The Witch's Garden

`What ails you, dear wife?'

`Oh,' she answered, `if I don't get some rampion to eat out of the garden behind the house, I know I shall die.'

The man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, `Come! rather than let your wife die you shall fetch her some rampion, no matter the cost.' So at dusk he climbed over the wall into the witch's garden, and, hastily gathering a handful of rampion leaves, he returned with them to his wife. She made them into a salad, which tasted so good that her longing for the forbidden food was greater than ever. If she were to know any peace of mind, there was nothing for it but that her husband should climb over the garden wall again, and fetch her some more. So at dusk over he got, but when he reached the other side he drew back in terror, for there, standing before him, was the old witch.

This is the garden of the witch from the fairy tale of Rapunzel. It is interesting that the man gathers leaves that his wife eats as a salad, because I could only find the use of the roots in a salad (they would help in the production of milk and as such were eaten by nurse maids). It was also one of the witch plants and the German name can be translated as devil's claw.


The scent The Witch's Garden is described as a garden with many poisonous and witch plants (although carrots and parsley seem innocent enough):

Morning glory vines twisting around a patch of rampion, carrot, and parsley, with monkshood, hemlock, elfwort, sage, wormwood, and mandrake.

However it smells rather friendly, like a green garden with some flowers and trees. When it is very fresh it smells mostly green, but the flowers are already there. The flowers get a bit more space when the scent dries. Then later the trees spread their branches, I think I smelled cedar. It is not a heavy scent and it fades in a few hours so I reapplied several times. I wonder if most green scents fade sooner than the more spicy scents. They probably do.