Back in my old Brooklyn neighborhood, I passed by a greenhouse called Seasons almost every day. In the summer it smelled like fresh-cut grass and lavender; in the winter, pine needles and wood. It seemed like a sanctuary to me, one that I felt unworthy to enter. An apartment full of plants—though a long-time dream of mine—always felt unreachable due to the fact that my attempted plant care history was full of casualties. In college, I managed to kill a small money tree with a tag on it that literally said “impossible to kill”. Who has ever successfully killed bamboo? This girl. But on one late summer day in 2015, despite my insecurities, I made a spontaneous left turn into Seasons and met a woman named Deborah.

Once she got past the fact that I had been in the neighborhood for two years without a prior visit to her shop, she grabbed an imperial red philodendron from the counter and handed him to me. “Bright indirect sunlight. Let him dry out completely before you water. Repot him in a year. Also, name him. He’s alive, just like you.” That was the day I took Earl home and decided I would end my string of serial plant killings once and for all.

I put him (Earl) on the side table in the living room next to my couch. I’d often read next to him and watch new leaves sprout and feel proud of it. The days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and the longer he stayed alive, the more exciting it all became. So a few months later—on a trip to the New York Botanical Garden,—I bought Esmerelda, a pink and white polka dot plant. The woman at check out told me when they’re really happy, they’ll sometimes grow purple flowers… challenge accepted.

The days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and the longer he stayed alive, the more exciting it all became.

Once I hit the six month mark with no sign of death in sight, an addiction formed. Next came Freida, an adorable little croton bush, and Eleanor, my finicky and always thirsty peace lily. My succulents— Rose, Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia— took over my sunny kitchen window. When I learned that a five-year-old indoor coffee plant can produce coffee beans and flowers (!!), I had to have one. Thus, Coco and I are now in this for the long haul. Once I moved to a bigger space in Queens, I even adopted a 4-foot-tall bird of paradise plant (Ava) from a stranger on Facebook’s Marketplace. (She barely fit in the cab and I’m pretty sure the driver thought I was insane, but she needed a good home and I am shameless.)

Bringing plants into my home not only gave me a therapeutic indoor garden but showed me that I am capable of keeping something alive. While they’re not as complicated as babies or puppies, that doesn’t stop me from treating them as such. (It’s science.) Not to mention they come with their own set of problems: I’ll never forget the hot summer day that I saw tiny red dots developing on Earl’s leaves. (As he’s my original success story, he’s got a special place in my heart.) After a minor meltdown, I carried Earl—who weighs about 50 lbs—for 8 blocks in 97 degree weather so that Deborah at Seasons nursery could diagnose it as a fungal infection. Apparently that can happen to plants when humidity runs high. Who knew? Now I do. Fortunately, with almost a whole spray bottle of fungicide and a few lost leaves, Earl prevailed and I did a happy dance.

I’ve learned to check for tiny webs every time I bring a new plant into my house because spider mites are the actual devil. When Esmerelda started getting too leggy, I learned that polka dot plants have to be pinched every so often so that they learn to grow out instead of up. I also realized quickly that I kill succulents by loving them way too much. Now that I’ve toned down the watering, I’ve had much more success. (RIP Blanche, the Golden Girls will never be the same.) Just remember, people: Google is your friend. Use it.

Plants don’t speak English, but they do have a language. If something isn’t working, they find a way to let you know as long as you’re paying attention. Yes, there’s an appealing aesthetic to an apartment full of greenery, but watching them grow up and learning how to take care of them is the most rewarding part of owning plants. I’ve become a more patient and mindful person and it’s all thanks to them. So if you, too, have ever felt discouraged or intimidated by plant parenting, my advice is to adopt a plant and pay attention. Even just one. It may become three, then five, or in my case, twenty, and that’s okay, too. Just make sure—no matter how many you have— that you give each plant a good name, because they’re alive, just like you. And for those of you who are wondering: Esmerelda has sprouted beautiful purple flowers on more than one occasion. Mission accomplished.

Want to get started with your own house plants? Read our article about the health benefits of indoor greenery or check out our infographic of the best air-purifying plants for your home or office.

The post Confessions of a Millennial Plant Mom appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Our GC Feminist Baskets are one of the prized items in the GC Shop— our all-women staff loves them, and so do strangers who have stopped us to ask about them on the street (it happens all the time). Our baskets function wonderfully as a sturdy vessel in which to carry home veggies on a bike or by foot. We believe in making a statement with what we buy and how we live, and this is our favorite time of year to make bold gestures in that regard. We hope you do the same. (You can order your own Feminist basket here).

Wishing you a happy Spring from our GC family to yours!

The post Spring is Here! It’s Time for Baskets and Bikes. appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

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Humble Plants That Hide Surprising Secrets

Good For: The Wellness Guru

If you pride yourself on always being up-to-date on the latest superfood trends, check out biologist Ameenah Gurib-Fakim’s 2014 talk on rare plant species from different regions throughout Africa and from various isolated island that may hold the secret to curing common ailments like asthma.

How Trees Talk To Each Other

Good For: The Inquisitive Scientist

Do you ever talk to your plants? (We’ve been known to play them some smooth jazz.) If you’ve been slacking on your end of the conversation, no fear– your plants may have been talking to each other this whole time. In her 2016 talk, Suzanne Simard presents her 30 years of research from the Canadian forests, which reveal the complex social relationships trees cultivate.

Grow Your Own Clothes

Good For: The Fashionista

Vintage and recycled fashion is an easy, earth-conscious way to up your personal style. But what about growing your very own line of textiles? Suzanne Lee’s textiles are made from a kombucha based material that can be used either as a standard fabric or as a vegan leather alternative.

Unseen Footage, Untamed Nature

Good For: The Photography Enthusiast

If you’ve spent any time glued to Netflix watching the mesmerizingly beautiful Planet Earth, then Karen Bass’s 2012 talk is a must-see. In her ten minute presentation, she curates footage from her work for the BBC and National Geographic, some of which is never-before-seen.

A Garden In My Apartment

Good For: The Crafty DIY-er

Do you love a good afternoon project? For those crafty-types out there, Britta Riley’s 2011 talk will leave you brimming with ideas. Though she lived in a tiny apartment (a familiar lament in New York), Riley grew her own edible garden entirely out of recycled plastic bottles.

The post 5 Inspiring TED Talks About Nature appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

If you’ve ever been to a farmers market in NYC, you know compost happens, somehow, somewhere, and on an unbelievably impressive scale. But like many infrastructures in NYC– a city where every street corner has a purpose and there’s no space left to spare– it’s one of those mechanisms that boggles the mind. On a quest to better understand how a city as urban as NYC and a practice as rural as composting have made a happy marriage for themselves, GC Photo Editor Andreana Bitsis and I set sail to the NYC Compost Project hosted by Earth Matter NY‘s Compost Learning Center, located at the center of the picturesque Governor’s Island.

Andreana Bitsis

Andreana Bitsis

Andreana Bitsis

Photo: Andreana Bitsis

Andreana Bitsis

Andreana Bitsis

Andreana Bitsis

Andreana Bitsis

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Founded in 2009, Earth Matter is a non-profit with a public education bent, “dedicated to advancing the art, science, and application of composting in and around New York City”; they are also one of several sites that accepts food scraps from Grow NYC‘s 42 green markets. With funding from the NYC Department of Sanitation, the NYC Compost Project Hosted by Earth Matter NY and other organizations (like the Lower East Side Ecology Center) are working towards NYC’s Zero Waste by 2030 initiative by diverting food waste from landfills.

Toward that end, twice a week a truck boards the ferry to Governor’s Island and drops off the food scraps collected from various Green Markets across Manhattan. The scraps are then “decanted” (as the Earth Matter team jokingly refers to the process); spilled out for a roost of round, well-fed chickens; and then subsequently moved to various composting systems around the Compost Learning Center. There, they breakdown over a period of many months, eventually becoming “black gold” that is used to support the landscape of Governor’s Island, Earth Matter’s Soil Start urban farm, and can be sifted by the public at Open Hours during the Governor’s Island open season.

 While there are many organizations that work on compost in NYC, the Compost Learning Center’s location on Governor’s Island makes it a poster child for NYC’s recent lifestyle shift, one which makes room for the outdoors and embraces nature amidst the compact urban landscape (the Highline is most obvious example of this change). The apprentices working at Earth Matter towards the Compost Operator Training Apprenticeship Certificate are further proof of this new way of life: one is beefing up his compost knowledge so that he can take it back to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in Uttar Pradesh, India, where he’s working on developing compost curriculum; another works as a personal chef and children’s cooking teacher around NYC, and is looking to incorporate more of the food cycle into her work; a third works for the Zero Waste Department of GrowNYC and is in the apprentice program to get a better sense of how the organizations and their missions work together. Each approaches what they learn with a different goal in mind, but each has found a modern way to bring compost into their lives. In short: compost is no longer a practice reserved for those living in the remote wilderness– it’s possible (one might even say convenient), even in a city as urban and built-up as New York.

 Standing between mounds of matter in various decomposing states, with the island’s rolling hills on one side and NYC’s industrial peaks an ever present sight, the new New York seems to come together, arranged out of the chaos of discarded orange peels and crushed egg shells. 

It’s also an outlook that seems to leave no excuse for anyone who has the resources to compost. If a city like New York– the very definition of an urban metropolis– can do it, then anyone can. Earth Matter seems seems to prove the old adage: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

Earth Matter NY accepts and processes food waste as part of DSNY’s NYC Compost Project, which helps to reduce waste in NYC and rebuild city soils by giving New Yorkers the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to produce and use compost.

To learn more about Earth Matter or the NYC Compost Project, visit each organization’s website.

The post How Does NYC Do Compost? appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

“My style yields itself to a variety of textures,” says Rebisz-Kraeger, who lives above her business and small backyard garden. “In summertime it’s pretty bonkers– we have a bunch of different boxes and raised beds of filler plants and more delicate blooms to use as accent flowers, like zinnias,” she says. “Things you don’t come across too often in the commercial flower trade.” Rosehip Social’s eclectic style and timeless elegance has won praise from bridal magazines to walk-ins alike– the shop, at once inviting and warm (much like Rebisz-Kraeger herself) is filled with a variety of vessels and unique finds sourced from all over the NorthEast, from vintage shops in Brooklyn to flea markets in New Hampshire.

With peak holiday and wedding season behind us, GC spoke with Rebisz-Kraeger about wedding trends, flower recycling, and her adorable young son, who has become the unspoken mascot of her family-run business.

GC: You have a ton of beautiful greenery floating around the studio. From where do you source your flowers?

PRK: We buy a lot of the flowers from 20^th Street wholesalers [in the New York Flower District], and then we get some of it from California, shipped direct from the growers. It just really depends. There’s a place on Long Island that we get some of our flowers from– but really they come from all over the place, including my backyard, because I grow a lot of weird little things there. Some of this greenery is actually from the backyard– this is my happy little garden. We grow flowers and greens and use it to source sticks and other little details. [Gesturing to some hops.] These are all hops I use for arrangements, and then boutonnieres. They grow 20, 30 feet up in the air. Everything here’s for decoration, but then also for use as accents weddings. I can’t grow anything in substantial quantity, but little things, like little accents, make all the difference and it feels more organic that way.

GC: What questions do people ask you when they approach you to do flowers for their weddings?

PRK: We usually try to ask them for any sort of visual inspiration, just because the word “pretty” is super subjective; it’s impossible to interpret. And everybody these days seem to hit on “rustic wildflower” and “romantic” in the same sentence and then you’re just like, ‘What? What is it you actually mean by this? What is your eye drawn to?’

We love Pinterest. Sometimes you get 900 images and it’s a little difficult to interpret all of that inspiration, but most of the time you get to see a common thread that goes through them, and you’re like, OK, well I see why this client likes what they do. And after that it’s just a lot of communication. I had one client who wanted what they described it as “un-pretty flowers”. It was kind of difficult to interpret at first because I was like “You want ugly flowers?”  She’s like, “I want ugly flowers.” I said, OK. Let’s try to figure out what you mean. Ultimately, she wanted something unusual and pokey, with interesting textures instead of soft, conventionally pretty tones.

We have many, many meetings, and most of them tend to be over the phone. Sometimes on Skype, and sometimes in person, but there’s a lot of back and forth– just to kind of get an understanding and get into the clients’ heads so that I can interpret what they want and then give it to them. Wedding flowers are tough, but fun.

GC: What is some advice you would give people who are planning a wedding who are going to a florist?

PRK: Definitely make a Pinterest board. I find it’s difficult for clients to nail down what their exact look will be from one image, because nobody really wants to replicate another wedding that’s been done. But if you grab, let’s say something like 20 images, it will help you also filter down what it is that you like. Because when you first start the research, you want everything. And everything’s interesting and everything’s beautiful, but more they do research on their own, the more their vision funnels down and narrows into something that they actually love at the core. Once that’s prepared, then go to meet with the florist– ’cause a lot of times we’ll get an email or a request for further information, and then everything can be changed last minute– the cake, the approximate number of guests, the dimensions of the vessels. Know approximately what it is that you’re looking for, because your florist needs to be aware of what it is that you’re looking for and what context they’ll be working in.

For instance, there are a few venues that put nothing on the tables except for the glasses that you order or whatever.  A few of them put two bottles of wine, a bottle of ketchup, some A1 sauce, peppers and salt thingies, and you’ve got a thousand things on the table, so you just kind of have to know what you’re working with. And obviously, if you want flowers for the bridal party, know approximately how many. If you want to make, for instance, a statement piece– whether it’s at the bar, or whether it’s a welcome table with escorts, you don’t have to know exactly what you want, but as long as you have a general idea of what you’re looking for we can give you an idea of what your budget can get you. So, come with a general idea of what you want and how much you’re willing to spend, and we can work to put it together.

GC: What are some floral wedding trends that you’re currently seeing?

PRK: I’ve definitely observed a trend towards paring things down– eucalyptus and white flowers– things that look nice and robust without it being a production. Having everything green is a huge, huge trend that I’ve seen. Candle-lit atmosphere with a tremendous amount of foliage with white flowers or pale flowers with wildflowers and herbs. People are also very into floating centerpieces– it’s a little crazy to make, but so fun!

GC: What do you do with leftover flowers after an event? Have you heard of “flower recycling”?

PRK: I’ve never used any of those services before, but we have donated flowers to different things, like sometimes we can bring them to a church, or to a retirement development, or to art galleries in Bushwick. But it’s hard, because ICU units can’t always take them because of the chemicals that can be on the flowers, and businesses don’t want them because they don’t want to deal with disposing of them– but lately we’ve been donating them to my sister-in-law’s nursery school, and the kids love them; they dip the roses in paint and smash them and use them as stencils, so it’s really cute– such a violent way to treat such a beautiful flower! [Laughs] But the kids love it– and it’s so fun.

We also encourage people to take the stuff because, I feel like it makes somebody else’s day a little bit happier, a little bit brighter.

GC: How is managing all this with baby?

PRK: Not bad, not bad. It just requires help and logistics, and multifaceted help. It’s been interesting.  Like when I found out we were pregnant, and we’re having a baby, I had two weddings booked for that weekend when [he] was due and I was like ….hahaha. When the weekend came, we were at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and putting a wedding together in that venue. It’s a cool venue. It’s really dark– very Rock n’ Roll. But I was freaking out. Putting the boutonnieres on the Groomsmen, they were looking at me, and I’m giant– like a full 9 months pregnant– and I’m just like do-do-do-do-do, running up and down the stairs.  Immediately after that, my water broke and I was like oh, time to go the hospital. So the bride’s like, “Yay! Congratulations!”  And I’m like, “Oh my god, I’ve got a wedding tomorrow!” But it worked out, everything was fine. All the pieces were in place, everybody was ready to go, everybody knew, but it was hysterical. It was like sitcom. Now that he’s about a year and a half old, he hangs out at the shop a lot. He’s figured out that he gets a lot of attention when he gives flowers to people, so he’ll go over to the fridge, grab a flower, and give it to people and say, “Thank you!” It’s really cute.

GC: Do you have a favorite flower?

PRK: It’s so boring, but I love roses. I like everything about them. The sheer variety, the fact that they’re just so beautiful. They’re a strong flower, but they can also be very fragile… There’s just something about them that’s very charming. And I don’t know, but I feel like I understand them. I understand how they open, I understand what it takes to make them happy, I understand how to make them really pop, how to make them beautiful, whether they need warmth, whether I need to cool them…I feel like I understand their temperament. They come in such a variety of colors and sizes and shapes, they smell nice, and then I absolutely love rosehips– that’s why I named my company after them. This is a good environment to be in– full of nature, green. It’s nice to be surrounded by green in the city, let alone beautiful flowers. It’s a happy world.

Rosehip Social is located at 379 Graham Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. For business hours and inquires, visit their website.

The post Meet Rosehip Social, The Floral Design Studio Bringing Lush, Textured Arrangements to Williamsburg appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

The project began somewhat spontaneously– in one of those typical, chance NYC moments– arising out of the pair’s markedly different but equally deep-rooted family histories with food. The child of two Jamaican immigrants, DeVonn grew up influenced by his father’s restaurant. “He wasn’t a cook and didn’t know anything about running a restaurant, but was sort of like, ‘I want a space where people can come together and commune around music and food and things that I care about based on my culture and my history.'” Angus, meanwhile, grew up on a fourth generation owned, former dairy farm in Scotland. In college, when the two met, DeVonn had began casually preparing meals for friends and family as a way to keep home alive and connect with people; the idea of turning his cooking into a business remained in the abstract. Francis recalls, “I didn’t know what sort of form it would take until I met Angus.”

“Our business is about lifting up those who can’t see past their own vision of the world. I hope our food is doing that.”

After discovering some tents in an old barn during a visit home, Angus reached out to DeVonn about the project that would eventually evolve into the Enroot Collective. The tents would be used to house dinners, a complement to shooting a documentary about different farms and the history of farming in Scotland. “We narrowed it down to four places, and went farm to farm shooting a documentary, and then at the end of our stay at one place…we would call different people that were in the local community to come to our outside, al-fresco style dining experience– which was the Enroot dinner experience,” DeVonn explained, adding that this venture was funded entirely through Kickstarter while DeVonn was finishing his thesis. “It was really a powerful experience because I realized what community could do in terms of galvanizing people. We didn’t know what we were getting into at all.”

Since the documentary, the Enroot Collective has spiraled off into several other projects, including catering dinners at Bergen Street Garden (celebrating “the beauty of POC-driven food and communities“) and for F2L (an NYC-based project working to support queer and trans people of color whose lives are impacted by the prison industrial complex).

Yet the Enroot Collective is mindful not only in the practice of their meals, but in how they source their ingredients, as well– like buying produce from Rise & Root Farm (run by women, half of whom are women of color) or East New York Farms (which addresses food justice through local sustainable agriculture). “The cool thing about dinner, is that you need it, and we all (at least twice a day) go through the act of consuming something. But to know who made that happen– who had to tend to it, and what happened when it came out of the ground– is important,” DeVonn says. “If I source from anyone I try to see who are the women farmers who are doing really cool stuff, who are the black or brown people who are doing really cool stuff…It subverts common conceptions of how food happens in the world.”

Ultimately, the goal for the Enroot Collective is to move towards more engaged, long-lasting encounters. “After dinner, it’s like– What do you do? You’re not really left with anything,” DeVonn continues. In pursuit of creating more deeply-rooted moments, Angus ran a butchery course in Scotland last winter, as DeVonn continues to work on creating a solid network of contacts in New York, with the ultimate goal of turning out more documentary work. “I’m really excited to keep working with marginalized groups and people who don’t often get heard… It’s really important to keep emphasizing that we are here as people,” DeVonn says. “As much as we are a business, our business is about people. Our business is about lifting up those who can’t see past their own vision of the world. I hope our food is doing that.”

The post How The Enroot Collective Turns Food Into Advocacy appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

A donation to Edible Schoolyard NYC, The Highline, and the Central Park Conservancy also have the same effect, while encouraging the maintenance and preservation of these national treasures and community efforts to inspire change and positivity through the healing aspects of the garden.

This is also a great time of year to use your local florist and support your local farmers market if giving gifts of flowers or homemade food.

For more information and other ideas on garden-related donations this holiday season, check out our previous coverage of the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Edible Schoolyard NYC, The Highline, and the various gardens of Central Park. Happy holidays from Garden Collage!

The post This Holiday Season, Consider Giving The Gift of a Garden appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Below we caught up on how Pomeroy got into plant dyes in the first place, how she balances work with life, and her favorite plant for dyeing (yes, we made her pick!).

Shellie Pomeroy

Shellie Pomeroy

Shellie Pomeroy

Silk & Willow

Silk & Willow

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On how she got to where she is: “When my daughters were toddlers I was introduced to Waldorf education. I was inspired by their philosophy of teaching children to be ‘advocates for the environment’. After my first stroll through a Waldorf school nursery room with plant-dyed silks draped throughout the room, I was enchanted by the colors and textures. For many years after, my girls and I played with food as a dye for wool and silks. It wasn’t until years later that I dove deeper into the chemistry.”

On her favorite plants to dye with (for the record, she didn’t want to have to pick): “Avocado pits and the unexpected pink tone they create are quite amazing! Walnuts, abundant in my area, are one of my largest harvests. I just love the range in tones– from a soft ivory to a rich chocolate brown– that can be achieved from the walnut husks.”

On getting down in the dirt: “Gardening is my ‘play time’. Just getting my hands (and feet) in the dirt is therapeutic. This year I added more medicinal herbs to my garden; I am a little obsessed with them at the moment! It never ceases to amaze me how many plants can be used for both healing and creating dye color. Calendula, chamomile, hollyhock, and hibiscus… While risky for their invasive properties, this year I’ve also started [cultivating] some ‘weeds’ from seeds, including pokeweed, meadowsweet, and joe pye weed. I am eager to watch them grow and be harvested for dyeing. Aside from my dye plants, I love growing a collection of cutting flowers; my dearest being my peony flowers and Baptisia.”

On how dyeing plants is more than a job: “For me, dyeing with plants is a meditative practice. Years ago I formally studied meditation and became certified in Reiki. I feel these studies have given me an appreciation for patience and intention. When I am dyeing, I am most often alone for the process. I look forward to this quiet time where I can focus my intentions on the preparation and process of watching colors unfold.”

On her go-to spot in the Hudson Valley: “My current favorite local spot is Lagusta’s Luscious Commissary. Vegan chocolates, homemade nut milk, and healthy handmade meals. I wish I could eat there every day!”

The post From Hibiscus to Avocado Pits, Plant Dyes are Everywhere appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

“I find that there’s not a lot of options for smoking. It’s either tobacco cigarettes or cannabis or drugs,” Feinberg reflects. “A lot of people come in [to workshops] thinking, ‘Oh we’re just going to smoke things that will alter our consciousness or get us high.'” But with her smoking blends, Feinberg is seeking something gentler, something more elusive and spiritual. Her work is based around plant spirit medicine, which has origins in paganism and Native American spirituality. Feinberg describes plant spirit medicine as “working with the energy of the plant, as it is a conscious being, it is living, and growing, and breathing, and sharing space with us.” Feinberg is quick to disavow the title of herbalist, however, saying she has yet to earn such a advanced distinction. “I consider myself more of a channel or communicator between the plants and people,” Feinberg explains to GC. “I like connecting with the plants through smoking. It’s kind of like bridging the tangible with the intangible, in that middle way of smoke.”

While Feinberg doesn’t assume the moniker of “herbalist”, there are a few herbs that are her go-to’s for her sacred smoke blends. Her absolute favorite is mullein leaf, a common weed, and one that makes a good base for different blends. “It’s one of the best bronchodilator herbs that we have,” Feinberg revealed.

“A lot of people come in to workshops thinking, ‘Oh we’re just going to smoke things that will alter our consciousness or get us high.” But with her smoking blends, Feinberg is seeking something gentler, something more elusive and spiritual.

Egyptian blue lotus, a plant sacred to ancient Egyptians, is another favorite. “It’s a consciousness-shifting plant so it helps to move from that left brain analytical intellectual side to the right brain of more oneness and being and observing. It’s also anti-spasmodic, so it helps to relieve tension and stress that’s held in the body in all the muscles, including the digestive tract.” Other favorites include wild lettuce (a consciousness-shifter that has a similar chemical constituency as opium and works as a deep pain reliever)– as well as mugwort (which Feinberg uses in her Moon Magic blend, which is for “helping to connect with cycles of light as they correlate to the moon, setting intention for full and new moons, and helping to awaken the dream state to receive messages from the subconscious”).

“I’m not advocating smoking per se and smoking all the time,” Feinberg says, carefully marshaling her words. “I’m saying if you’re going to smoke, be aware of what you’re smoking and how it’s affecting you, and look at the herbs that can neutralize or benefit your respiratory system as you’re continuing to smoke.”

But Feinberg’s practice isn’t just about the smoking– it’s about respect for the plants. “I like to give energy to the plants by touching them, just sharing my intention and what I would like to use their abundance for, and feeling the plant kind of open up to me and feel safe so that I’m not just going in and taking as if it doesn’t have any consciousness,” Feinberg describes. “I like to offer it blessing herbs, I’ll sprinkle some rose petals or white sage or even blue lotus as an offering, giving before I take something. And then it’s easy to harvest; I find that the plant doesn’t get as wounded, its leaves or flowers come off more easily without ripping and yanking, it’s almost like the plant has said ‘okay, thank you for noticing me, so I will give for you’.”

Asked what new directions her work may be moving in, Feinberg adds with amusement: “As a kid I always said that I wanted to grow up to be a tree. I feel like I’m getting closer to that now.”

The post As Cigarettes Decline, Smoking Sacred Herbal Blends Is The New Wave appeared first on Garden Collage Magazine.

Given the multifaceted perception of dreams in American culture, it’s of little surprise that when we ran across Rebecca Fey‘s workshop on “herbs for dreamwork”, we were intrigued. We’ve covered natural remedies for insomnia in the past, but never before have we ventured into that more amorphous realm of dreamwork. Part spirituality, part herbalism, dreamwork can encompass any number of goals. “A lot of people are trying to work up to lucid dreaming, which is where you are able to take an active role in your dream and sort of control the storyline, like a ‘choose your own adventure’. But obviously you don’t just jump into that,” Fey explained to GC. “So dreamwork, for some people, is as simple as being able to access and remember your dreams. For other people it’s about dreaming more frequently or more vividly. For some people it’s about being able to set intention and [ask] questions, and trying to get guidance through your dreams on an answer or direction to a situation.”

Fey has had a long standing interesting magic, but it wasn’t until moving to New York– where she apprenticed at Flower Power— that she became immersed in herbalism. As with any botanical discipline, there are certain herbs associated with dreamwork. Fey lists off mugwort, star anise (“it’s not dream-specific, it’s more about opening your psychic energy, intuition energy”), damiana (“for gentle dream work…it’s also an anti-depressant and an anti-anxiety herb– it’s good for triggering dreams”). “Cinnamon is a great one that everyone has in their cabinet that’s actually really good for triggering psychic work, as is nutmeg,” Fey added. “If you’re someone who wants to use dream work to help bring you clarity and answers, adding herbs like cinnamon, nutmeg, and star anise is great because they help open that psychic attunement so that you can receive the messages in your dreams. If it’s more in a direction of you wanting to take your dream work towards lucid dreaming, or the steps leading up to that, then the mugwort and the calamus and the damiana are great herbs to work with…Even something as simple as peppermint is really good for sharpening details in your mind. That’s very good for people who are trying to use their dream work to receive psychic messages to help them with the fine-tune moments of the dream,” she adds. For those new to dreamwork, Fey has a slightly different set of recommendations: “Dandelion and peppermint are great gentle herbs to start with. Lemongrass is a really good gentle dream herb.”

The most obvious way to incorporate herbs for dreamwork is through tea (Sleepytime, anyone?) but not all herbs for dreamwork can be consumed– and not all should be consumed. “It’s good to not just drink your herbs but to also do baths in them before you go to sleep,” Fey revealed. “People’s bodies respond to different things– for some people it works really well to burn the herbs in their space. For some people, who are super energetically sensitive, burning the herbs feels a little bit too overwhelming. If I’m doing an herbal bath for spiritual energetic work, I like to boil the herbs for half an hour and then add them to regular bathwater like tea. Or you can do the same thing– make a strong tea with the herbs– and wash your space. That’s a gentle way to charge the area. You can put it in spray bottles and spray it around your bed so that you change the energy field.”

Yet even herbs must be consumed in moderation– just because they are natural doesn’t mean they can’t be potent (or even dangerous). “People don’t necessarily always think about how strong of an effect herbs can have on their body,” Fey warned. “Your body still needs recovery work from dream work…Lemon verbena actually helps block dreams. If you feel like you’re opening really fast and you need a restful night, that’s a good one to use.”

In general, Fey sees dreamwork as a way to offset the drawbacks of the modern world. “I think people have maxed out on processed foods, on pharmaceuticals, on the cost of doing things in that way, and they’re trying to learn to get back to using the medicine from the earth to heal themselves. At the same time as people are feeling that, they’re also looking for earth-based spirituality processes. There’s a huge movement towards being in touch with your inner self, so it’s becoming much more mainstream for people to take some sort of practice, whether it’s studying divination work or just finding their own meditation practices.” Reflecting on the growing interest in this more alternative avenues of care, Fey concludes: “I think people are taking a lot of comfort from returning to the earth. Because I think there’s empowerment in understanding what you’re putting in and around your body, and why it’s doing the things that it’s doing. That’s way different from getting a pill from your doctor. I think that it’s helping people to find peace and control.”

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