There’s something about planting garlic in the fall that feels like a quiet promise.
A whisper to the earth that says, “We’ll meet again in spring.”
This year, that feeling hits deeper than ever.

After more than a year away from the garden, Dylan and I finally stepped back into the soil — and it felt like coming home.

🌾 Where It All Began

Back in 2018, when I finally got a breath from the corporate grind, Dylan and I moved in together and turned about a quarter-acre of usable land into our own small farm. We set up four garden beds, erected a greenhouse, and threw ourselves into growing naturally raised vegetables and herbs.

We sold at farmers markets, supplied restaurants and food trucks, and eventually opened a hot-prepared food stand with catering. While I handled the baking side, I also spent countless hours out there beside Dyl — hands in the dirt, learning from him, learning from the plants, learning from the land.

🌱 Dylan’s Farm & The Lessons We Carried Forward

Dylan really built that farm. He’s always been a green-thumb kind of guy — curious, observant, steady — the sort of person who learns a thing and then really learns it. Our shelves filled with books on soil science, organic growing principles, pest cycles, and nutrient dynamics. He even earned our farm the distinction of Certified Naturally Grown, which meant growing with integrity, transparency, and respect for the environment.

We learned so much, so fast:

– A heavy tiller doesn’t revive dead soil — it destroys the structure and compacts it deeper.
– Soil is alive, and you treat it like a living thing.
– Pest pressure is real, and harsh chemicals only create more problems.
– Integrated pest management is your friend: insect netting, companion planting, timing your crops, adjusting to weather.
– The hornworm lifecycle after the larvae stage is short – only about 15 days (yes, DAYS) from larva to moth — miss one, and your tomatoes pay the price.
– Plant squash in mid-June to avoid early-season squash bugs.
– Borage near cucumbers helps deter cucumber beetles.

Those years taught us the real, raw meaning of sustainability — not the aesthetic version, but the lived version. The kind that asks you to show up for the land because the land is always showing up for you.

🌙 Where Sustainability Meets Witchcraft

This is where my personal green witchery blooms.

Dylan isn’t into witchcraft — he’s supportive, but he approaches things from a scientific, practical place.
I love that about him.
Because my magic isn’t about floating above the real world. It’s rooted in it.

For me, green witchery isn’t just correspondences and symbolic properties. It’s:

– rebuilding soil
– supporting pollinators
– planting in harmony with seasons
– respecting ecological cycles
– nourishing our bodies and community
– understanding the energy a plant carries because you grew it

The magic is in the act.

Planting a seed, tending it, watching it grow, harvesting it, feeding my loved ones—that’s the spell.
That’s always been the spell.

🍂 The Pause Between Gardens

When it was time to start house-hunting, we made the difficult decision to stop planting. We didn’t want beds full of crops if we suddenly had to move. So we wrapped up the season and let everything rest.

But returning to store-bought produce — even for a short time — hit me harder than I expected.
Not in a snobby way. In a soul-deep, something-is-missing way.

Once you’ve tasted food you grew yourself…
Once you’ve smelled a tomato still warm from the sun…
Once you’ve pulled carrots from your own soil…

The connection lingers.

No store carrot can replicate that.
No hydroponic tomato tastes like a July garden.
No clamshell herbs compare to those you snipped minutes before dinner.

The disconnection was real.

🌱 Coming Full Circle: Planting Garlic at Our New Home

So when Dylan and I finally started planning next year’s garden and buzzing with excitement like kids on Christmas morning… we almost forgot:

It’s fall. We can plant garlic now.

And that simple realization lit us up.

Being back outdoors
side by side
hands dirty
soil under fingernails
sweating a little
laughing
and laying in the first crop at our new home…

It feels full circle.
Like the wheel turned, and we’re right where we’re supposed to be.

🧄 Garlic: Where Science & Magic Meet

Garlic might be humble, but it’s powerful.

Scientific Benefits

– boosts immunity
– lowers blood pressure & cholesterol
– anti-inflammatory
– antioxidant-rich
– promotes gut health
– nutrient dense

Magical Properties

– healing
– protection
– banishing
– purification

And what I love most is how the science quietly affirms what our ancestors already knew.

When healers of the old world used garlic to ward, heal, or purify, they were tapping into medicinal qualities that modern research now validates.
They observed.
They experimented.
They paid attention.

This is where the worlds collide for me — the place where science and magic speak the same language.

🌾 How We Plant Garlic (Simple Fall Guide)

If you want to plant your own, here’s how we do it:

1. Break bulbs into individual cloves (don’t peel).
2. Choose the biggest cloves for planting.
3. Plant with the root side down, pointy end up.
4. Depth: 2–3 inches.
5. Space each clove a hand-width apart.
6. Cover the soil gently.
7. Mulch well — straw, leaves, or wood chips work beautifully.
8. Water lightly.
9. Let winter do the rest.

Optional witchy add-ons:
– Set an intention with each clove (protection, health, prosperity).
– Treat mulching as “tucking the earth in” for winter.
– Use garlic as an energetic ward for the home.

🔄 Watch the Process Across Socials

If you’d like to see how we planted our garlic — step by step — I filmed the entire process with simple instructions and tips.

You can watch the full how-to videos (with a little witchy voiceover flair) here:

✨ YouTube
✨ TikTok
✨ Facebook
✨ Pinterest
✨ Instagram

The videos show the gardening technique.
This blog (and this week’s podcast episode) tell the story behind it.

🌙 Closing Reflection

Planting this garlic marks the beginning of a new chapter for us — our first crop in our new home, our first step back into the soil, our first return to the cycle we’ve missed so much.

It feels like reconnection.
Like remembering.
Like honoring both science and magic, the land and the ancestors, nature and nourishment.

Here’s to new growth, even in the quiet season.
And here’s to the magic we create simply by tending what we love.