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Well this is the time of year for pruning and a lot of people just go out and prune their shrubs and hedges and really don't use a creative flare. And then of course a lot of people say Parsons you just don't like animals. You never do any animal shows. Well here's the answer to both of those questions creative flare and an animal show.

This is a topiary, which is basically taking trees and shrubs, mainly shrubs, that you've got in your own landscape, in fact this is a holly, and pruning into the shape of some beast. Now believe me you don't do this overnight. It takes a lot of patience, and a lot of care, and a lot of imagination. You have to know where you're going before you start on a deal like this.

As you can see we've got this thing into a pretty nice looking elephant. You might also notice it doesn't have ears and that's one nice thing about this animal is you can grow ears on it and if you don't like the ears you can cut them off. There's no animal rights or plant rights group that will give you any trouble.

Another nice thing about it you can make all sorts of different animals. For instance we have an elephant here but what about this monkey out of a juniper. Everybody's got an old ugly juniper, wouldn't you like to have a cute little monkey? Or what about a bird? Look at this bird. I mean it looks like it would fly away with you in a minute. And of course there's chairs and there's baskets. Look at this basket that they've made and all sorts of things. The only limitation you've got is your imagination. So while you're pruning at this time of the year use a little creative thought and you might be able to create a zoo in your own backyard.

This is Jerry Parsons, Vegetable Specialist for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, the Weekend Gardener.