From Garden to Graveyard: How to Grow a Garden Graveyard Before October

INTRODUCTION

Forget cheerful tulips and sunny marigolds. This year, sow the seeds of something darker. The Garden Graveyard is a macabre, living landscape that fuses gothic gardening with haunted storytelling. Whether you want a chilling spot for reflection or a show-stopping yard for Halloween night, this is your season to unearth it.

Plant “Flowers of the Dead” – Gothic & Ghostly Blooms

Choose flowers that evoke mystery, melancholy, or midnight beauty:

• Black Dahlia – Deep, blood-wine petals give off an air of mournful elegance

• Bat Flower – Unusual, bat-shaped black blooms that look like creatures in flight

• Moonflower – Large, ghostly white blooms that open at night, perfect for nocturnal vibes

• Blood Red Celosia – Velvet plumes resembling fire, brains, or bloodied lace

• Ghost Pipe (Indian Pipe) – A rare, pale parasitic plant that looks like it rose from a grave

JULY – AUGUST: Build the Graveyard’s Bones

Create Tombstones & Markers for the Dead

Bring the burial ground to life with visual storytelling:

• Craft foam or repurposed wood – Cut into tombstone shapes, distress with a hot knife

• Aged painting – Use gray, brown, and mossy green acrylics to mimic old stone

• Personalize – Add eerie epitaphs like “R.I.P. Here Lies Summer” or “Gone But Not Forgotten (Except On Trash Night)”

Add Statuary & Props with Decay

Give your graveyard a sense of forgotten history:

• Cracked cherubs or broken angels – Symbolize mourning and the passage of time

• Miniature mausoleums – Build with reclaimed stone or wood for dramatic effect

• Candle lanterns – Use LED or solar flicker lights for eternal vigil ambiance

Scatter “Remains” and Decorative Bones

Make it feel like something—or someone—was unearthed:

• Bony hands reaching from flower beds – Partially buried for subtle horror

• Skulls nestled in ivy – A touch of the morbid in unexpected places

• Ripped cloth or shrouds – Drape over low branches or fences like old burial linens

SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER: Summon the Spirits

Dress It Up for Halloween Night

Now’s the time to crank up the haunting:

• Cobweb-draped branches – Add faux webs to bare trees, secured with black thread

• Sound FX hidden in bushes – Creaking gates, whispers, and distant moans add immersion

• Pumpkin offerings – Carve grim faces or paint skulls to sit at gravesides

Invite Visitors Into the Afterlife

Use your garden as a mini haunted attraction:

• Winding graveyard path – Line with flickering lights, fallen leaves, and soft moss

• Ghostly silhouettes – Cutouts or projections on white sheets create the illusion of wandering souls

• Cauldron fog or incense burners – Set the scene with misty, herbal scent trails

BONUS: Themed Garden Graveyard Zones

Herb Garden Graveyard – A Humorous Take

For those with a sense of humor about their gardening skills, checkout the “Herb Garden Graveyard” offers a playful twist. This concept involves creating faux tombstones for failed herbs, turning gardening mishaps into a lighthearted Halloween display. It’s a fun way to embrace the spooky season while acknowledging the challenges of plant care.

CONCLUSION

A Garden Graveyard isn’t just about Halloween—it’s about growing a story, one eerie bloom and broken statue at a time. Begin in spring, watch it rot beautifully in summer, and by October, you’ll have a haunted masterpiece rooted in soil and spirit.

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Edward Mugarian

Editor of Halloween Living Magazine, and a Detroit, Michigan native. After earning a B.A. in English at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, Ed pursued opportunities in public relations and management that helped mold him personally and professionally, developing his skills in writing and editing, marketing and advertising, public speaking and media relations. As well as broadening his experience in administrative leadership. In addition, he pursued film and special effects makeup programs in both Detroit and Los Angeles and worked on set as a special effects make-up artist. His passion for being a Halloween and horror film “geek” have been a constant throughout his life - cutting his teeth on the extraordinary works of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, and the great Shirley Jackson. His youth was spent hustling through haunted houses, and seeing the latest 70’s & 80’s horror films at the midnight drive-ins and local movie houses. He's also an avid horror film and movie memorabilia collector. One could say, he's autumn over summer. Pumpkins over pineapples. Horror over drama; and wearing black over anything else.

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