A well designed garden is the perfect place to celebrate seasonal changes and enjoy special days or events like Halloween. A spooky gathering in your garden on All Hallows Eve is fun for all the family young or old. Whether you are planning a Halloween Party for children with all the traditional games or a more sophisticated affair for adults, prepping your garden to be ready to scare is almost as much fun as the party itself!
Create A Spooky Atmosphere
The end of October has the perfect weather for Halloween. It’s not too cold nor is it too warm and the leaves will mostly have fallen from the trees, leaving any branches or bushes spookily bare. Much is going to depend on the size of your garden as to what you can do but there’s plenty of options for creating a ghoulish garden atmosphere. If you are having a family/child orientated affair, then brighter and more characterful decorations will look great without being too scary. Pumpkins have great colour and are easy to carve and decorate to match any scheme. Click here for some great ideas on how to decorate pumpkins and other squashes. Whether painted, carved or crafted pumpkins can be cute or creepy depending on your guests. When carved, pumpkins, turnips or other similarly shaped veg can hold candles or fairy lights to add ambiance, a spooky glow or to light the way if used as a garden pathway.
Add Light and Warmth
Candles, fairy lights, and other garden lights will be needed at a garden Halloween party, the dark makes everything a little creepy and lighting will cast spooky shadows across the garden or make a nice alcove of light around seating or eating areas. Ensure that serving areas for food or drink are well lit and that any seating areas include throws or blankets in browns, reds or blacks to keep everyone warm and in the garden as long as possible. Outdoor heaters or an outdoor fire are also great ideas to keep everyone warm and have a focal point for gathering. Real fires also lend themselves to additional and interactive catering options like roasting marshmallows or more adventurous food on sticks!
Go Naturally Spooky
Using natural items in the garden adds an authentic vibe to your party – gathering pine cones or stones in occult shapes or sprayed black look interesting. You may be tempted to pick up the leaves before the end of October but leave a few down for your Halloween garden. You can even colour a few and sprinkle them around to be blown by the wind. Cobwebs are very creepy and you can add some additional faux cobwebs to add to branches, windows or sheds to build on the atmosphere. If natural is not your thing you can find a huge array of gothic ornaments in garden centres across the UK which look amazing – especially in the dark! Everything from Zombie Gnomes to Victorian Gothic Fountains can be found to add something unique to your Halloween Garden.
Gothic Garden Fan?
If you love the gothic vibe and really want to plan your garden with a spooky gothic feel all year-round, then visiting some of the UK’s most haunted gardens will certainly inspire you. Click here for a quick list of UK haunted gardens including Charlecote Park in Warwickshire which has its own garden ghost, a young girl, thought to be the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Ophelia.
To take a gothic garden theme further, consider if you have room for a traditional Victorian Folly (to the scale of your garden of course) or consider creepy or black coloured planting to enhance the look. There are actually quite a few plants that have a good Halloween feel, look for dark reds, dark purples and of course black (flowers called black are often dark purples). Black Dahlia’s, Roses, Pansies and Tulips are all available along with Hellebore’s, Black Lilies and Black Calla Lilies or the very unique Bat Orchid.
The garden is the perfect place to celebrate Halloween and there are plenty of ideas online to whet your imagination. Gardens are the extra room in our homes, a place to relax or play, find peace or party. Whatever you use your garden for, or if you need your garden to have multiple personalities, professional garden designers, like the team at North Leeds Garden Design can help you get the most of your space and offer ideas and plans on how to keep it in tip top shape ready for your next party or gathering.