Have you visited Wahiawä Botanical Garden since its big "makeover" in 2006?

One of the most dramatic improvements: it's easy to find.

Before the makeover, it was easy to miss. Now, going up California Avenue, on the left side, large silver letters mounted on the moss rock wall clearly announce the garden.

The facelift was a renovation project by the City and County of Honolulu, with input from community leaders. It also resulted in the building of new reception and multipurpose buildings. Visitors are now quickly and cheerfully greeted by the helpful volunteers who staff the reception desk placed close to the entrance of the garden.

The air-conditioned multipurpose building is close by and is used for meetings and classes. All the buildings are connected by a covered walkway — something anyone who knows about Wahiawä weather can appreciate.

The wide, accessible walkways meander through the upper part of the garden. Walkways were tinted a reddish orange to match the Wahiawä red dirt, and somehow the warm color makes exploration of this lush, rainforest garden more inviting.

The upper garden is studded with a number of large trees that date back to the 1920s, when the area was leased to the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association. These trees, including banyans, or strangler figs, earpods and eucalyptus, provide the shade and cool temperatures, even on the hottest of days.

Many new varieties of plants have since been added to the collections, including palms and flowering plants and vines, such as heliconia, iris, red and blue jade and many more.

A good reason to visit the garden this month is the "Spooky Forest." Staff and volunteers have been busy transforming part of the upper garden into this second annual "spooktacular" event.

Aimed at families with young children, the display will consist of a haunted cemetery, ghouls and other-worldly creatures in the trees and grounds.

Recognizing the importance of being green, 80 percent of the displays are from recycled material. Empty milk jugs, wood, extra paint from other projects, old costumes, treasures saved from a landfill and dried plant material were given new life for this Halloween display.

Spooky Forest can be enjoyed Monday through Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Of course, a Halloween display is best experienced at night. Thanks to lights installed in the garden, the garden will also be open from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.

Come check it out!

For more information, call Brian Koren at 621-5463.