Dream gardens: spook-tacular specimens

Yet it has to be said that most of us love something slightly spooky and Halloween is a perfect excuse. Out come the witches' and wizards' outfits and pumpkins are bought or

retrieved from the shed to be hollowed out and carved into traditional lanterns, toothy heads illuminated with candles. Before pumpkins were so widely available people would use a large

turnip or swede instead (as I did as a nipper) and everyone bobbed for apples, face first into a tin bath full of cold water. It's all very ancient. In pre-Christian days, October 31

was celebrated as All Hallows' Eve, when ghosts and spirits were thought to be at large, so superstitious people took steps to ward them off. Yet witches and wizards weren't just

for Halloween. All sorts of plants have mystical and magical associations dating back centuries. Wild plants were used by "wise women" to make herbal remedies. Some also went in

for spells designed to attract good fortune and large harvests or to make someone fall in love with you or even (allegedly) let you fly through the air or become invisible. There's

nothing like a magical sub-plot for giving a common plant a bit of romance. Writers such as Shakespeare and Spenser were great ones for fairy flowers and elfin bowers. However it's the

sinister stuff that gives plants a punch; think of the poison garden at Alnwick Castle (a Harry Potter location) in Northumberland. If you fancy your own master magician's garden

there's lots you can grow. Betony was once believed to cure nightmares and if you planted an elder bush in your herb garden and stood under it at midnight on Midsummer Night's Eve

you'd see the king of the elves and his court. Even everyday herbs had their dark side. Anyone trying to grow their own parsley, even today, knows the old saying that parsley seed goes

to the devil seven times and back before it germinates, which is why it's so slow. However you can short-circuit Old Nick by keeping the pots on a windowsill at a temperature of 68F

(20C) and it comes up almost like cress. According to country lore, sage bushes wither or flourish along with the prosperity of the master of the house. Wild thyme was always a favourite

with fairies; a recipe from the 17th century recommends a mixture of marigold and hollyhock flowers with hazel buds and wild thyme tops, all washed in rosewater then infused in salad oil to

make a potion for seeing fairies. You can decorate a garden for your Halloween party with fairy lights, large carved wooden toadstools and pumpkin lanterns but for lasting magic use plants.

It's fun to research in the winter months and you never know, a bit of good luck might rub off.