NYBG: Haunted Pumpkin Garden

I didn't have to work yesterday (or today)—thank you obscure Jewish holidays!—so yesterday I spent the day at the New York Botanical Garden. I became a member last winter and I've been trying to go and see the garden in every season since. The Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden show just started, but I was most excited about seeing the Haunted Pumpkin Garden.

The HPG is technically for children, and when I went on a weekend last year it was full of them (not my favorite thing). On a Thursday afternoon, however, I mostly had the garden to myself and it was much better than I remember from last year. Most (if not all) of the carved pumpkins are fake, but like the Great Jack'O'Lantern Blaze, it doesn't really diminish the overall effect.

The weather was perfectly fall-like yesterday and seeing so many pumpkins in all different shapes and sizes really thrust me headfirst into the Halloween mood. At every turn there were more and more pumpkins—grey-green ones, white ones, ones with bumps and spots and even some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen (600+, 700+, 900+ lbs.).

The carvings were all different and appropriately spooky and I especially love the way that they incorporate the pumpkins into their environments—bats in trees, mushrooms in the forest—everywhere you looked there was a glimpse of orange peeking out from somewhere. A few of the creations were painted bright colors, but pumpkins come in so many different and beautiful colors that I'm glad most were left as nature intended.

I'm sure children would love the interactive events but definitely don't discount the HPG just because it's in the Children's Adventure Garden. I saw more adults walking through than children (thankfully) and I hope I never grow out of my love of all things Halloween. Although, if there's any "children's" activity that I can get behind it's certainly one that involves creepy carvings, a few bones and at least one vulture.