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Talk to any landscape professional worth his or her salt, and it quickly becomes clear that creating a garden involves a lot of planning. There are numerous books available which indicate - in words and photos - the concept of the "beautiful garden". For the most part, color schemes, the heights of the various plants and other factors must be calculated to give the most appealing presentation. While this is certainly a valid approach, for Pagans, there can be much, much more.
So Patricia Telesco states in her latest book, Gardening With the Goddess: Creating Gardens of Spirit and Magick (New Page Books, 2001). Depending on the focus of one's particular tradition or magick, a personal garden can honor a certain Goddess, and be eminently practical and eye-catching at the same time. A well-thought-out combination of flowers, herbs and other plants sacred to one's Goddess, along with the pattern in which they are planted, dedicated/blessed and marked, can yield a pleasant place for contemplation or ritual, and the supplies for use in those very rituals.
Gardening with the Goddess in mind keeps a Pagan well grounded and mindful of the traits of the feminine deities. In many ways, the individual becomes as much a "mother" as the Goddesses themselves, preparing the earth to accept the seeds, nurturing the young plants, and tending them as they grow.
Telesco's book is a good resource for just this end. Her hints are not merely general, but she also includes sections on the Goddesses themselves (a wide variety, from Lakshmi to White Buffalo Woman, Hecate to Julunggul), and useful suggestions on how to create a suitable garden for them. The correspondences found in so many other books are given a new twist when applied to gardening.
Above all, no matter who you are or where you live - from the lavish estate to the tiny efficiency apartment - having a garden is a distinct advantage when one is Pagan. Even if it is only a window box, a few herbs and flowers can brighten the day, and life in general.
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