This year I feel certain the Halloween Hare is going to visit my garden and create havoc if I don’t take preventative measures.

What? You don’t know about the Halloween Hare? You must be new here.  Put down your leaf rake, pull up a chair and I’ll tell you all about him.

According to ancient gardening legend, the Halloween Hare hops from garden to garden on Halloween night looking for Easter candy not found in the spring Easter egg hunt.

If the Halloween Hare doesn’t find any candy, he will create a little havoc in the garden by pulling up plants and turning over containers. Many gardeners, hoping to avoid this mischief and havoc, will leave a few pieces of Halloween candy out in the garden on Halloween night for the Halloween Hare to find. Sightings of the Halloween Hare are rare.

The reason I think the Halloween Hare is going to create havoc in my garden on Halloween night is because my garden is a big mess. I haven’t even begun to do fall clean up.

Nothing has been cut back. No vegetable plants have been pulled out of the veg garden. The container plantings look abandoned and in most of the flower beds, opportunistic weeds have taken up residence and are putting down some serious roots.

I feel as though even if I do leave some candy in the garden for the Halloween Hare to find, the chances of him actually finding the candy in all the fall mess are slim.

Or maybe not. The Halloween Hare does hunt for leftover Easter candy so surely he can find some Halloween candy in plain view in the lawn.

The whole reason you don’t want to take a chance with the Halloween Hare is because if he makes a big mess in your garden and you leave it that way, the Christmas Cottontail is likely to bypass your garden on Christmas eve.

Why is that so bad, you ask?  Goodness, where have you been? The Christmas Cottontail is reasonable for planting seeds and bulbs for the spring flowers in the garden, but refuses to do so in messy gardens that look as though no gardener tends them.

All these rabbits are related. They all work together.  It all starts on Halloween night. Or maybe it starts on Easter? Or Christmas?   Actually, no one is quite sure where it starts, but those in the know  are well aware of the hazards of ignoring any of them.

So be a smart gardener.  Get your garden ready.  Throw some candy on the lawn. The Halloween Hare is coming!