DIY Witches Broom: Add a Little Spooky to Your Front Porch

Learn how to make a witches broom with items found in your own backyard. It's an easy and inexpensive way to add a little Halloween fun to your fall decor.

Everyone loves Halloween but the thought of decorating for fall, then Halloween, and then Thanksgiving has always been daunting.

Instead, I like to decorate for fall and keep the decorations up until it's time for Christmas.

But then I miss Halloween. So over the years, I've started making a few Halloween decorations that work with my fall decor even if that means they are only up for a few weeks.

This year I made a witches broom with items found in our backyard.

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How to Make a Witches Broom

Start with a fallen branch to create the broom's handle. I really like the shape of the branch that I found above. It's pretty straight with a curve at one end.

You could cut a tree limb from an old tree too. Mine was about 4 feet long but it can be as long or short as you like.

Next, I needed to find something for the bristles. Maybe you have some pruning to do on some of your trees or shrubbery. Birch twigs would be ideal but I don't have any on our property. I started with some grasses and weeds along the back of our yard.

I believe the weed is snakeroot. The reason I chose this has to do with the stems. They are generally strong and straight. I knew that I wanted my witches broom to be able to stand or lean so I needed something sturdy for the bristles.

Saftety Note: Be careful and try to identify the material that you work with. You don't want to have a reaction to poisonous harmful weeds or other plant materials. Snakeroot is toxic if ingested. Use gloves and wash your hands afterward.

I stripped the snakeroot stems of all the flowers and foliage and cut them down to a similar length.

Next, clean up your branch. Remove any side branches and file off any peeling bark.

Use some hot glue to attach the stems to the bottom of the branch to create a good base.

Once you have a ring of stems on the branch you can add more, as much as you like to create a full brush end and tie them together with a piece of twine.

I decided to leave the grasses off as they were very fragile to work with. However, you can work with any plant material available to you. Just be careful to identify any unknown plants or weeds as they may be poisonous. For example, giant hogweed is very poisonous to the touch for humans.

If you can't find any sturdy twigs or stems to use you could use softer materials and hang your broom on a wall or over your mantel.

Trim up the ends and set your handmade witches broom for all to see. I think it looks great on our porch. Just in time for Halloween.