Dogs and pumpkins and bees, oh my!
Several hundred Ridgites — and their furry friends — headed on down to a good, ol’ fashioned fall harvest festival on Oct. 13.
The Narrows Botanical Garden — a volunteer curated and cultivated oasis of rare plants in Shore Road Park — hosted its 14th annual Harvest Fest, featuring the beloved canine-costume contest.
Ridgites brought their top dogs to the event in outfits ranging from Batman and Robin to Roger Rabbit — with many owners coming in coordinated costumes themselves. Top honors went to a Labradoodle shaved to look like a lion, whose owner dressed her two young boys as circus ringmasters.
“People really get into it. It’s always been the biggest highlight,” said Botanical Gardens President Richie Haugland.
The festival also featured a special presentation on the organic, natural honey produced in the garden’s six beehives. Kids got to watch the busy bees in action through an observation window and hear a presentation on the pesticide-induced plight of the winged workers.
“It makes people aware of not only that honey’s good for you, but what happens when you, say, spray your yard,” said Haugland, noting that the sweet stuff made at the garden comes from the nectar of its unique flowering plants. “You’re eating locally pollinated and locally harvested honey.”
Young ’uns also got to decorate some 400 pumpkins in paint and glitter for Halloween.
“We’ve got a lot of budding artists here,” said Haugland.
Haugland said the event would have been impossible without the help of Third Avenue pet-supply shop Paws Truly in coordinating the costume contest, and the donated pumpkins from 65th Street produce depot Three Guys from Brooklyn
“It’s becoming not just a Narrows Botanical thing — it’s a community thing now, which is great,” Haugland said.
