Podcast 80: Unseen Helpers in Your Garden

What if some of the most important helpers in your garden are the ones you cannot see?

In Podcast 80, Linda and Betty explore their relationships with plants, trees, fairies, nature spirits, and the living energies they experience in gardens and wild places.

They discuss talking with plants, Reiki and blessed water, plant-spirit traditions, caring for trees, making offerings before harvesting, forest bathing, and paying closer attention to the land where we live.

The episode also includes reading recommendations from Pam Montgomery and Dora van Gelder Kunz, along with a preview of an upcoming short about identifying, harvesting, and bundling mugwort.

Listen to “Unseen Helpers in Your Garden,” then spend a little time sitting quietly with your own plants. You may notice more than you expected.

Transcript

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Linda: Hello, and welcome to 2 Crones and a Microphone. I am Linda.

Betty: And I am Betty.

Linda: We are here to welcome you to our next episode, having to do with—guess what?—gardens. We started with “Victory Gardens Then and Now: Growing Food, Community, and Hope.” Our last podcast was “Drop the Seed: Gardening as Spiritual Practice,” in which we interviewed a dear friend and colleague of ours, Libby Clarke. I hope you have had a chance to listen to both of them. If not, I think you are in for a treat. There is a lot of information and good storytelling packed into each one.

Today, though, we are going with a personal favorite of all three of us. Crone Sally is off doing something else today, but Betty and I are going to talk about unseen helpers in your garden.

Unseen helpers, you might say. What does that mean? Have a listen. We will find out.

Betty: I love all my unseen helpers. If you have been listening, or following us on Facebook or Instagram, you know that for the first time I put a real garden in the back, in the puppy playground. You can see pictures of it if you go to our Facebook page, 2 Crones and a Microphone.

It is flourishing—absolutely flourishing. I cannot believe it. It is an experiment. I put in tomatoes, peppers, and some cilantro. I have also had an indoor herb garden for a long time, which I keep going throughout the year, and that has always done well.

I was sitting and thinking about the podcast, and I thought, “You know, I have been really lucky.” Is it because it is genetic? Both of my grandfathers were gardeners. One grew beautiful flowers. The other also grew beautiful flowers, but my French grandfather was a gardener on an estate. He was more than a gardener; he was a horticulturalist. He created his own flowers.

As my sister said, “You come by it naturally. It is probably in your DNA.”

I never really explored it. I grew up in Brooklyn. We had a backyard and did things there, but we never really grew food—just flowers here and there.

When I got married and moved to the Poconos, where there is some farmland, I started growing tomatoes because my husband really liked them. This year I thought, “Okay, let’s expand and see what we can find.”

The first thing I did when I put the soil in and got ready to plant was use what Oh’ Shinnah had taught us about creating a sacred garden. I put crystals in there.

For more information on that, I believe that if you join 2cronesandamicrophone.com and become a sponsor, you will receive a sheet explaining how to create a sacred garden.

I have to say, my garden is doing exceptionally well. I have little baby peppers coming out, and the flowers that appear before the tomatoes.

If this goes well, next year I am going to make a bigger one and put in a second bed. They are above-ground gardens, just so you know.

Linda: You have a raised-bed garden.

Betty: It is above ground and in a container, so it is easy to manage. As an older person, gardening directly in the earth is not always as easy.

Linda: My back would not take gardening in the ground. Plus, there are the bunnies.

Betty: And the groundhogs will come and eat everything.

Linda: Right. It is a fenced area.

Betty: Yes, but the bunnies can still get through the fence.

Linda: True. I have seen them do it.

Betty: They turn into these little squishy things and go right through the holes in the fence.

I did not want to electrify anything, so I use a natural substance. I think it is called Invisible Fence. It is a deer-repellent product that you put around the area.

We have had a lot of rain, so I have to apply it again, but it does not affect the plants in any way.

Linda: I love that you brought up something invisible, because we are talking about unseen helpers in the garden. We are going to expand into a number of areas.

Let’s start with this: How do you relate to the plants in your garden?

How many of us talk to our plants? At the very least, we might say, “Hello. Good morning. How are you today?” or simply, “Hi there.”

Some people play music for their plants to inspire their growth. Some love to give them a good energy bath.

Betty, we were talking right before the podcast. What do you do?

Betty: I do energy work, of course. You all know I am a Reiki practitioner, so I give Reiki to my plants, both the indoor herb-garden plants and the ones outside.

They love it. You can tell.

I also give Reiki to the water before I water them.

Linda: We explained how to do this in another podcast. You can bless the water, charge it, or use whatever word you prefer to describe intentionally adding love, growth, flourishing, or thriving.

These are some ways we personally try to influence how a plant grows.

You have heard us talk before about how plants respond to us. They might suddenly seem to wave back. There might be a little leaf flutter, or they may energetically seem to pop up.

Betty: They do. You can feel it.

Lately, I have been creating moon water at the full moon and putting that in the plants. They really like it. It makes them happy.

I also add a little drop of holy water.

Linda: The holy water makes a difference, too.

Betty: It is all spiritually charged water, and the plants love it. They are very happy.

We just came through 100-degree weather, as I think many of us have. They did okay.

I thought, “Oh my God, I am going to be out there watering two or three times a day,” but they really did fine.

I think a lot of it has to do with the type of water I was using.

Linda: You can also put a clear quartz crystal in your water and charge it with an intention for the health of your plants.

Put it in the water, use your watering can, and the plants receive that energy, too.

Betty: And they are happy when you do things like this.

Linda: They are.

We both come from an herbal background, and I have done a lot of foraging. In the next podcast, we are going to take this to the next level and talk about herbal helpers—or weeds.

Crone Sally and I will make that podcast soon.

In the meantime, we can take it up a notch from communicating with our plants and receiving messages back and forth.

Sometimes it is possible to meet what I would call the greater plant spirit of a plant.

Let’s take your tomatoes, for example. There is a larger guardian spirit, for lack of a better term, that resides within each tomato seed and expands and grows with that tomato.

It is concerned with the health and well-being of tomatoes as a species.

I have sometimes been fortunate enough to meet some of those guardian spirits.

Betty: I try to engage them. I call on the greater spirit of those tomatoes, because they are going to be juicy, and I want to imbue them with all the good stuff.

There is a book by Pam Montgomery called Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness. It is chock-full of information.

I have not read the whole book, but I have read parts of it, and it has some very nice illustrations.

If you are looking for a book on this subject, this is the one I would suggest.

Linda: I agree one hundred percent. I have studied with Pam. She is amazing.

Betty: I believe that. I have not met her.

Linda: She is quite a person.

She teaches people how to meet the greater plant-spirit energy, how to listen, and how to respond, because there is a lot of wisdom to be gained there.

In some herbal circles, it is well acknowledged that plants are not only helpers; they are also our teachers.

It goes both ways. Plants are here to help us, inform us, and teach us about right relationship with the earth—how things settle in and work together, and what weaving occurs on energetic and plant-based levels to create a healthy garden, a good ecosystem, and greater attunement with the energies of the earth.

Betty: It helps us, too. When we are outside gardening and working in the soil, it helps us to ground.

Linda: That is right.

Betty: It helps us settle down and put things in perspective.

I believe one reason that happens is that there are other elements out there—for example, the fairies.

Linda: Thank you.

Betty: I have tons of fairies living out here. They have a very good time. There are so many of them.

I even created a little fairy garden. I have not put it together yet, but that is one of my tasks for today.

I will post a picture of my little fairy garden on our Facebook page and on our website, 2cronesandamicrophone.com.

It is simply a fun thing to have. They can come, see it, and be happy.

You want happy fairies around your house, for sure.

I have a lot of ferns, and they live in the ferns. There are a ton of them around my house.

I am always happy when winter is over and you can feel them begin to come back. It is really exciting.

Linda: What do they feel like and look like, so to speak, to you?

Betty: They give me a very happy feeling. You can feel a presence.

You may think I am crazy, but I have security cameras all around this house because it is a large property and a big house, and I have to keep tabs on everything.

I swear there have been times at night when I have seen the outline of a fairy on the camera.

I have not been the only one. If it were only me, I might not mention it on the podcast, but others have seen them, too.

They seem to flit around.

I have a lot of flowers, too, and I feel that the gardens make them happy and that they enjoy being part of it.

Linda: I agree.

I grew up loving the idea of fairies. Many of the fairy tales that interested me most involved fairies.

Sometimes they were presented as problematic, quirky, or mischievous, and at other times as lovely and bubbly.

When I have encountered fairies in various places—and this will tie nicely into our next podcast season—it has often begun by inviting them in and saying, “It would be really great to have you here.”

I find that asking intentionally creates an opening for the fairies to come.

What do fairies look like?

Across many cultures there are stories of the little people, the Fae, fairies, gnomes, and other beings associated with the elements.

Gnomes are associated more with earth energies; sylphs are associated with air; undines with water; and salamanders with fire.

That leads into a whole other realm of elemental differences.

The first time I remember encountering fairies as a child, usually at twilight, I would see little sparkling globes twinkling around.

They were not fireflies. I knew what fireflies were; I loved collecting them in jars and then letting them go.

This was different. I often saw the lights around sunset.

I carried that awareness into adulthood. Since then, I have danced with fairies.

They love it when we dance and move around, because they like to move, too.

It is possible that there are unseen worlds we cannot fully perceive and may be invited into from time to time.

Betty: Do they help our gardens? Oh, my goodness, yes. They absolutely do.

I have wind chimes outside, too. They love the sound of wind chimes.

I have some in the front of the house and some in the back. That little tinkling sound makes them very happy.

It is beautiful.

I also have bird feeders and birdbaths. I believe the birds interact with the fairies. I really do.

I think it creates a pleasant ecosystem.

Even the squirrels—little devils that they are—are like little clowns trying to climb onto the bird feeders.

I believe all of these energies combine to make a happy garden, and that is what you want: a very happy garden.

I often sit outside at night and talk to them.

Linda: Do they answer?

Betty: Sometimes.

Linda: Same here.

Betty: Not always, but sometimes I get an answer.

Linda: Sometimes it is a sense impression, as you described: you simply feel happy and welcomed.

At other times, I receive what I call a thought-picture. A picture appears in my mind.

It might be an image of them dancing, or simply a big grin.

I honor the unseen influences. Who are we to say they do not exist when so many people have perceived them through the ages?

Betty: I believe they exist.

I have a tree in the back that I absolutely love. When my husband was very ill, I used to go outside, sit by the tree, and talk to it.

We had big conversations.

Last year, it was not looking very good. We had a hard winter, and it was tough on the tree.

I wondered whether it would come back this year. Thank God it did.

I gave that tree a lot of energy work. I would go up to it, talk to it, and put my hands on it.

I hung little sparkling things from it to make it feel good. I did all kinds of things.

This year it is doing okay. It looks okay. I think it is because I was tending to the tree.

I did wonder, “Did I put so much onto that tree that the poor thing got sick?”

Those are the things that go through your mind sometimes.

Then I told it, “Now I am going to take care of you. You took care of me, and I am going to take care of you.”

Linda: I love that. There is reciprocity.

When we are embedded in the landscape and on the land where we reside, it does not necessarily have to be an officially designated sacred site.

Our entire next series of podcasts will be about being conscious on the land where you are.

Let’s begin a pilgrimage in our own backyards.

Let’s make the place where we live the sacred site with which we build a relationship.

Let’s work with the land where we live and express the joy and relationship that already exist there.

You described your garden. I have a series of lovely pots on a deck with beautiful flowers and selected herbs.

There is also a wild grapevine that was planted almost fifteen years ago.

I am going to make a short about mugwort, one of the identifiable helper herbs associated with the moon, healing, dreaming, and other uses.

I will show you how to make a mugwort stick that can be used for smudging.

If you do not have sage, or do not want to use non-native sources for smudging, a mugwort stick is brilliant.

I will show you how to identify it, harvest it, and make a mugwort stick.

I love that you brought up trees, Betty, because trees are another kind of unseen helper.

Trees root deeply into the earth. They are constant observers, and they change with the seasons.

Most trees are deciduous, although some retain their needles or leaves all year.

Their seasonal change is very much like the changes in our own lives.

I use trees as a way to think about the scope of a lifetime.

Think about what trees do beneath the surface, too. They weave their roots together.

In my yard, there is a giant maple tree that must be at least one hundred years old, perhaps older. I cannot put my arms around it.

I also have little river birches native to Ohio growing in the front yard. They are lively. They have so much to say.

Now and then, I look out the window and see a leaf or branch waving at me while nothing else seems to be moving.

Perhaps there was a squirrel on the branch, but perhaps not.

In my world, I get to see that kind of interaction.

I think trees are unseen helpers, as is the mycelium beneath our feet.

Mycelium is the network of fungal threads that interconnects growing things.

Betty: I had to cut down some ash trees because the poor things had emerald ash borer damage.

Linda: I am so sorry.

Betty: They were falling down and becoming dangerous, so we had to let them go.

There is a special way to do that and say goodbye to them, because I believe they have spirits, too.

Before every tree came down, I went outside with a tobacco offering.

I thanked the tree for what it had done during its lifetime.

Part of doing that was asking that no one be hurt while cutting it down.

I had professional tree workers come, but accidents can still happen.

Ash trees can snap in the middle while being cut, which is frightening.

By making that offering to the tree, I believe I helped avoid any catastrophe.

You can do that with any plant.

If you are working in your garden, make an offering.

An offering could be your saliva. It could be a song.

Linda: That is right.

Betty: It could be Reiki, therapeutic touch, or whatever form of energy work you practice.

There are many ways to make an offering, and I believe plants respond.

Before I cut my herbs—I make herbal water, especially in the summer—I thank the plant.

I tell it, “I am only taking this little piece. The rest of you is going to be fine. Do not panic.”

There are studies that show that if you go near a plant with scissors with the intention of cutting it, the plant panics.

I make sure I tell them, “I am taking only a little piece. Thank you. I appreciate everything you have done. This will help me become stronger.”

Linda: I always leave at least a thought-offering: a big thank-you and reassurance at the same time.

Betty: Yes. It makes a huge difference.

Linda: There is something else I want to add.

I have attended several herbal conferences where Pam Montgomery—the plant-spirit healer, mentor, and teacher whose book you mentioned—and various associates have used a device that is lightly clamped onto the leaves and stems of plants.

The device translates the signals into musical tones.

We get to hear the sound bath that particular plant emits.

It is extraordinary. The tones are usually high-pitched, melodious, and difficult to replicate with the voice.

Believe me or not, but it is true. It is scientifically proven that there is a way we can listen to the song, so to speak, that the plant is issuing.

Each plant has its own unique and different song.

I want to introduce that concept, and I will see whether I can find a link to add to our blog post.

Betty: That would be great, because it is extraordinary to hear.

Linda: Consider that we are walking through the midst of a literal plant symphony every day.

Whether or not we hear or perceive it, that energetic sound bath is around us all the time.

Betty: It is energy. It is vibration.

Linda: Exactly.

Betty: Even if you cannot hear it, your energy field is picking up on it. That is why you feel good.

Linda: Exactly.

It is part of why we like to garden. It is also part of why we enjoy sitting in a beautiful garden tended by someone else.

We may not be gardeners ourselves, but we enjoy the results.

That is why people like to sit on a bench or hike among trees.

There is a Japanese practice often called forest bathing.

In forest bathing, you intentionally spend quiet time in a wooded place.

You might put down a blanket and sit with the trees.

With a guide, you may also be offered tea made from foraged plants that the guide knows are safe to use.

You sit, calm down, and consciously take in the energy around you.

I have one more story about trees.

Recently, a friend and I toured a UNESCO World Heritage Site here in Ohio.

It is a site of intentional earthworks built around the year zero, possibly BCE, or Before the Common Era.

It was amazing to sit and walk through those intentionally constructed places.

One walkway passed through woodland with giant beech trees that were wider than I could reach around.

As I walked there, it reminded me of being among the redwoods at Muir Woods or among giant sequoias.

To me, those enormous trees emit calming and profound energy.

Around them, I simply drop into a feeling of, “Okay, here we are. This is good energy.”

Betty: It is amazing how much trees give us, and how many people do not realize it.

I hope that by listening to this podcast or watching it on YouTube, people begin to recognize all the benefits available to us.

We live in a fast world. We run here and there, look at our phones constantly, and interact on social media.

Put it all down and simply sit for a little while.

See what you can pick up. You may be amazed.

I want to add one more thing, because I know we are probably approaching the end of our time.

Linda: We are. I was about to say that we will need to wrap up soon.

Betty: Take a look at Dora van Gelder Kunz, who was one of my teachers. I adored her.

She wrote a book about fairies. I suggest looking her up and reading The Real World of Fairies, because she had an extraordinary relationship with them.

She taught me quite a bit about the fairy realm.

Those are the two people I would recommend: Dora van Gelder Kunz, whom I studied with, and Pam Montgomery.

I know there are others, but these are two authors our listeners may want to explore.

Linda: I agree.

The Real World of Fairies was published in 1977.

Kunz wrote about her lifelong communication with nature spirits, which is essentially what we have discussed throughout this podcast.

There are also works about her life and teachings.

She went into extraordinary depth about some of the extended spirits, which she called devas, that help anchor plant species and promote health on the earth.

She was gifted in her ability to see, receive, communicate, and teach about these experiences.

Betty: Yes. Really amazing.

Linda: I am glad we had the opportunity to talk about this.

We have shared so many stories, and this is only the beginning of opening the container.

We look forward to seeing you next time on 2 Crones and a Microphone.

Until then, see whether you can meet a fairy.

Betty: Go sit with your plants. Sit with your plants and see what happens.

Linda: Please remember to subscribe to our podcast so you do not miss the wonderful things we have planned.

Visit 2cronesandamicrophone.com.

Thank you, Betty.

Until next time, go meet the fairies and go find your glimmer.

Betty: Bye-bye.