A Definitive Guide to Plant & Garden Magick Books

By Amber C. Snider

For all you kitchen witches, herbal enthusiasts, and earth magic practitioners out there, we've rounded up the best books on plant magic. From wildcrafting to enchanted cooking and responsible foraging, there's a little something for everyone.  

Image by AmandaKoch from Pixabay

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Enchanted Kitchen by Gail Bussi
Gail Bussi whips up 75 “edible magic” recipes, along with seasonal rituals and spells, in her latest book Enchanted Kitchen. New for 2022, this tiny-yet-mighty magical cookbook designed to help you connect to Spirit includes recipes for each month, complete with vegan and vegetarian options. Learn to make quick magic seeded bread, leprechaun pesto in March, sunshine lemon pickles and moon magic soup in January, spiced ghee in August, and more. Bussi, who studied holistic herbalism and natural healing, is a professional cook and also the author of Enchanted Herbal.

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​The Magick of Food by Gwion Raven
Starting with Sumer and moving through Greece and Rome, Raven begins The Magick of Food with a  “brief and incomplete” culinary history, before moving onto magickal cooking in modern times. The book includes kitchen tips, food & sex, healing, spellwork, and ritual offerings for the gods. Learn to make honey shortbread to conjure love, a Baba Yagatini cocktail or Metamorphoses mocktail mojito, a gratitude spell with bone broth, or celebratory dishes to honor the various sabbats in the Wheel of the Year. 

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Backyard Garden Witchery by Laurel Woodward
New for 2022, Laurel Woodward’s Backyard Garden Witchery offers practical advice and spiritual guidance to help you realize the magickal potential that’s just outside your door. Explore the energy of plants, spirits of the land, earth-based rituals, flower spells, culinary recipes, magickal oils, and herbal brews to create your own “living, breathing sanctuary for herbalism.” She also offers advice on working with (and appreciating) weeds, shrubs, herbs, and flowers. A must-have for any garden enthusiast looking to transform their personal outdoor space into a mindful wonderland.

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Kitchen Witchery by Laurel Woodward
Laurel Woodward’s Kitchen Witchery (2021) is designed to “elevate the way you approach cooking" and explores everything from cooking with the lunar cycle, working with grains and wheat (with gluten-free alternatives), the magickal associations of nuts, oils, fruits, veggies, mushrooms, and more. It also includes rituals and spells for each ingredient. Whenever you’re wanting to add a touch of magick to a particular dish, simply look up the individual ingredient and see the possibilities. Great for kitchen witches, spice lovers, and anyone wanting to enhance their culinary creations with intention. ​

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Encyclopedia of Wicca In the Kitchen by Scott Cunningham
Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca may not be new, but it's an absolute must-have for any kitchen witch. This culinary staple by bestselling author Scott Cunningham covers five distinct sections: magic in the kitchen (including tools, magickal cooking, and festival foods), the magic of food (which inclludes the lore, magickal uses, and elemental associations with a variety of common ingredients), magical food diets (for protection, money, sex, spirituality, and more); Scott's favorite recipes (including desserts, main dishes, and apps); and finally, supplemental material (including symbols, resources, and more). It's truly a definite guide to the magical cooking in the kitchen.
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Weedy Wisdom for the Curious Forager by Rebecca Randall Gilbert
Gilbert's Weedy Wisdom is a beautifully written homage to the natural world and all the lessons we can take from working with wild plants. After spending her childhood foraging in Martha’s Vineyard with her grandmother and later teaching at Camp Jabberwocky, the oldest summer camp for people with disabilities, Gilbert shares her plant wisdom through dozens of recipes and includes ways to incorporate foraging into your everyday life. 
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​Here you’ll find info on edible flowers, leaves as foundational food, first aid plants, cooking techniques, and more. With an eye for gratitude and radical honesty, Gilbert shows how to use plants with a higher, more attuned consciousness and offers up a variety of plant knowledge for both spiritual and physical growth.

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The Scent of Lemon and Rosemary by Raechel Henderson
The Scent of Lemon Rosemary is a beautiful tribute to the Goddess Hestia. Rarely discussed in Greek and Roman mythology, Hestia’s power is pervasive, as the Goddess of the hearth, she’s the first one to receive offerings and keeps the fire alight in the home, heavens, and beyond. Here, Henderson covers working with the Goddess throughout the home (with chapters on love and transformation in the kitchen, purification in bathroom, prosperity in bedroom, and communication in the living room),  including ways to invoke Hestia’s energy, protection spells, kitchen spells, magical houseplants, and more. She also includes several magickal recipes, herbal remedies, healing teas, and green cleaning recipes throughout.

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​A Witch’s Guide to Wildcraft by JD Walker
In her A Witch’s Guide to Wildcraft: Using Common Plants to Create Uncommon Magick, JD Walker discusses the sacred energy of North American plants and ways to use them in your magical work. You don’t have to go far to find powerful plants all around you (hint: many are right in your backyard or nearby woods), including chickweed, clover, dandelion, ferns, grass, holly, and more. Here, she explores the uses of 30 common plants, ways to identify and harvest them, and offers spells and rituals for each one to help you “develop a closer relationship with our enchanted world and with your own spiritual self.”
 

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Earth Magic by Dodie Graham McKay
As part of Llewellyn’s Elements of witchcraft series, Dodie Graham McKay’s Earth Magic is an absolute staple for any witch seeking to hone their skills in the sacred art of working with elementals. Complete with invocations, info on sacred earth sites, offerings, stones, geomancy, wildcrafting, earth animal guides, and more, her book is thorough, practical, and above all, wise. She also includes guest essays that help inspire others to create positive changes in their environment and self, including a moving piece entitled “Indigenous Perspectives on the Land and Pagans” by Karen Froman, a member of the Six Nations of Grand River, Mohawk Nation. If you’d like to deepen your earth magic practices and grow in your Craft, this is definitely the book for you.

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The Witching Herbs: 13 Essential Plants & Herbs for Your Magical Garden by Harold Roth
Rather than an encyclopedia of hundreds of herbs and plants, Roth’s book focuses on 13 essentials that every witch should know about. As founder of Alchemy Works, Roth blends the scholarly with the magickal, combining his 30 years of gardening experience with deep knowledge of the occult. Great for an intermediate to an advanced practitioners, the book provides in-depth coverage of witch’s favorite plants, such as poppy, rue, hyssop, clary sage, and vervain. Learn to make psychic enhancing tinctures with clary sage, dream tea with vervain, the lore behind belladonna, plant spirit familiars, and more with this essential book. 

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Herbal Magick by Gerina Dunwich
Filled with Pagan lore, herbal spells and techniques, gypsy magick, dream magick, and more, Gerina Dunwich’s Herbal Magick: A Guide to Herbal Enchantments, Folklore, and Divination is an enchanting hardcover worthy of any herbal witch. Learn about cherry tree divinations, tea spells, the meaning of plants in dreams, the names of Gods and Goddesses, working with roots and leaves, and more. She also includes an herbal encyclopedia that contains the Pagan names (if known) of each plant, as well as its planetary and elemental rulers and the Pagan Gods/Goddesses associated with each, making it a handy reference book, too.

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For more on herbs and plants, check out our Herbal Series or our new Plant Magic series.