Transform Your Yard Into A Hauntingly Beautiful Oasis With These Goth Garden Ideas

When you think of gardens, you may immediately envision bright vibrant colors and lots of liveliness. However, that's far from the only style and color palette a garden can have. For example, goth gardens that instead highlight moody colors and ornate details have been growing in popularity recently. You can easily create your own goth garden by strategically including plants with darker-colored leaves or flowers. Just don't forget that you still need to choose plants that work well for your zone and your light levels, regardless of what color scheme or vibe you're going for. When these strange and unusually-colored plants are combined with the right statues and other pieces of art, you're sure to end up with a garden that's fit for Wednesday Addams from "The Addams Family" and Lydia Deetz from "Beetlejuice."

While black or nearly black plants are relatively rare in nature, many cultivars exist that are nearly a true black color. It may be tempting to go directly to your local garden center and simply buy every black or nearly black plant you see, but opting for some other colors in your garden can actually help make your plants pop more by providing contrast. For example, adding the velvety red Rosa 'Black Baccara' tea rose variety that adds moody interest into a sea of dark plants would make the whole space stand out. Creating this careful contrast is essential to bringing depth and dimension to your goth garden.

When creating your goth garden, be sure to pick plants that grow well in your USDA zone and the location where they'll be planted. While a space in a partly shady location may benefit from deep-toned 'Carnival Black Olive' heucheras, a garden in a sunnier spot could be the ideal location for a deep red amaranth plant (that's not invasive in your area) combined with chocolate cosmos flowers (Cosmos atrosanguineus). Using a mix of annuals and perennials in your garden can also give you more flexibility to easily change things around by growing different black flowers from seed each year. Bulbs like the iconic 'Queen of Night' tulips and evergreens like Euphorbia 'Miner's Merlot' can help ensure your garden will remain full of eerie interest regardless of the season.

Once you've included the plants, don't forget to also add gothic decor to your garden, just as you would in an indoor space. A black ornate metal bench and a few weeping angel statues can go a long way to creating a gothic ambiance in your garden, even on the sunniest days. Opting for wrought iron pieces instead of wooden ones for garden essentials like trellises, cloches, fences, and gates can also help keep your gothic aesthetic intact without sacrificing practicality. Consider your garden as a whole when adding in these smaller elements to create the hauntingly beautiful vibe you're going for.