Anyone who grows a garden has struggled with pests and thieves. It could be squirrels digging up your plants, birds plucking your berries, rabbits nibbling on the cabbage, deer grazing on your flowers, neighbors stealing your dear pumpkins, or spirits eating the essence of the peppers. (Is that last one a problem for other people or just me?)

This spell is is best used for growing rows of plants in the ground, but it can be used even in a small pot.

What you’ll need:

• A scarecrow vessel (see below)
• Soil from the plants you’re protecting (see below)
• Juniper leaf
• Garlic clove
• Onion
• Rose petals
• Rose thorns
• Rosemary
• Water (see notes)

First, make or buy a scarecrow. Ideally, the scarecrow would be made of juniper, but it can be anything. It doesn’t even have to be a scarecrow. It could be a garden statue or pinwheel, but scarecrows (and similar) do help keep pets away in a mundane fashion.

Next, make a potion. In a large jar, bowl, pot, or cauldron, fill it up halfway with water. Put the juniper leaves, garlic, onion, rose petals, rose thorns, and rosemary in it. As you put them in, think or say out loud what you want to protect and what you want to protect it from.

Cover the jar and let it sit for twenty-four hours. It may be best to put it outside in the garden if you can. It may not smell great.

Alternatively, you can heat the water if you want and put the juniper leaves, garlic, onion, rose, and rosemary in it. Remember to enchant the water as you work. Let it sit and steep for an hour.

When the potion is done, strain out the ingredients and save the water. You can toss the used ingredients in your compost pile or bury them outside of your garden space.

Next go to each corner of your garden plot and collect a bit of soil. If you’re using a round plot or a pot, just take a bit of soil from the edge of the circle.

Once you have the soil, rub it over the scarecrow. Then wash the soil away with half of the potion. Use only the half of the remaining half, sprinkle a bit in the places you took the soil from.

Now place the scarecrow where you want it to go and use the last of the potion to sprinkle over it. Tell the scarecrow that you want it to protect the garden.

Notes:

• The water can be any kind. Water from whatever source you water your plants from is good. Water purified by the sun or the moon (sun or moon water) or holy or sacred water is also great.

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