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The Third Moon Physic Garden Project
What is a Physic Garden?
“’Physic’ is the old English word for medicine…..So a physic garden is a garden that grows medicines for well being or cure”. We tend to think of physic gardens as something historical, maybe medieval, but they are experiencing something of a resurgence right now. Famous current examples in this country include the Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal College of Physicians, which have their own physic gardens in London and Edinburgh. New gardens at Dilston, in the north-east and at Southwark, in London, have been created to carry out current university research. (Perry, Laws and Perry, 2020). Dilston sells some lovely teas online that are based on the science of plant medicine.
At the same time as medicine has a renewed interest in what plants can offer, our own awareness of the benefits of coming into relationship with plants, mean that growing for well being and healing is of interest to many of us.
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A physic garden is a place of peace and tranquillity, to our minds, this is exactly what our world needs right now.
Our Own Third Moon Journey
Like all good things, it started with tea. Menopausal tea in fact. Emma and I were growing herbs and medicinal plants in our gardens and began to wake up to their potential. We started to try making delicious teas that helped us with our sleepless nights, occasional rage, a touch of wind and general well being. Lemon balm, mint, catnip for sleep, calm and digestion; rose petal, fennel and calendula for other purposes. Before too long we were hooked. Our gardens began to become places of nurture and each spring, we started to welcome the arrival of good friends as they came back after their winter rest.
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Emma went to a Bird and Blend class about tea blending, in Brighton. She then ran a workshop at the Third Moon Broadlands retreat. Her blended rooibos tea was a firm favourite at those early events.
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In June 2025, we made the herbal offerings in the welcome bags for the Third Moon Ashburnham retreat and filled them with our growing ideas about how plants could help our well being. We were inspired by the Seed Sistas Herbal Oracle and the way in which it allows you to weave plant lore into your life.
We were certain there were other women out there who shared our interest in plants and in the autumn 2026, we put out the call to others to join us to think about creating a Third Moon Physic Garden. It was lovely to see so many other people arrive at the Windmill with a passion for creating a place of healing in our community. We made a collective dream that we will keep coming back to during the months of 2026.
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We are now on a mission, which we invite you to join in with, if you have a passion for growing and healing. We are going to be extending our knowledge of the magic of plants and creating stronger bonds between us as a group. Earth care and people care is at our heart. If you find yourself drawn to growing, sharing plant ideas, learning more about herbalism, creating ecosystems that serve our planet and coming together, in sisterhood, then you would be very welcome.
We are starting small but we have big longer term plans. At the very end of January 2026, we planted two apple trees at the Windmill in Polegate. It was a beautiful time of new beginnings for us all and it will be fitting to be able to watch these trees grow and mature as we meet together for monthly circles. Next steps for the Third Moon Physic Gardeners is to learn a little about forest garden techniques that might help us learn how to build a little guild around these trees…..watch this space….
Emma K and Claire M
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References and inspiration:
Elaine Perry, Valerie Laws and Nicolette Perry (2020) Grow Your Own Physic Garden; DPG Publishing.
Seed Sistas Sensory Herbal Oracle.