For many of the businesses and organizations sponsoring a scarecrow in Kellogg Park this year, the theme of choice was scary, spooky and totally Halloween.

But the Plymouth Garden Club, an organization that has been around since 1936, decided to go with the next major holiday for their inspiration -- Thanksgiving.

"We decided to make our scarecrow a pilgrim since, you know, we're in Plymouth," said Sandy Theile, referencing the fact that Plymouth shares a name with the Massachusetts city that hosted the first Thanksgiving.

Theile said she came up with the concept, and fellow garden club member Pat Ford was there to help execute the plan.

"Last year was our first year participating in this," Theile said. "And we've learned a lot since then."

She said that last year she tied their scarecrow more directly to gardening, dressing it in overalls and giving it gardening tools. But the result wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as she had hoped.

"She was a little misshapen," Theile said. She said the trick is not stuffing the body, but rather giving the body some struture with wire over which you can hang the clothing.

This year, to tie in their club, Theile and Ford added a basket of flowers to the scarecrow's arms and some flower pots on the ground.

The Plymouth Garden Club meets monthly at the Plymouth District Library, and also organizes occasional trips to places like Meijers Gardens in Grand Rapids.

They also host a Plymouth garden tour at the end of June each year, as well as caring for a DTE garden in Plymouth Township each summer.