As the days grow darker and winter sets in, the garden that we began tending to earlier this year has lost much of its abundant greenery. The rampant spray of nettles and brambles is much more timid now and can be dug up more easily. My family has nearly seen a full cycle of a year looking after this land, which we were given access to earlier this year in February.

I’ve put a selection of photos together so you can see our progress - which may not look like much, you’ll see no pretty garden pictures here I’m afraid - but we have done a lot! Before we even think about planting anything, we’ve gotten down to the bones of the land and done a thorough site survey.

The land which sits at the back of my studio, was completely overrun with tree trunks, weeds, brambles, litter, old clothes, and all kinds of things! In April, we got to work, digging up weeds, and ploughing through the soil, naively thinking that our work would remain for summer. We sweated, bled, and ached at the end of a day's work. By the end of April had managed to clear about a quarter of the land. Our foolhardy oversight not to lay tarpaulin or cardboard down over the areas we worked, soon became apparent, when after 6 weeks away, we returned to see the nettles and brambles happily springing up again. The areas where we had not attempted to clear looked particularly menacing - some of the nettles were at least 2 feet high. Lesson learned, I began again, dug up the new weeds and this time laid a tarp.

We have also been pretty skint this year, so initially we’re using basic tools - a rake, a spade, secateurs, etc. Come June, we decided to invest in a strimmer to combat the weeds. It helped a lot! Don’t get me wrong, it struggled sometimes, but it meant we could cut down the very tall nettles and then work the ground, dealing with the thicker brambles once the nettles were clear. I lay approximately 13 meters of tarpaulin between June and July. Come mid-July however, I found it too hot to take on any more of the garden and decided to let the sun focus on killing the weeds under the tarp.

We are not complete garden novices. In south London, we had a small garden at the back of our Victorian terrace flat, but that was tiny in comparison to what we are working with here in Berlin. The land here is approximately 20m by 13m. It has five trees and a variety of shrubs. There are also several structural elements that we need to consider. To the left of the garden, there is a set of stairs and at the front, we have the top of a kind of atrium, which is a bit of an eyesore and also one of the biggest problems. When it rains a lot, the surrounding area gets waterlogged. A huge job that my husband has is to dig out and remove all the soil, grass, and weeds in that area and replace the soil with pebbles to allow for drainage. Below is a rough garden plan that my husband sketched earlier this year.

All of this we hope to achieve with no budget. I have looked at grants here in Berlin but my German is still not sufficient enough to apply and then maintain the level of press, marketing and reports that are required to fulfil the grant requirements. So this is going to be a very slow burn. I feel the best way to tackle the space is to do it in sections. Apart from an old tree stump and a shrub that needs digging up, the back is pretty clear, so we are going to start there. We plan on creating a structure for privacy. We found some timber that was being thrown out on the street. We think this could be a good foundation for a pergola.

Before 1 March, we need to cut and clear any of the shrubs that we don’t want. It is against the law, to do so after this period - forbidden as part of the Federal Natural Conservation Act. Two tree stumps in the middle of the garden were cut down by the landlord, however over the summer they started to grow back significantly, and provided quite a bit of privacy. If we remove them, we will have space for more raised beds but I’m wondering whether we should just leave them be. It will be quite a bit of work getting them out of the ground.

Our plan for the first three months of 2025 is to:

Cut and remove shrubs that we don’t want.
Clear the last remaining patch of weeds/brambles.
Clear all remaining rubble & other garden waste.
Get the compose bins in place.
start building the raised beds,
define the borders

A witch’s garden is my dream. There is nothing better than working in nature, growing your own herbs, flowers and vegetables. Come next summer, I hope the garden will be free from debris and thorns and safe enough to hold ceremonies so we can welcome family and friends to share the space with us.

A Witch’s Garden

Winter Solstice

Sagittarius & Temperance