The Domestic Garden Witch: Po-Ta-Toes
So maybe you’re a college witch with limited space and money, limited to the one window in your dorm. Or, maybe you’re a witch without extensive backyard space who wants to start up a magical garden. Perhaps you’re a kitchen witch who wants the freshest herbs right at her fingertips.
For many witches, having a garden seems to be a bit of a no-brainer. After all, plants and magic go hand-in-hand. Plus, when thinking of a witch, it’s hard not to think of a cottage in the woods with a little vegetable garden out front. Unfortunately for the majority of us, our cottage in the woods is a tiny flat, and our garden out front is a windowsill with limited space.
This is when it comes time to embrace your craftiness and bring your garden indoors! Not only does it place your garden in a convenient location, it also allows you to freshen the air, recycle what would otherwise harm the earth, and embrace your witchy green thumb!
Samwise Gamgee’s Dream Come True!
Okay, so if you follow my blog, chances are that you’re wondering if this whole potato theme for today is because of St. Patrick’s. I promise, I’m not enforcing Irish stereotypes on purpose. I just really like potatoes, and when it comes to gardening, it’s a bit of a disservice to overlook this vegetable. After all, when we think about kitchen gardens or home gardens, we think of herbs or flowers, and not about the veggies we eat that live a rather subterranean existence. But potatoes - those lovely little brown lumps that we can get for a couple dollars per five pound bag in the supermarket - are not only inexpensive. They’re extremely hardy little plants that can be grown rather easily.
You don’t need much to get started with this project. First, you need “seed potatoes.” This is not hard to find. Simply take a few potatoes and allow them to grow a bit. They will sprout a few short little stalks from the eyes on the surface. Save these, and get potting mix and two medium to large plastic pots that can easily stack one inside the other.
Carefully cut a few panes out of the inner pot as in the picture above, then place the inner pot into the outer one. Fill the pot part way with soil, add your seed potatoes, and cover them with potting mix. Water as needed until the potato plants peek up out of the soil. Cover them again and repeat this process gradually until the pot is full.
In roughly three months, you’ll have potato plants that are ready to begin harvesting. Simply lift the inner pot up and pluck your potatoes as needed from the sides! Fresh potatoes, free!
Ideally, this method of potato cultivation can help feed a family of four for about a year. My family had used this method, and our family of five was able to stay fed for a year off of two of these planters (we like potatoes… and we eat them a lot…)
Potatoes are very useful in witchcraft, and you can find out some of their magickal uses in my Foodie Friday article about Seafood Gnocchi. As for growing them, many of those properties remain the same!
As with any gardening venture, add crystals to the soil to promote healthy and fruitful plants, draw sigils and symbols on the pottery or planters, and incorporate protection or fertility ingredients into the soil - such as eggshell or coffee grounds.
Outside of the useful culinary benefits of having a potato planter on your front porch, a garden such as this is useful for outdoor space cleansing in small spaces, and for inviting prosperity into your home or property since potatoes represent such comforts as full bellies and pockets.
Since a small number of potatoes can be used to produce a much larger quantity in this planting method, you could even turn them into a prosperity or slow growth money spell! Pour your intent into the seed potatoes when you plant them, and as they produce new crops, give them water and food as an offering in order to keep the spell fed! Some of the potatoes produced in this way can also be converted into offerings or used in spellwork, in addition to being used to cook with!
The possibilities are practically endless where potatoes are concerned! See what you can do with these nifty little spuds!
And may your harvests always be bountiful!
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