Oh, my. What to plant, what to plant!?!?!? So many green growing things, so little time and space! We won't actually be putting anything in the ground until next issue, but let's get started laying out an imaginary garden. This is a very pagan garden, as you will see. I have chosen 13 herbs, and we will walk through how you might choose to lay them out.

There are some pretty fascinating mathematics behind this well-loved geometric shape we call a pentacle. You can immerse yourself in discovering those (it's fun, but it can make you crazy!), you can "eyeball" it, or you can use any other layout that pleases you. This particular garden would need to be at least 8 foot square, a size that will allow for one fairly compact herb in each point, and one larger, more spreading type of herb for the arcs between the points. We get 13 herbs by planting each point, each arc, the central pentagon, and pairing up the north and south corners of the square enclosing the circle of our pentacle.

Points: (compact)

1. Basil
2. Sage
3. Lavender
4. Lemon Balm (often called simply Balm)
5. Lemon Verbena

   Arcs: (spreading)

6. Tansy
7. Yarrow
8. Pennyroyal
9. Thyme
10. Catnip

    Center:

11. Rosemary (Rosemary makes a lovely centerpiece for the garden, and it tends to weather our mostly mild Virginia winters fairly well, so barring mishaps, you can expect it to be there for years.)

    North:

12. Mugwort (can grow 5 or 6 feet tall, so I put this in the north so that the shade it makes will fall away from the garden)

    South:

13. Peppermint (this one is a real spreader - good to keep at the edge of the garden to help to contain it)

With these herbs growing in your garden, your herbal arsenal will soon serve you nicely in many ways, both magickal and medicinal. Some (and I repeat, SOME - a little research will reveal lots more!) are listed below:

Resources: