Mandrake Garden

What is more magical than Harry Potter? I decided to add a few elements to my usual Disney's Haunted Mansion to include this mystical world. I had gotten quite a few dead trees for the front yard cemetery and in the pile I was searching through, I saw a few stumps. The stumps had the coolest, gnarled roots I had ever seen. I wasn't sure what I would use them for but I knew they had to be mine LOL.

I took them home and started on the dead tree project and then inspiration HIT! I would make a mandrake garden near my front entrance. Right on top of the wooly thyme and rocks I had leading to the front door. Because mandrakes are super hard to make, I figured I would do it a touch differently. I would make the tops visible with the branches and leaves, but have the underground plant/baby lie solely in the imagination of the passerby. How genius is that???

I took each twisted root cluster and began cutting them up and sectioning them off. I then used hot glue and fake leaves from an ivy strand I had and started gluing a few leaves here and there. I placed the roots where I wanted them and used painted dowels to hold them up. I painted them brown so you wouldn't see them and used fishing line to attach them together. 

I then took some of our extra foam and a paint stirring stick and made a sign to warn guests of the potential danger of touching the plants. The sign was made by my friend Libby using her Criket machine.

This craft is soooooo easy to do and can be used year after year! The way that I found dead trees and stumps was by going to various neighborhoods that were landscaped by the city or private developers. If they had dead trees that I knew they'd be replacing, I just called the city or company and asked for them. They are in a big pile in my backyard currently till we find a better way to store them LOL! Will you be making a Mandrake Garden this year???