The Enchanted Garden - Monica Crosson

Unlock the secrets of your own backyard with Monica Crossan, our master gardener and enchanting guest. Discover how you can transform your garden no matter where you live or what your gardening skills are. From practical tips to magical spells, Monica shares insights from her book, "A Year in the Enchanted Garden," and offers accessible advice for everyone, whether you're in a rural area or an urban apartment. 

Feel the power of nature as we discuss the importance of connecting with the earth, especially for pagan practitioners. Monica emphasizes understanding your local flora and fauna and offers practical advice for fitting gardening and its magical practices into busy or limited lives. Learn how to align your gardening with the wheel of the year and incorporate hydroponic gardens into small spaces. We also touch on the therapeutic benefits of gardening and the deeper meaning it can bring to your spiritual practices.

Embrace the seasonal cycles with us as we explore everything from mushroom hunting safety to celebrating Sabbaths with home-grown produce. Monica highlights how the scents of each season can enrich our lives and how gardening can serve as nature therapy year-round. We wrap up with a personal and heartfelt discussion on the profound connections we have with the natural world, making this episode a treasure trove of wisdom and inspiration for gardeners and nature lovers alike. Support Monica by exploring her book, perfect for both personal growth and as a thoughtful gift.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Enchanted Garden
• 10:41 The Connection to Nature
• 22:14 Seasonal Garden Rituals and Lessons
• 28:54 Year-Round Nature Therapy

Transcript

Granddaughter Crow: 0:00

Welcome to Belief being and Beyond with your host, Granddaughter Crow. Hi everybody, granddaughter Crow here for yet another episode of Belief being and Beyond, and I have a wonderful guest for you Today. You know, sometimes we go way beyond, over the rainbow, right. Well, today, just like Dorothy, we're going to come back to our backyard, in our garden, and realize there is no place like home. There is no place like home. I have Monica Crossan here with me today and let me tell you a little bit about Monica.

Granddaughter Crow: 0:46

So writer, master gardener, weaving magic in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Monica is a homesteader and a nature lover, so if she's not in the garden, she's going to be found on one of those beautiful trails in the North Cascades. She is an author of three different books, to include the Magical Family, which I highly recommend for all of those with a family, and also the Wild Magical Soul. And now this year, in 2024, a year in the Enchanted Garden. So she also contributes to Enchanted Living Magazine, as well as many of Llewellyn's almanacs, calendars and companion books. Please welcome, monica. Say hello to everyone. Monica, hello, oh, I'm so excited to be in conversation with you. I have your book and it is absolutely beautiful. It has owls.

Monica Crosson: 1:54

Yes, yes, it's, yeah, I have. I have a copy right here and that cover is absolutely stunning is absolutely is, and you know when I think about it.

Granddaughter Crow: 2:09

You know, and preparing for this show and and talking to you, I was really like this really is the idea of the enchanted garden finding out that you don't have to go somewhere over the rainbow to be able to connect. You know, I was also reading that you're also an educator about plants and such.

Monica Crosson: 2:34

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do as a master gardener. Actually, my expertise is helping families who don't have a lot of money how to use their EBT cards to grow a garden, Because a lot of people don't know that they used to be called food stamps, that these cards also provide families with money for plants, seeds, things like that, so they can grow a container gardener garden on their porch or you know, and just have. Instead of just buying tomatoes, you can have continuous tomatoes and I teach them how to care for them and and easy container gardening, you know, because containers can be expensive, and how to compost and things like that.

Granddaughter Crow: 3:25

That is so amazing, especially in this day and age where there is a consciousness to be able to grow your own food and the beauty and the health consciousness around having that sustainable living within the garden.

Monica Crosson: 3:43

Right, right, and I do live in a rural area, so, but what I do, what I focus on, are families in more urban areas and talk to them so they can, you know, just show them how to do it If they live in an apartment or you know, like in the burbs, something like that.

Granddaughter Crow: 4:04

I love it. I love it. So, audience, a year in the Enchanted Garden. You know, in going through this wonderful book it's really kind of like three chapters are dedicated to each month month and it is cram-packed full of not just gardening but magical spells and herbs and stones and astrological signs and animals and to-do lists. And it's absolutely amazing because when I picked it up I'm like a year well, really, it's only spring to fall, right, and it's like no, how did you get January in there?

Monica Crosson: 4:47

like well, january is, you don't think about it, but that's actually when you're planning your garden. So that's you know where I started that. And then I was trying. I live in the Pacific Northwest, which is we're. We're a zone anywhere from a zone nine if you're very coastal, to where I'm like borderline mountain, so I'm a 7.5, you know, on the, on the, in the zones, but so a lot of areas can plant. They're still planting in in January, or you know, have I mean even here you can plant, they're still planting in January. Or you know, have I mean, even here you can plant. I grow food in January. It's just covered, and I think I do cover more of that at the end of the year. But yeah, there's always something to do with the garden.

Granddaughter Crow: 5:39

Love it. So you mentioned zones, and so I live in Colorado, you know, right outside of Denver, and so I guess that would make me more mountainous, probably a six or seven.

Monica Crosson: 5:58

Probably a six or seven, and depending on where you're at too, because there's micro zones. So like just up the road from me, about five miles, they can grow rosemary all year round. Well, because of my micro zone here, my micro climate, and the way the wind comes off of the hill here in the south, I can't Wow, because it looks slightly different just because I kind of live in a hollow where I have you know where the hills rise and how the wind comes or where the river goes. There's a lot that goes into it and I go into that somewhat that you need to really watch what's happening in your area before you figure out what you can plant in your area. Before you figure out what you can plant, because just because your, your friend who lives 20 miles up the road, can grow something you might not be able to that's interesting.

Granddaughter Crow: 6:54

So what? What zone is this book written for? Or is it all zones? I?

Monica Crosson: 7:00

try to write something for all zones with all of my books. I write because I am a creative writer first and foremost and I like to tell stories. So each of my books they're kind of a journey where I take you along with me. So there's a lot of memoir things like that in them. But I did the best I could to cover something in the to-do lists, in the back or wherever, to cover as many zones as I could and what you might be doing and what your gardening needs will be, you know, for your zone Love that I might not be 100 percent, but I did try really hard.

Granddaughter Crow: 7:40

I love that. So, basically, everybody check out a year in the Enchanted Garden and it doesn't really matter what zone you live in, you can figure it out, so you know. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this is that you spent the time to do an appendix. You took the time to do an appendix because I was looking through it and I'm like I've been craving cabbage and so I go and I'm like this oh, my goodness, there it is. It's for like protection and money. And I'm like, oh wow, so yeah, it's, it's amazing.

Monica Crosson: 8:18

That was one thing with books. I mean, a lot of books have great appendixes, but there are some that I love that don't, and so it's really hard just to like you're like flipping through, like what did they say? You know, do you just want to be quick points? So I wanted to make sure that it had that in there so you could and I still need lists.

Monica Crosson: 8:37

I mean, I've been doing this forever and I still need lists once in a while. It's like you, like you know well, I don't use that plant a lot. Um, I mean the other thing and this is, uh, going beyond what's in the appendix also. I mean magic is so I don't know. It's this, this personal connection, obviously with the spirit of your place, of your deity. It's your magic. So that's another thing I try to push in the book. Yeah, my appendix is there. It's great. I love lists and a lot of that has to do with my ADHD. I need lists.

Monica Crosson: 9:21

But also it's about connecting and I try to um, you know, even if it's in your backyard, in your park, whatever it's connecting with the spirits of your land and getting to know what grows there and then how you can use them in your magic. And maybe you're like not feeling what I say. Lavender is for. Lavender is telling you something else. I encourage people to do that. It's your magic.

Granddaughter Crow: 9:52

I love that, I love that and you do go into even talking about, you know, the deities of the land, which I found was really fascinating too, because it's not just about gardening. There's a deeper level of connection that you're drawing the reader in to see of the magic and the rituals and all of that. Can you talk a little bit more about that deeper magical connection with the land?

Monica Crosson: 10:25

Well, to me that's very important and I almost feel like I mean, I know a lot of us and I am in a rural area. It's like, monica, that's easy for you to say, but I think we've lost that a lot. And as pagan practitioners, I mean, isn't that what I mean? That's, our connection is to the earth, to the land, and I just want to encourage people to get back out there and I know it's busy, we have jobs, we, you know, we have families, we're busy but just to take that time and to go out there. And it doesn't mean that you have to be like I don't know, super like get out there and try to just be really spiritual with it, right off.

Monica Crosson: 11:21

I'm saying take a book and go out there and learn about your region, you know, like, learn about its history, learn about its plants, and once you can start identifying things, like you know what grows in your hedgerows, what grows in your forests, how are your forests different than mine? And that's one thing I'm always. It's weird. When I weird, when I talk to people, I that's the kind of thing that interests me. It's like what kind of forest do you have? What kind of land do you have? How does it differ from mine? How does it feel? How does the spirits of the land feel? And for me it's just like really becoming knowledgeable with where you are and and your land, then making the connection and not just running out to the tree and saying, hey tree, I need this right.

Granddaughter Crow: 12:15

We're enjoying the belief being and beyond podcast and would like to support it. I'm on patreon. Just go to Patreon, granddaughter Crow, or you can find it at granddaughtercrowcom. Thank you so much. I have. One of my books is titled the Wisdom of the Natural World Spiritual and Practical Teachings from Plants, animals and Mother Earth, and so there we have a very deep connection. Seeing the land and I love that you say the spirits of the land and the one thing that I try to explain to people is that you are a part of this dynamic. What do you think about that, right?

Monica Crosson: 13:01

no, I completely, I completely agree, and, um, I don't, it's I don't know. It's odd for me to not be, and it's odd for me when I come across people who aren't. So it's, um, yeah, it's just very important to me and it's, it's something that I do on a daily basis and um, it's how I connect, it's it, it is my practice. Yeah, I mean.

Granddaughter Crow: 13:35

I absolutely love that because and I love that you're saying, oh yeah, I'm so enamored in the land that I forget that people forget that you like they don't understand how to do that, how to Right, right, yeah, yeah, and and. And it's kind of like when I say, and I love that you just said, hey, you know, you go talk to a tree or whatever. You know you go talk to a tree or whatever. But at the end of the day, the tree is saying so much. And I saw an interview that you did, I think it was at the. It was one of those Llewellyn things where you guys were talking about winter growing and you kind of started talking about well, in the winter people are like they don't connect because it's cold and you want to go inside, depending on what region you're in. But truly, if you go out, you can kind of recognize a tree not necessarily by the shape of the leaf but by the color of the bark and where it grows and how it grows.

Monica Crosson: 14:44

And they give off a different energy too, just like we do. I mean, we are different in the winter, we are going inward, and you know, my energy is completely different in the winter than it is in the summertime, and I don't know. I think there's something beautiful about every season, and that's part of this too. Like I wanted to go beyond just a gardening book, but just connecting and that's why I threw in and of course, I do things that I'm familiar with but encouraging you to go out and and discover not only the plant life that you're growing in pots on your back porch or in your garden space, but also the plants that grow around you, that are, just as you know, magical and wonderful and are our allies too.

Granddaughter Crow: 15:40

Yeah, the trees in the park or the grass in the park or all of those kinds of things, you know. Also, in looking at this book, I thought, oh gosh, who is the reader? And I'm like, well, you have so many, you're reaching so far. There are so many readers. If you want to learn how to garden, pick up this book. If you know how to garden, but you want to increase your magical practice, pick up this book. If you want to align with the wheel of the year, pick up this book. And even if you are an herbologist, pick up this book, because it really kind of you weave in so many different things. It's not just the months, it's the different herbs, it's the different.

Granddaughter Crow: 16:26

What do you do, you know, in your garden? It is stories, like you said, it is folklore. So even if you are, let's just say that you're like, oh well, I'm just a kitchen witch, but I and I live in an apartment. You know what can you do to connect with being a green witch or garden witch? And this book will help connect. Can you talk? Because I love this, because I want to reach the people who, like you had mentioned at the beginning, live in, maybe live in an apartment complex or they don't have a little plot of land. What do you recommend for those people to do?

Monica Crosson: 17:13

Well, my favorite and I have one actually in my kitchen is the hydroponic little hydroponic counter gardens, or the arrow gardens, I think is the main name that most people know, but they're water-based. So you have a little plug, you put the Aero Gardens I think is the main name that most people know, but they're water-based. So you have a little plug, you put the little seeds in, they pop into water, they have a light. That actually is time. You don't even have to take care of it. All you have to do is put in water and the light comes on and off as needed.

Monica Crosson: 17:44

And they're wonderful, they, they grow, they have all you. Well, you can get one of their kits, which some of them have like a tea garden, so it's going to have lavender and lemon balm and peppermint or something. Um, you can even grow tiny tomatoes with those things. But that's kind of where I go, because they're the garden for anyone and for the especially busy, and they fit in the tiniest places. In fact, I got my son and his fiance one for Christmas, because they live in a studio apartment that has hardly any room and it's perfect.

Granddaughter Crow: 18:22

Right, I love that, love that. So it's really kind of interesting because I also research a lot about plants and that they are a life force, that when you are around them they give you life force and when you love them, they feel your life force. Yeah, talk a little bit about that connection that you understand.

Monica Crosson: 18:50

For me, I mean a lot of the plants are my babies. You know I have ones and I talk about this in the Magical Family too that I'm completely into plant and seed sharing, and most of it's because of for me personally is because of ancestral roots. So I have plants on my property that were my great-great-grandmother's. I mean, you know my rhubarb, one of my varieties of rhubarb roses. All over I have a money plant that came from seeds that my mother-in-law great I can't remember how far back that those were they were in a jar that she had in a storage unit forever and she was like, hey, mom, could you want to try these?

Monica Crosson: 19:40

And um, but yeah, I mean, for me it's it's not only just a connection with the plant but it's connection with my roots and, um, you know, like my family on this land, I mean in this area, goes back a quite a ways. So like I look at them and I I have memories with my grandparents and then their stories that that come this. So for me, a lot of it is just that ancestral connection with the plants too.

Granddaughter Crow: 20:14

I absolutely love that because you know, a lot of times when I'm looking at a tree, I think to myself you're older than I am. You know people who you know. You've seen people that have gone past.

Monica Crosson: 20:30

Yeah, yeah, I think that way too. I live on the Sauk River and the Sauk Sulatl tribe is about 10 miles of the road from me and there's this beautiful, wonderful old cedar that I talk about in Wild Magical Soul, but I just like to think of, like I'm sitting under it and everything it's seen, you know, because the river was the main source of travel at the time and the people of the time you know, coming up and down that river or just you know things that it's seen. I don't know. You can feel it, you can feel it just sitting around it.

Granddaughter Crow: 21:10

I agree, and to me that just kind of opens my mind beyond my little life and my little world and my little house. And so I have another question for you when is a good time to start this book? Or can you just pick it up any month and just start with the month?

Monica Crosson: 21:29

or I think you can do that because you know, at least, even if so, if you start now, it's a little late, I mean, unless you live in like zones 9, 10, something like that, because you can plant continuously in these, these warmer zones, um, which is perfect. But for someone like like I just got done doing my a few weeks ago fall planting Because you can, you know, plant continuously, like I always have a crop of, like I just did carrots, beets, peas for fall planting. I'm also in the middle of harvesting right now. So if you're in the middle of harvesting, you can start with that. I have stuff like for maven and salmon and yule and things like that that are coming up.

Monica Crosson: 22:23

There's recipes, there's things on mushroom hunting. This is not like a guidebook you take out with's things on mushroom hunting, um, this is not like a guidebook you take out with you to go mushroom hunting. It has just a little little bit here and there and in it it's like yeah, take, take someone with you, because mushroom hunting in particular can be very dangerous. There's a lot of lookalikes if you're, if you know nothing about it. But, um, but yeah, and also just for inspiration for next year, you can read ahead and plan, start your vision board. You know things like that.

Granddaughter Crow: 22:55

I love that and you know that's. Another thing that you do bring up in this book is you do follow the sabbats and you help us to explore what that looks like from in your garden and how to bring that to your table and how to connect with these deities. And I just think that you know, a lot of times you know people out there. If you're in a coven for a long time, years after year, sometimes you kind of just go through the motions, but bringing it back to life with the enchantment of I am serving you a dish with basil on it that I grew in my little kitchen is just so powerful and healthy.

Monica Crosson: 23:42

And that's what we'll be. We're planning that right now. Um, we do that, uh, every year and we bring something different to the table. You can even do like, hey, we're doing apple recipes this year, let's do it. What are we going to? You know, come up with and then, just, you know, make the whole thing about that and we get creative and fun. Um, I'm I like to make everything really pretty and we always do it down by the river, but, yeah, yeah, it's fun. I enjoy stuff. My coven, we're a group of, we're kind of all solitary practitioners, but for the Sabbaths we come together and do group.

Granddaughter Crow: 24:23

I love that. I absolutely love that. So this is a little outside, but I really want to know your answer. I'm excited to hear what you're going to say. I read a bumper sticker that says you don't need of all the names of the cool microbes and stuff.

Monica Crosson: 24:41

That's that are in the soil, but you can look it up and I wrote about it in there too, um, but there there is actually something to being in the dirt that actually makes you feel better and for me there's nothing like I mean I could be completely in a bad mood and angry and pulling stuff up out in the garden Like there's, there's nothing like it Digging in and you know. So it works on many levels and yeah it yeah, yeah, therapy I absolutely love.

Granddaughter Crow: 25:27

Plus, you know, not only do you get that almost instantaneous, like I think, a lot of times we get into our head, we get in all of this and this brings you back here into your body. And another thing that I like to do is I do like to celebrate, uh, do rituals outside, even when it's snowing or raining, because it reminds yeah, it reminds my body about what my ancestors went through and how you know, and the connection with being with the plants. The tree is feeling this too.

Monica Crosson: 26:10

Yeah, yeah, no, I always, and it brings here a lot, so we get wet a lot outside. But that, to me, is part of it, it's part of the ritual and I love it.

Granddaughter Crow: 26:22

I do too. I absolutely love that too. Okay, so tell me about at the end of each little section of the 12 months you have, like a to-do list, or talk to me a little bit about that.

Monica Crosson: 26:36

Well, I thought I would make a little section that, if nothing else, you know you've read the book. You don't want to flip back through the chapters and go what was she doing in February? Was that in chapter two? Back through the chapters and go, what was she doing in February? Was that in chapter two, where you're probably going to read more of the stories or the folklore, and then you know like spells and things like that at the end of the chapters. I thought it would make it easy.

Monica Crosson: 26:58

These are the exact to-do lists, in case that's all you're wanting to do. It's like, hey, what should I be doing in the garden right now? Well, here are some tips and tricks like this is a great time, like you say, january, to start making sure. Make those lists. What do I need if you're new to gardening? If you're not, do I need to, uh, oil or sharpen tools, things like that? Um, yeah, and then I throw in like magically, you know, like what could you be? What can what, what are, what's a lesson or something you know that you can learn from from the garden, or what you could be doing. So, like you know, might be time to dry herbs and what they could be for. Here's some ideas for some mule gifts or something that you can start doing in November.

Monica Crosson: 27:45

I love that Things like that. So, yeah, just make it easy.

Granddaughter Crow: 27:50

I love that too, because you know, when I, when I think about the wheel of the year or you know, going through the connection with planting and growing and harvesting, and preparation and storage and all of these things, it's full of these concepts that we can apply to our actual daily life, like growing up or how to like let something go, or how to nurture. So what do you think about that? I mean, it's a common concept, but I really just yeah, no, there's lessons in everything.

Monica Crosson: 28:31

And I, in my own life, I mean I, I try to tie every season has a lesson and to, um, I tie that into my writing and I try to you know, practice what I preach so you know, use it in my own life. But, yeah, I do, you know, practice what I preach so you know, use it in my own life. But yeah, I do, I do too. I do too. I think that's cool lessons. I mean, look at winter and you know how we can look at that and but I mean we always life, always spring, always comes back and I say I say the same thing, monica.

Granddaughter Crow: 29:08

I'm always. Sometimes I'm like somebody will call me up and they're just like oh, it's desolate, nothing's moving, it's so cold. I feel so isolated. I was like well, it sounds like you're in a winter, but don't worry, spring will come, you know.

Monica Crosson: 29:23

Exactly, and it's crazy because I mean we were talking about connecting with the dirt and things like that. For me, there's also something about scent, with every single month and maybe I'm just outside, a lot and here and connecting with the seasons, but in the winter, I mean as it ends, there's a scent in the air that like yeah, I mean you know, it's like, oh my gosh, um, this is bad. This feels bad to me, but I mean here's the earth telling me you know, hang on, spring's coming yeah, I can smell the soil you know it's.

Granddaughter Crow: 30:04

It's kind of interesting because in studying Mother Nature, mother Earth from my perspective, I did learn that one of the communication tools that plants have is scent. They talk to us through scent, right, right, versus, like a word. They're telling us things.

Monica Crosson: 30:30

Yeah, no, versus like a word they're. They're telling us things.

Granddaughter Crow: 30:31

Yeah, no, um, plants are amazing, amazing and um, I've learned so much from them, you know yeah, me too, me too, you know my husband, he, um, he does all of our gardening and and he says he said to me, when you go out into the garden, every day is Christmas Because you, yeah, you find something new, you know. And it also teaches you patience, like you know, to plan for the future. And oh, my goodness, that seed, to plan for the future and and and, oh my goodness, that's that seed, that fruit. You know we have a grapevine, we have, you know, all different types of things, so do you find that same? Like almost childlike wonder.

Monica Crosson: 31:21

Oh it is. It's fun, like right now. It's like I go out and I'm looking at pumpkins and squash and watching them grow my grapes too. It's just like, oh my gosh, look at you know, finding them up within the vines and I have corn that's just coming up, it's just ready. We had some last night. But it's fun going out there and it's like, oh my gosh, these tassels, this is ready and kind of poking through stuff. It's always exciting to me. I always feel like a kid, it's great.

Granddaughter Crow: 31:54

Yeah, yeah, and so I love the way that it's called. You know the Enchanted Garden. You know that's exactly where I went with it. I'm just like you know I come, I was born in New Mexico, which is the land of enchantment, so I love this word enchanted garden. How did you come up with enchanted garden? Just the title.

Monica Crosson: 32:19

Well, I'll be honest with you, that was a collaborative with with my publisher. I'm not even sure what my original title might it might have been a year in the witch's garden or something like that, but uh, we come together and it's like um, let's think of some things, blah, blah, blah. That's what came up between us, or? All absolutely love it yeah, no, I love it too and, like I said, when they showed me me the art for the front, that just blew me away and just all together, it's absolutely gorgeous.

Granddaughter Crow: 32:55

It's absolutely gorgeous. So is there anything else that you wanted to kind of highlight that I didn't touch on about your book, or anything that you'd like to just share with the listeners?

Monica Crosson: 33:13

I just want to remind everybody to go outside. Just go outside. Even if you don't feel like it, you're going to feel so much better. Take a short walk, much better. Take a short walk. Sit by a tree, talk to your plants. Just just do it, because I love that. It's, you know it's worth it.

Granddaughter Crow: 33:36

I love that. I love that and I agree with Monica. You know, go outside and do that throughout the different seasons and watch how the natural world changes within whatever, wherever you're at and and how it impacts your physical well-being and, you know, brings you to life. I love to go out in the springtime and just you can just smell it and I know listeners, you guys know what I'm talking about, but you can do that all year round and just breathe in the natural world as therapy. So, instead of going somewhere over the rainbow, just pick up A Year in the Enchanted Garden by Monica Cross. Monica, thank you so much.

Monica Crosson: 34:31

Well, thank you.

Granddaughter Crow: 34:32

Oh yeah, this has been a lovely conversation and I know that there are a lot of people. Like I said, if you are a gardener, pick up this book. If you want to increase your magical side. If you are in a coven, do this within your coven. If you're a mom and you have kids that you're like what am I supposed to do with these kids? Maybe this would be a fun exercise, because there's a lot. I mean, it's a workbook too. They give little stories and to do things, and so this book is just amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it, to share it, and I just really enjoyed having you on the show.

Monica Crosson: 35:12

Thank you, it was actually a really fun book to write.

Granddaughter Crow: 35:27

Oh, I love it. Also, I am going to go on to Goodreads and give this a five star review. So if you want to know how to support an author you know one that's been on my show, one that you've read a book go to Goodreads. Give them a review. It really is helpful. Share this wisdom Makes a great gift. Just telling you this is a great Christmas gift and helps people with New Year's resolutions too. So, anyway, like, subscribe and share and I love you and we'll see you on the flippity flip.