a ton of info on a wide variety of herbs, as well as an entire chapter devoted to "Gothic Herbs and Forbidden Plants", which was really interesting.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellen Dugan really knows her gardens and wild plants. I was very impressed with her knowledge and research and the time she put into writing this herbal. Not only does this book present common trees and plants to the garden witch, but it also goes into magical detail on wild plants such as wildflowers and lesser-known herbs and shrubs.

I thoroughly enjoyed how she breaks down each category, and how she applies each plant to the planets, days of the week, sabbats, etc. This herbal would make a great addition to anyone's collection of green-thumb or magical gardening books.

Three stars for the variety and uniqueness of information provided to readers. I did not give it any higher because the only thing I found a little monotonous was all of the personal inferences. I don't mind when an author goes into personal detail some, just not as much as Ellen does in this book. Other than that, wonderful resource!

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Dugan considers herself a garden/green witch, and so she uses a lot of plant material in her spells. She shares her knowledge, both horticultural and magickal in this volume.

This book, written after ‘Garden Witchery’, adds to what she presented there. In this one, she writes about being a green witch in the city, wildflowers and hedgerows, more magickal correspondence lists, flower & plant folklore, designing a garden with feng shui, and has beautiful drawings of plants. The only thing that bothered me was her naming the poisonous plants ‘gothic herbs’; there is a lot more to gothic gardening than poison.

Written in the same breezy, talking over tea manner as ‘Garden Witchery’, Dugan makes it easy to absorb the information presented.

[minx · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of good, solid information in it but I really did not enjoy the author's tone. She came across as holier than thou about her plant knowledge and religious slant (which strongly favors the 3 fold law it appears).

She also contradicts herself multiple times throughout the book (she has wormwood in a section of baneful herbs that "shouldn't be consumed" but then talks about its use in drinks...)

It is worth reading for the information but if you aren't a Wiccan, you are likely to have to pack your patience.

Also, ignore her information about astrology and plants because it doesn't really add up. It's not her fault - she states to start with that she's not even a believer in astrologer - but she misses a lot of nuances as a result. For instance, when talking about the plants of Aquarius, she assigns Mars associations because she associates Uranus with Mars, rather than applying the associations of Saturn its traditional ruler.

[Cheryl Alsippi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garden Witch’s Herbal by Ellen Dugan is Highly Recommended!
This book is packed full of information on identifying, growing and utilizing the wildflowers, shrubs and trees associated with witchcraft. Ellen provides descriptions and where and when to plant and harvest many of these. Simple tips are included on each plant along with a sample spell for each. There are chapters on Gothic Herbs and Forbidden Plants in which she describes several such as Aconite, Black Nightshade and more—complete with details and warnings regarding toxicity—no spells/charms here; Herbs and Plants of the Sabbats; Herbs of the Stars and much, much more. An excellent, comprehensive guide for researchers and anyone wishing to grow a witch’s garden.

[Oya Pessoa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Çöp de değil de.. En azından botanik bilgiler doğru.. Ama tekerleme büyüler obsesif kompulsif davranış örüntülerine benziyor. Tamamını okuma zahmetine katlanamadım açıkçası. Yeni başlayanlar için eğlenceli bir botanik kitabı işlevi görebilir.

[Muhammed Zia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book !!!! Very informative but still fresh and interesting. Learnt a lot of new things and also enhanced my current knowledge as well. It did take me some time but WELL worth it. I also recommend this book found at https://amzn.to/2PiDgfs . Great For Herbalist Readers !

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect addition to any witch's library. Practical advice and suggestions for your garden no matter where you live. Easy to read. Easy to use.

[Jennifer Barr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book, lots of great info. My only complaint is the plant illustrations aren’t in colour. I was also hoping to see garden plans.

[Denielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read by Ellen Dugan. If you're looking to become a garden witch Ellen is the witch for the job. As always knowledgeable and humorous.

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good resource for gardening and working with magical herbs.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good reference for green magick. list of traditional herbs as well as a section on south west US plants.

[Fi]

Absolutely nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't what I was looking for in the moment.

[zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

ahh this was such a fun read, especially the chapter on trees. i 🫶🏻 trees

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I will find this book very helpful when it comes to making my plantings this year! My favourite chapter was the one on hedgerows, which, thanks to this book, I now want to research much more. The chapters on wildflowers and trees were also favourites of mine. I appreciate that Dugan emphasized the need to connect with nature as central to understanding yourself and your beliefs (whatever those may be).

One wish I have is that Dugan would have left out the anecdotes included for "humour". There were two that stuck out to me regarding her interactions with folks new to, or interested in, the craft. These passages were intended to be lighthearted, but came across as condescending and judgmental.

[E B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars for the wealth of plant information, which I loved! Planetary energies are a huge part of my practice and I agree with other reviews stating that the zodiac section doesn’t add up. It didn’t detract from my experience though since I already have a wealth of other sources to pull from on planetary herbalism. Some of the facts about certain pagan divinities -particularly Eostre - were misleading at best, but that’s unfortunately common in publications like this one. The author’s tone toward other practitioners (particularly a “friend” with an incarcerated son who I desperately hope didn’t read this book) is so negative and judgmental that some chapters were hard to read.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, and have already marked down the next book I want to read by Ellen.

I learned a lot about herbs, which was the main reason I bought the book, and will definitely be reading it over and over again as the years go one so I can perfect my gardens and, specifically, my herb gardens.

[Rya Fenner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept getting this book in the mail rather than the one I ordered so I figured I would just read it. Lots of good information here and I feel inspired to garden again this spring. I felt there was a lot of “I’m not like other girls” energy and harsh judgement of other people which got a bit old and cringe-worthy by the end but the quality information mostly cancelled it out.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book five stars does not do justice for Ellens work she is amazing!!

[Courteney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a lot of good information. It's written from a personal perspective with the research Ellen has done and it's an excellent beginning herbal for anyone.

[Dottie Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and easy to read for individuals wanting to learn or understand Herbalism and Spirituality,