If you happen to find yourself driving around in the U.K. and you spot a giant green dragon, don’t panic – it’s probably just this amazing hedge sculpture by John Brooker, who turned a long hedge by his home into a giant green dragon (if you’ve spotted a real dragon, on the other hand – definitely panic).

Brooker spent 10 years shaping this 150-ft-long hedge into his chosen form. He said he was “tired of looking at a straight hedge, to be honest. It was pretty boring after a couple of years, and I thought, I’d cut the top into some arches, and then I thought, ‘what am I going to do at the end?’ Gotta have a head on it. And then I thought, ‘It’s going to be a dragon.” And he did it all without anybody’s help, too!

Topiary art, or the art of trimming and growing hedges into beautiful designs, is a fairly ancient and wonderful craft that is perfect for anyone with green thumbs, which Brooker definitely has two of. The art probably originated in ancient Egypt and Persia, later spreading to Rome as well. The craft also evolved in Japan and China, although there it is practiced differently. After a temporary decline, its popularity seems to have returned, whether it’s in the form of traditional box hedges or Japanese Zen gardens.

 

 

Via: boredpanda.com