Gardening and Gardens

Happy Halloween! On a recent visit to the New York Botanical Garden, I found some plants that looked down right spooky (with a little imagination of course). Have a look and let me know if you agree!  The evil, staring one-eyed yellow lady...  Help me! I'm being devoured by a purple monster! Said Mr. Bee.  Beware of the purple tentacles of the scary monster hiding in the bushes...  Oh no, the shrub is bleeding!  Snakes, twisted and curling over one another on the ground...  Bony, knobby fingers of a skeleton's hand...  A mysterious, entrancing pink orb with laser beam eyes....  Sea serpents emerging from the pond, looking for prey... Beady little eyeballs, caked in blood...  The moldy, green crevices of the brain...  Creepy skeleton like creatures swaying in the breeze...  A rat's tail!  Icky, sticky spider web, painted purple to lure you in... ...

Halloween is just around the corner and with a little imagination, everything can look a little spooky these days... An Evil Eye? (or just Rubeckia hirta ) Dried up brains? (or just a fungus) Long, sticky fingers of a witch?  (or just an ornamental pepper) Hairy arms reaching out to strangle? (or just an old vine on a tree trunk) A magic electricity ball? (or just pine needles) Pimpled, decaying flesh? (or fungus on a tree stump) Sweat on the green monster's face? (or morning dew on a leaf)   Bloody fingers? (or just Amaranthus ) Skeletal fingers, reaching out to grab you? Maybe. Mwahahaha! Happy Halloween!

One of the spookiest trees out there, in my humble opinion, is the Black Locust tree ( Robinia pseudoacacia) . It's trunk is covered in thick, deep furrows (grooves) making it look sinister to the touch. In addition, the branches are gnarled and twisted, which can create an eerie silhouette on a leafless, winter evening. The Black Locust tree can grow to a height of 50 feet if given the right amount of space. A tree that large is too big for the inside of my house. So instead, we decided to make our own spooky looking tree, complete with spiders and monsters: I found some twigs in my yard and had my children paint them black. I stuck them into a pumpkin container filled with rocks and covered the base with artificial black leaves. Then we created monster heads - some have five eyes, some only have one! The kids had a great time creating different monster variations. We added a few store bought spiders and cats to the tree as a finishing touch. I think it looks ...