nature is my therapy

green witch + kitchen witch = hearth witch gardener and backyard conservationist Grow Native

[witchboxco]

2026 Witches' Calendar

January 3 ● Full Moon in Cancer (Wolf Moon) January 18 ● New Moon in Capricorn February 1 ● Imbolc February 1 ● Full Moon in Leo (Snow Moon) February 17 ● New Moon in Aquarius February 26 - March 20 ● Mercury Retrograde March 3 ● Full Moon in Virgo (Worm Moon) March 19 ● New Moon in Pisces March 20 ● Ostara April 2 ● Full Moon in Libra (Pink Moon) April 17 ● New Moon in Aries May 1 ● Beltane May 1 ● Full Moon in Scorpio (Flower Moon) May 16 ● New Moon in Taurus May 31 ● Full Moon in Sagittarius (Blue Moon) June 20-21 ● Litha June 15 ● New Moon in Gemini June 29 ● Full Moon in Capricorn (Strawberry Moon) June 29 - July 23 ● Mercury Retrograde July 14 ● New Moon in Cancer July 29 ● Full Moon in Aquarius (Buck Moon) August 1 ● Lammas August 12 ● New Moon in Leo August 28 ● Full Moon (Sturgeon Moon) September 11 ● New Moon in Virgo September 23 ● Mabon September 26 ● Full Moon in Aries(Harvest Moon) October 10 ● New Moon in Libra October 24 - November 13 ● Mercury in Retrograde October 26 ● Full Moon in Taurus (Hunter's Moon) October 31 ● Samhain November 9 ● New Moon in Scorpio November 24 ● Full Moon in Gemini (Beaver Moon) December 9 ● New Moon in Sagittarius December 21 ● Yule December 24 ● Full Moon in Cancer (Cold Moon)

[gardenwitch13]

New Tarot Deck

After a few years of working with strictly oracle decks. I decided to try my hand at Tarot Decks earlier this year. I was gifted a deck from my son that I've been using and it's a great beginner deck. Nothing too fancy. But then I decided to go fancy and pick one (or two) of my own.

I found this one on Etsy - Pic du Soleil.

It's dark, but shiny.

[gardenwitch13]

Storage Hack

Need a way to store your oracle and tarot decks besides in their boxes?

Cigar boxes

Near me, I'm able to grab empty cigar boxes from cigar shops and lounges - they usually have a stack by a door that are free to take. They come in different sizes and made from different materials - the good cigars will come in wooden boxes with metal clasps; while the cheaper ones may come in hard cardboard boxes.

Since I follow the green path, I've found the earthy smell of tobacco mixes with the wooden boxes to be perfect for my decks.

[gardenwitch13]

Mid winter pollination!

Due to an unusually warm Christmas week, I was able to put out a few of my plants. One of which is my Meyer's Lemon Tree. This has been a pet project of mine for the past few years. I've only successfully ripened 2 lemons.

Prior to winterizing it in my garage during the first cold front in November, it had 3 tiny little lemon buds on it. But then 2 weeks ago when I was watering it, I found that several of the branches had flowers to which I had to figure out how to hand pollinate it.

Fast forward to this week, when I decided to take out all my plants from winterizing and stick them in the 70 -80 degree sunny temps. I guess mother nature decided that she was going to do the pollination for me. The video is of a handful of bees pollinating my tree, but a little while later, there were a few yellow Cloudless Sulpher butterflies also taking a drink from the flowers.

Hopefully this year I'll have a small harvest of lemons from my tree.

[gardenwitch13]

Hard Pruning

A concept I picked up from a garden influencer on YouTube, Sheffield Made Plants, episode I Cut My Roots in Half..and This Happened. https://youtu.be/wTBhy5RH8hs?si=uzlWckLJbTAmlfEH

So I decided to look at my spider plants and see how they were doing since the leaves made me think they were unhappy. Sure enough....they all were root bound.

I have 6 potted spider plants and they all are over 10 years old. So to say they were root bound was an understatement.

This was the last one that I did before I remembered to take pics. I just reused the same pot and bottom filled it with fresh soil. I also top filled around the edges and in the middle to fill out the gaps.

I make my own concoction for the soil. I recycle soil from other pots ups, but add bone meal, egg shell powder, ash from my fire pit, perlite and orchid mix - I like to use fine orchid mix from Better-Gro since i'm using it to help aeriate the soil, I don't want the large chunks that MiracleGro uses in their mix.

I've also taken to blessing my soil with a small intention while I'm mixing my hands through it. Some kitchen witches might recognize this when they are cooking or stiring their coffee or tea in the mornings. Same concept, but with a vat full of soil. I learned about the concept of blessing soil/plant pots from the book Houseplant HortOCCULTure from Devin Hunter. A good read for green witches with a slew of indoor plants.

So here's to going through my potted plants to check their roots and cut them in half when need be.

[gardenwitch13]

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung here in North Texas and all too soon it will be summer.

This spring is a year of surprises.

My Red Texas Yucca are blooming - I grew these from the seeds of plants that I have in my backyard. I started them in 2020. They lived in a pot for 3 years until I felt they were big enough to plant in the ground 2 years ago. This is the first time they are blooming....and I could be more proud has a plant mama. I have 2 more that were planted at the same time, but they are still runts and do not have bloom stalks. I will get more updated pics when they actually blossom.

My bee balm and oregano are already coming up and ready for the first years harvest. But I'm not ready. Like what do I do with all this oregano? The bee balm is fine. I can do a harvest here or there otherwise I will let it blossom for the pollinators. But the oregano? I have so much!

My garden sage has blossomed for the first time - ever! It's been in this spot for a few years now and it has dug in it's roots. The very base is woody, so my harvest is always at the top of the softest stem. But it's blooming! I mean, it's fucking blooming!

Due to some forthcoming yard construction, I've taken a step back from planting anything new because I'm not sure if the gardens will be there after the construction, but damn, stuff is blooming and growing without me even meddling. I guess that's a sign to leave well enough alone.

[gardenwitch13]

Tis the season to repot

I've had a hard time with my houseplants. In the past few years, I've expanded my houseplants from spider and aloe vera to more tropical - ficus, alocasia, philos - you get the picture. They look easy, right? I mean if you can get them from your local grocery store then they shouldn't be that hard to keep alive.

Wrong.

They do well outside during the summer. They seem to really like the 100+ (Farhenheit) temperatures that bless in Texas, but they don't seem to like my east facing window. I've even added two humidifiers to help with the moisture.

So that brings me to this - the soil. My only knowledge of soil is Miracle Gro - thanks Mom! That stuff works great, for your basic houseplants, but not so much for your high maintenance ones.

I tried LECA - but that was definitely not my vibe. So now I'm switching it up - again.

I recognized that the standard potting soil was compacting in the pot over time with watering. So, I decided to make my own mix - based on a few different recipes found online.

Orchid soil mix - premixed with bark, charcoil, and perlite.

I mix this with potting soil - now I recycle my soil from previous repots. But I add more perlite, along with dried molasses, earthworm castings, and crushed eggshells.

There you have it! I thought 50/50 would be a good thing, but it's probably closer to 60/40 - orchid to soil mix.

I also transplanted many of my plants out of clay pots to orchid plastic pots. I found some online that have narrow slits on the sides and drainage holes on the bottom. My reason - airing out the roots. I noticed my plants may of been suffering from root rot, so I thought the new mix put in with open side pots may help with the drying out of the roots.

Now you may ask, where did I even get this idea. Well....I paid a visit to the Fort Worth Botanical Garden and their beatiful greenhouse. I mean - ALL of my tropical houseplants were inside that building and they were so BIG! I looked at the soil and it was not the dark, compost style that I'm so used to working with, it was soil mixed with mulch and most of the roots open to the air. Like wow! and of course I had to step up my humidity game as well.

so here's to switching from brown thumb to green thumb with my tropical houseplants. May this winter get better for my plants.

[gardenwitch13]

Frogfruit, frogfruit, everywhere there's frogfruit!

What is frogfruit?

It's a grass that is native to the southern portion of North America. It spreads from coast to coast, then south from Oklahoma into Mexico. It was here before us and was the most common grass before the US decided to turn our yards into pretty lawns.

Frogfruit works best in full sun, but will survive in partial shade - if the tenderals will wonder in that direction and live, then so be it. This native grass has a counterpart - horseherb. Horseherb grows in mostly shade, but can tolerate sun - again, if the tenderals wonder in that direction and can survive, then it was meant to be. Both are also pollinator plants - you guessed it, they flower all summer long.

In my yard, I do not have enough shade, I'm in sun 6+ hours a day. so frogfruit is my choice of native grass for now.

Here's some background on this little patch of sunshine. I live in north TX (USA) and my yard is primarily of clay origin. I decided to throw down some cardboard, spread a bag of mulch and planted a 4 inch container of this juicy little plant. That was in May of 2023. I watered it 3x a week during the summer with the alloted times set aside for water restrictions and I didn't mow it that first summer.

Now look at it!

She spread her tenderils in all the right directions, she has stretched to both garden borders and is making her way around the wheelbarrow/container garden. I'm trying to nudge her more into the middle of the yard now. I've tried propagating this little plant so that I can plant plugs around my yard and help it spread some more and also move some of the plugs to the front yard for certain areas to grow. I will admit that propogating them is not as easy as the many YouTube clips say it is. So far I'm 1 out of 10 in the success rate. But I'll keep trying.

So if you live in the southern portion of the US/northern Mexico, give this little plant a try for a traditional lawn alternative.

[gardenwitch13]

2024 Growing Season

The start of my planting season is well underway. I'm pretty excited this year. I've moved some things around and building up other areas.

I repurposed a wheel barrow to be a garden container for my potatoes.

I moved my herb garden over to another bed and planted peppers in it's place. I planted red, yellow, and purple bell peppers. Closer to summer, I'll be planting okra - again. We are not a true fan of okra, but damn, it grows so darn well in our climate! I still need to move a few more herbs.

I organized my growing pots a little more. Set up a mulch bed to set them on. I'm growing cherry tomatoes, bush beans, cayenne hot peppers, some lettuce in the tiered pots, and my Meyer's lemon tree is blooming wonderfully - don't know if I will have lemons this year. But's it's still fun to grow it.

I moved my herbs to a small garden in a corner that get's a little more shade. The mistake I made last year was almost scorching my herbs because I placed them in a the wrong bed and had to use a shade net.

Something new I'm trying this year is a DIY olla watering system. I'm using terra cotta pots and a saucer as a topper. I'm using plumber's putty to plug the holes - but it's been a hit and miss as to how well it's working. My success rate is 50%. I'll keep trying.

I still have my blackberry bushes, they've been trimmed way back, but hope they bounce back soon.

Happy Gardening!!!

[gardenwitch13]

Composting

Composting is an art, so I've been told.

I grew up with composting. It was part of the daily chore list as laundry and cleaning dishes since I could walk. Come rain, shine, sleet, or snow. We dumped our kitchen scraps and yard waste in the compost.

I started with one compost. Open and surrounded by pallets. Now I have a few.

My process starts in the kitchen with a countertop compost that I fill on the daily and dump on the weekly. I add fruit, veggies, coffee grounds, houseplant trimmings. I refrain from using meat and meat discard.

I dump my kitchen compost into one of two closed containers. I have a black barrel that I roll every couple of days. It's considered a "hot" compost, because well, it's black and heats up. I also have a closed silver trashcan with holes in it. I use this for "layering" by dumping my contents and layering it. No turning. I stop adding to the black barrel when the decomposition becomes 50% complete.

I have an open screen compost for yard waste and I'm slowly retiring my old compost - or so I thought, then I decided to dig up an old bed to refresh it with new compost and to put the garden waste somewhere.

Ahhh...it really doesn't end.

Compost is like black gold to a gardener. it's so rich in nutrients and minerals. It completely amazes me that a banana peel can turn into black soil in 6-9 months. It's the base for all my gardening. i still amend by adding sand and shredded bark to allow for drainage.

So here's to the growing season in 2024

[gardenwitch13]

Tangerine Crossvine

The best part of this time of year is when my Tangerine Crossvine decides to bloom.

She is an intense wall of vibrant orange on my fence.

This beauty is about 12 years old. Her base is actually on the other side of the fence, so she is 18-20 feet long.

She holds sanctuary for birds, bees, lizards, and critters.

[gardenwitch13]

New Tarot Deck

My son gifted me this Tarot deck. It's my first. I've been reading oracle decks for a couple of years, but Tarot have always intimidated me.

I was going to just put it on my altar and let it collect dust, but as I unboxed it, I unveiled this symbol in both the storage box and the deck box.

Infinity symbol

I have this same tattoo. It was the second tattoo that I got a month after I turned 18 - a few decades ago.

Since it was an unopened box, my son didn't know about the hidden symbol. But I'm one not to dismiss such occurrences. So needless to say, I believe this deck is telling me I need to learn myself a little Tarot and this is the deck to do it with.

I did buy a beginner Tarot book to help me become familiar with it. So, I guess it's time to challenge myself to add some new seasoning to my spirituality practice.

Wish me luck.

[gardenwitch13]

Raven ZZ

My Raven ZZ has some new growth!

This one has been an interesting houseplant to take care of. A new one for me too. I just started expanding my variety of plants in just the past 2 years. This is one of the first one's that I got that was out of my comfort zone.

I've moved her around some, started east facing window that gets the most light. She just - survived. I thought she was just a regular Zanzibar and they like sunlight. Then I found out that she is a raven - the darker cousin and I read somewhere that she would be a good one to put in a dark bathroom. So I moved her into my inner bathroom. She got plenty of humidity! But no light. She didn't die, but didn't grow either. Then out of the blue, she got one new green stalk.

While watching a plant mom on YouTube, she made a comment that all plants need light, even if it's of the weakest spectrum. That's when I realized that even plants that are in full shade (outside), also technically get indirect bright light.

So, I moved her. Again. This time, I moved her to the window by the front door - indirect light shining in from the outside. What turned out to be one stalk, ended up being more and then the leaves started unfurling and the edges of the leaves are starting to turn black. That was something else I had to research about this plant. Why the new growth was coming green - it's what they do. They come in green and then turn black.

I've now started to move her outside onto the North facing front porch. Full shade - but all the bright indirect light she can absorb. She seems pretty happy being out of the bathroom too.

[gardenwitch13]

Meyer Lemon Tree

There are buds on my Meyer Lemon Tree! I'm super stoked as this is the first year. I guess I finally did something right.

I've had this tree for 3 years, but this is the first time it's blooming. I've had some trouble trying to figure out how to overwinter her in Texas.

I live far enough North that our we do get 1-2 cold spells that sometimes include snow. Even for a few days, this can be too cold for this tree - I didn't quite understand that. I would leave her in the back yard and put a greenhouse tent over it. I thought that was enough to protect it from the elements and it was until we had back to back winter vortexs two years in a row. Both times, I thought the tree was dead - I would have to trim it all the way to the soil. In fact, after the first winter, I put the pot off to the side to repurpose and then a small stalk started coming back.

This winter, I made it a point to put her in my garage - like many of the other North Texans do with their citrus trees. On sunny, warm days, I would open the garage door and let her bask in the sun for a few hours and on the really, really cold nights - I hooked up a space heater next to her for added warmth. I guess the little extra TLC has paid off because now I have blooms coming in. Now to do my best to help with the self-pollination so that I might get a fruit or two.

Crossing my fingers on that one.

[gardenwitch13]

Tell me you have ants without telling me you have ants.

This WAS a solar light in my flower garden. But alas, a colony of ants thought it would be pretty neat to fill it with the sandy soil of their nest. It is one of the strangest excavations I have ever seen of an ant nest.

I wonder how far up they believed they needed to go before dumping that one tiny kernel of sand.

[gardenwitch13]

Where has the Sun gone?

I haven’t seen the Sun in five long and gloomy days.

I haven’t drenched in her warmth and light.

I’m as gloomy has my houseplants. Even my houseplants are feeling the doom and gloom.

Many times, I (or a family member) has caught me randomly staring at my plants.

I’m doing my best during this cold spell here in Texas (USA), but man, I really miss digging my hands on some dirt and transplanting some seedlings or up-potting my plants.

I may follow the Moon Goddess and give her my intentions, but the Sun is what really gives me my energy and uplifts my mood.

[gardenwitch13]

Oregano and Roses!

Just a quick clip of my oregano. Yes, I still have oregano coming out of my ass. Despite several drying sessions and a handful of jars of dried oregano, I still haven't made a dent in my crop. I'll have to figure something out with it.

Even my roses have exploded. Here in Texas, we have a rule of thumb to prune back roses on Valentine's Day. I pruned these back to about 3 feet high and pruned back all the branches back to the main stem. As you can see, she is beautiful and bushy. It also appears there two different colors.

This bush was planted here well before we bought the house, but the sun was blocked by trees and she was considered to be growing in full shade. But as of last spring, she started getting full sun and as a result, she went from four stems to this huge bush.

I try to look at the positive in life, while I'm sad we lost our tree. I see that the roses don't seem to sad to be in the shade anymore.