Halloween Garden

JoeX

Hi all,

As its time to do a lot of garden maintenance and rip up some beds for me, I though a bit if inspiration might drive me to get out in the cold.

Doesn’t look like my kids can go trick or treating this year, so Im after some ideas for a temporary halloween transformation in the garden.

Ta

Chivetalking

Hello Joe that’s a good idea for your children. A colleague of mine has a black Xmas tree and is decorating it with Halloween inspired objects like dangly spiders, mini pumpkins & sweets. She also bought some cutout pumpkin table mats and has used them to decorate the windows, looks really good. You could use some white wool or fleece to mimic webs on any bushes in the garden perhaps? Best of luck. 

JoeX

White wool - like it
Black christmas tree - sounds great

Im thinking of whether I can buy pumpkin plants fully grown, or whetter I wait and just pile pumpkins on a bed?

Orange pansies?

There are black grasses too I think?

AnniD

Orange pansies or violas. I think this is the black grass you're thinking of ?
https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/ophiopogon-planiscapus-nigrescens/

B3

You could make a broomstick  with twiggy prunings  - and alium seedheads might look suitably creepy.  Dark fuchsias like voodoo are a bit creepy too
Too late now if you haven't got any, but physallis seedheads look like orange lanterns

raisingirl

How old are your children? If they are quite small, when we were little (probably 6 and 9), my Mum told us a story about the Thursday Witch (Halloween was on a Thursday that year) who was a good witch and if you left her some presents in the garden, she'd return some gifts to you. We went out in the morning to pick up oak apples and pretty leaves, spent all afternoon making bracelets out of what we'd collected with string and cotton, then just as it was getting dark went out and put them around the garden. Then she did some trickery with a neighbour's help (I think) with a flash light and a loud bang and when we went outside again, our presents had gone and there were little bags of sweets left for us.
You could easily do it as 'the Saturday Witch' - you just need some help from someone to do the switch while you get the kids inside and out of coats and boots and take a long time doing that, so they're already gone before the children look out of the window. And pick a part of the garden it's not easy to see from the house, if you can, to give you extra time. And don't tell them too much about what's going to happen beforehand so it's all a surprise and they don't know what they're looking for.
Halloween won't fall on a Saturday again for 6 years, by which time things will have moved on, so you won't have to do it again

Obelixx

Friends of mine in Belgium do an autumn/Halloween display in their drive every year.  

You could get your kids to help with whatever you decide.

Fire

 A lovely display of squashes is a beautiful celebration of autumn. In travels around rural Switzerland, I remember seeing baskets of squash outside each person's home - like a harvest celebration. Such great shapes and sizes and colours.

Physalis are lovely too. Inside, dried, and outside growing.