At my practice in South Lanarkshire, there are two gardens; WytchWood, an organic and shamanic medicine garden and healing space, and the Garden Of The Goddess - this is the garden that welcomes you to my practice.

 

The Garden Of The Goddess is nothing short of miraculous. It continues to grow and flourish despite some very difficult conditions. I play a very small part in its creation - being its designer and caretaker - but it is the Earth, the plants, the wildlife and the spiritual inhabitants of the space that make it what it is. 

 

Created in Winter 2020, it is a relatively new space but it has dealt incredibly well with the rather tough conditions its location demands. There had been a lawn on the site for over 60 years and the soil had been untouched in that time. I covered the lawn over for many months and then dug it up in the winter time to make way for the garden - this was when I discovered decades old broken bricks that had been buried there during the house build. It is quite common for builders to bury broken masonry and other materials that cannot be used during the build in the gardens of the properties - it means they don't have to make provision for carting them away! (In my time working in Landscape Architecture, my eyes were well and truly opened to the disregard and disrespect most commercial builders have for the land on and around where they build.)

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The soil was incredibly heavy clay, and will always have this tendency. The site receives little amounts of sunshine, is at the mercy of some very cold temperatures and storms, and becomes waterlogged in places - some of the small plants planted in its first winter were frozen solid and I wasn't sure they would survive. But not only did they survive, they grew beyond my expectations. Given the right environment, nourishment, love, nurturing and understanding of its own needs, a plant will flourish - just like us.

 

In its first few months, the garden had already begun to attract a variety of wildlife including bees, hoverflies, ladybirds, spiders, butterflies, birds and visiting neighbouring cats who like to munch on the Nepeta! It was specifically designed with woodland in mind - a difficult thing to emulate, especially in a suburban setting, as woodlands are true creations of the wild that have their own mutual understanding and ecology - but it is evolving into what it feels it wishes to become and this includes a very small orchard.

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Just like the WytchWood Medicine Garden, the Garden Of The Goddess is organic and peat free. As many plants as possible are propagated from organic seed, and cuttings and seeds are collected from the existing plants. The compost and mulches used are a mixture of organic peat free commercial compost and my own home created compost.

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The garden is dedicated to the Green Goddess, the Sun, the Moon and the spirits of Nature - The Sidhe, The Fae. It is a cultivated yet wild space opening its arms to welcome all kinds of wonderful life, including you. 

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Organic Apothecary and Dispensary

The Garden of The Goddess and the Medicine Garden & Potager are my main horticultural focus, creating medicine, teas, decoctions, elixirs, tinctures, ceremonial supplies and natural organic remedies from the harvest of the gardens to use in my practice, in the products I create for clients, for the WytchWood Apothecary and they are the source of botanics for SuburbanShamanka. My respect for both the medicinal properties and spiritual teachings of plants allows me to work deeper with them - in harmony with them - and this is also integral to my work as a Shamanka and spiritual mediator.