10 Spooky Halloween Decorating Ideas to Try in Your Garden
Holey pumpkins, skeleton-like branches, decaying sunflower heads and more can make for wonderfully creepy decor
Cheerful pumpkins placed along a walkway, smiling ghosts hung above garden beds and a well-lit, inviting entry are some of the decorating approaches you can take for Halloween. Or you can tap into a slightly stranger, creepier style.
There are plenty of scary decorations available to buy, but you also can reimagine existing garden elements or use the ingredients offered by nature this time of year to get in the Halloween mood. Here are 10 scary and spooky decorating ideas for the season.
There are plenty of scary decorations available to buy, but you also can reimagine existing garden elements or use the ingredients offered by nature this time of year to get in the Halloween mood. Here are 10 scary and spooky decorating ideas for the season.
2. Decaying Sunflowers, Cornstalks and More
As garden beds wind down for the season, they offer plenty of ingredients for Halloween decor. Work in natural elements that are in the process of decay for a look that’s more haunted than pumpkins and gourds.
A few ideas to try: sunflower heads that have lost their petals, sprays of globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) placed to trail down like ghostly pompoms, vines with crinkled leaves or the seed heads of trailing love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) to look like spooky fingers.
As garden beds wind down for the season, they offer plenty of ingredients for Halloween decor. Work in natural elements that are in the process of decay for a look that’s more haunted than pumpkins and gourds.
A few ideas to try: sunflower heads that have lost their petals, sprays of globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) placed to trail down like ghostly pompoms, vines with crinkled leaves or the seed heads of trailing love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) to look like spooky fingers.
3. Eerie Painted Pumpkins
They look a little like leggy spiders or as if they were dripping blood. Either way, these black-and-white pumpkins are just as eerie as they are beautiful. To re-create the look, start with white pumpkins and drizzle a paint color of your choice down the sides, or dip small ones entirely in paint.
Note: At the end of the season, painted pumpkins should be disposed of in the garbage, rather than in the green bin or a compost pile, unless you used nontoxic paint.
See how to create black-and-white pumpkins
They look a little like leggy spiders or as if they were dripping blood. Either way, these black-and-white pumpkins are just as eerie as they are beautiful. To re-create the look, start with white pumpkins and drizzle a paint color of your choice down the sides, or dip small ones entirely in paint.
Note: At the end of the season, painted pumpkins should be disposed of in the garbage, rather than in the green bin or a compost pile, unless you used nontoxic paint.
See how to create black-and-white pumpkins
4. Pumpkins Riddled With Holes
If you’ve ever heard of trypophobia, or the fear of clusters of small holes, you’ll see how this pumpkin display could fall anywhere between beautiful and makes-your-skin-crawl. The pumpkin carving pattern can be easily created at home with a drill and bits in a couple of sizes.
Find more pumpkin decor in the Houzz Shop
If you’ve ever heard of trypophobia, or the fear of clusters of small holes, you’ll see how this pumpkin display could fall anywhere between beautiful and makes-your-skin-crawl. The pumpkin carving pattern can be easily created at home with a drill and bits in a couple of sizes.
Find more pumpkin decor in the Houzz Shop
4. Ghostly Container Combination
A color palette of ghostly silver and purple-black can look chic and sophisticated or a little spooky. In a container combination, try jagged-leaved cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), silvery dusty miller (Senecio cineraria), curly purple kale (Brassica oleracea ‘Redbor’) and dark purple coral bells (Heuchera spp.).
A color palette of ghostly silver and purple-black can look chic and sophisticated or a little spooky. In a container combination, try jagged-leaved cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), silvery dusty miller (Senecio cineraria), curly purple kale (Brassica oleracea ‘Redbor’) and dark purple coral bells (Heuchera spp.).
Go a step further in a container combination and tuck in a few creepy, “Mad-Eye” Moody-style eyeballs to peer out from among the foliage. Indoors, keep them in a bowl full of preserved moss as a Halloween centerpiece that will make guests look twice.
5. Spooky Seating Area
A shadowy seating area could be anything from magical and fairylike to perfectly creepy, depending on your imagination and styling. To play up the spookiness for Halloween, remove any elements that bring color or make the space feel warm and inviting, such as cushions and throws. Then arrange cut bare branches around the outside of the seating area to form a skeleton-like circle or add a bowl filled with dry ice to cloak the floor in mist. (Save this for a party or the night of Halloween.)
A shadowy seating area could be anything from magical and fairylike to perfectly creepy, depending on your imagination and styling. To play up the spookiness for Halloween, remove any elements that bring color or make the space feel warm and inviting, such as cushions and throws. Then arrange cut bare branches around the outside of the seating area to form a skeleton-like circle or add a bowl filled with dry ice to cloak the floor in mist. (Save this for a party or the night of Halloween.)
6. Gothic Elements
Evoke a feeling of mystery and history with gothic garden elements, including gothic arches or old stone statues. For Halloween, the arches could be draped in cobwebs or serve as a backdrop to a front yard cemetery. The elements don’t need to look macabre for the rest of the year. Plant a climbing rose and clematis vine to twine up the stone for a classic, elegant look through spring and summer.
See more gothic garden elements
Evoke a feeling of mystery and history with gothic garden elements, including gothic arches or old stone statues. For Halloween, the arches could be draped in cobwebs or serve as a backdrop to a front yard cemetery. The elements don’t need to look macabre for the rest of the year. Plant a climbing rose and clematis vine to twine up the stone for a classic, elegant look through spring and summer.
See more gothic garden elements
7. Black Foliage
Deepen your garden palette with dark foliage plants. Unusual in nature (but not difficult to find as hybrids), plants with deep burgundy or purple leaves that appear almost black add depth to beds and make fall hues of gold, orange and red stand out in contrast.
For Halloween, try pots of spidery-looking black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’) arranged around pumpkins, or ominous-looking black ornamental peppers (Capsicum annuum) placed in window boxes.
Deepen your garden palette with dark foliage plants. Unusual in nature (but not difficult to find as hybrids), plants with deep burgundy or purple leaves that appear almost black add depth to beds and make fall hues of gold, orange and red stand out in contrast.
For Halloween, try pots of spidery-looking black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’) arranged around pumpkins, or ominous-looking black ornamental peppers (Capsicum annuum) placed in window boxes.
Look to feathery Black Lace elderberry (Sambucus nigra ‘Eva’), ‘Royal Purple’ smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’), ‘Hillside Black Beauty’ snakeroot (Actaea simplex ‘Hillside Black Beauty’), pictured, and others for larger shrubs featuring dark foliage.
See 10 boo-tiful black plants to use for Halloween
See 10 boo-tiful black plants to use for Halloween
8. Skeleton-Like Vines
Wait to remove vines and dead debris in your landscape until after Halloween if any of them present an opportunity for looking naturally creepy (and don’t impede trick-or-treaters). Here, the dead vines of ivy covering an outbuilding add a naturally spooky atmosphere.
Wait to remove vines and dead debris in your landscape until after Halloween if any of them present an opportunity for looking naturally creepy (and don’t impede trick-or-treaters). Here, the dead vines of ivy covering an outbuilding add a naturally spooky atmosphere.
9. Fountain Goblin
A green head and hands poking out of a garden fountain is enough to make you take a second look. To add something (or someone) emerging from water, you can paint a creature or a face on a rock half-submerged in the water and fill a pair of latex gloves with air, or you can purchase a ready-made goblin.
A green head and hands poking out of a garden fountain is enough to make you take a second look. To add something (or someone) emerging from water, you can paint a creature or a face on a rock half-submerged in the water and fill a pair of latex gloves with air, or you can purchase a ready-made goblin.
10. Skeleton Scarecrow
If you already have a scarecrow in your edible garden to ward off birds, give it a few Halloween-inspired touches — a skeleton for a head or a cape trailing from the shoulders — to delight trick-or-treaters.
If you already have a scarecrow in your edible garden to ward off birds, give it a few Halloween-inspired touches — a skeleton for a head or a cape trailing from the shoulders — to delight trick-or-treaters.
Tell us: Are you going for a cheerful or a creepy vibe with your Halloween decor? Show us in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Read other Halloween decorating guides
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More on Houzz
Read other Halloween decorating guides
Work with a pro. in your area
Shop for Halloween decor
You may notice that there aren’t any bright orange pumpkins or other spots of vivid color on this home decorated for Halloween in Stillwater, Minnesota. The muted palette, bare twigs, off-kilter black urns, dried cornstalks and Victorian architecture create a perfectly spooky atmosphere.
Master the look of artful neglect by leaving a few leaves across a walkway and adding subtly spooky touches — such as skeleton-like branches or ghostly white pumpkins — in the spirit of Halloween.
Shop for black urns and other spooky Halloween decorations on Houzz