It is frustrating when you have a passion for gardening but just don’t seem to have a green thumb. Those who struggle to keep their garden alive will try almost anything to give their plants a healthy boost. You could blend up strange and smelly concoctions to feed your ailing plants, or you could try the less messy option of boosting plant energies by using crystals in the garden. Click here to explore the benefits of using precious stones in the garden.
Gardening with Crystals
Using crystals and other precious stones for their healing energies is not just a New Age fad. Native American shamans and other healers from all around the world have relied on the powers of gemstones for thousands of years. Different stones were believed to possess different healing properties for different ailments. These energies were used to aid in the healing of humans, animals, or plants.
Using stones in healing is still popular amongst holistic healers today. Different stones also represent the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), adding balance and harmony to the garden. Representing the elements is important when designing a Zen or meditation garden.
Even if you do not believe in the healing energies of gemstones, gardening with crystals can add a decorative flair to beds and containers. Gemstones are available in a wide array of colors and offer unique textures, such as spiky clusters or smooth polished surfaces. Small gemstones can be used in bird baths, fountains, succulent container gardens, and fairy gardens. Large precious stones can be placed throughout the garden like statues, gazing balls, or other garden décor, or used to mark out trails or beds.
Butterflies will use the shiny reflective surface to help warm themselves and dry dew off their wings just as they use gazing balls. Antique crystal chandeliers or lamp shades can be hung from tree limbs, overhangs, pergolas, etc. where the sun can hit them, casting patches of dancing light around the garden. Missing crystals can be replaced with different unique gemstones.
How to Use Precious Stones in Gardens
Gemstones and gardening can be a rewarding combination. When gardening with crystals for their healing properties, the stones can be planted in the soil near or under the plant roots, or they can be displayed on the soil surface next to the plant.
Let’s take a closer look at some precious stones for the garden:
- Clear Quartz – Clear quartz crystals are the most common gemstones used in holistic healing. This stone is valued for its high vibrations of energy, and it also amplifies energy and emotions. In the garden, clear quartz stimulates growth and promotes healing. Quartz crystals are available in small or large pieces and can be clustered or singular, rough or polished. Their clear to cloudy white glassy surface reflects sunlight, sometimes casting rainbow reflections. Quartz also reportedly helps tomato plants resist pests and disease, such as blight.
- Moss Agate – Known as the gardener’s stone, moss agate is a light green colored stone that is beautiful polished or not.Moss agate promotes a connection to the earth and has grounding energies. It also adds balance and promotes health and vitality in the garden. Available in large to very small pieces, moss agate generally has an average rock shape. Small polished moss agate pieces or chips make wonderful accents in cacti and succulent gardens or fairy gardens.
- Green Adventurine – Green adventurine can range in color from light green to dark green. All variations of the color are vibrant. Larger stones may display a mottle of different green tones, while smaller stones can differ greatly in color and make an interesting fill for container plants, bird or butterfly baths, and fountains. It also provides a less expensive alternative to jade for Zen gardens or bonsai. Green adventurine absorbs negativity and calms stress. It can aid new plantings and help reduce transplant shock. It is also considered a healing stone.
- Tree Agate – With beautiful streaks and blotches of deep greens, white, and sometimes gold, tree agate is a beautiful, eye-catching stone for anywhere. In the garden, tree agate creates calming, harmonious energies that drown out negativity. Place tree agate in meditation, Zen, or mandala gardens.
- Malachite – Another green stone, malachite represents fertility and abundance. Naturally, we want our gardens to be fertile and abundant. Malachite also promotes new growth and transformation. Like green adventurine, malachite has veins of different, deep shades of green. Large raw pieces make especially unique garden accents.
- Moonstone – Like clear quartz, moonstone is a clear to cloudy white gemstone. As its name implies, moonstone is associated with the moon. They make excellent additions to moon gardens, especially when accentuated with landscape lighting. Moonstone promotes fertility and health. It also adds an energy of peace and relaxation.
- Rhyolite – Rhyolite is a colorful gemstone with streaks and blotches of orange, gold, green, gray, brown, and more. Different variations of rhyolite are found in different regions. In the garden, rhyolite adds energies of fortitude, perseverance, and balance.
- Citrine – In tones of yellow, gold, and orange, citrine symbolizes the healing energies of the sun. Available as clusters, large or small singular pieces, or chips, citrine adds a cheery, yellow accent to beds or containers. Citrine promotes happiness and dispels negativity and toxins.
- Tiger’s Eye – Generally in brown, gray with veins of gold, and white, the streaking pattern of tiger’s eye looks like wood and can have a reflective, holographic effect in bright light. Tiger’s eye promotes strong root growth, harmony, and success in the garden.
Although green stones are most often used to represent the earth and in garden healing, you can use any stones that you feel a special connection to or just like. Amethyst, rose quartz, tourmaline, and sodalite add healing energies to sick plants. Jaspers are known to encourage new growth. Onyx and obsidian are recommended for tomato plants. In fact, black stones like onyx and obsidian reportedly confuse and repel pests. Whichever stones you use, gemstones and gardening can make your beds and containers stand out.