A plan for the yard is a good starting point. Are you going to decorate the entire yard or just one specific or special area? Are you going to have major decorations or only a few things placed here and there? You also need to decide if you are going to use a particular theme such a haunted house look, witches and ghosts, eerie creatures, or a fall seasonal yard theme with some Halloween items. All of this needs to be decided first so you know where you are going to place everything; you do not want to move things around. Once you have made your decisions just place everything on the lawn where you want them to see how they look before you stake them into the ground.
If time becomes a factor you may want to buy whatever you need instead of making it. Sometimes this will save time, and may even save a little money if you remember to shop beyond traditional stores. Sometimes there are terrific items that can be found in thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales. This will allow you to get best possible prices, and an assortment of neat things from which to choose. There are still some items that you can make that do not take up much time. Tombstones are very easy to make by using cardboard, anything stiff you can find, or Styrofoam sheets. You do not need to dig a hole for a grave, all you need to use are bags of potting soil, sand, or dirt to mound a grave shape and place raked leaves over the top for a little realism. You can place tombstones in a
garden of roses to create a unique graveyard.
Another idea is to buy some skeletons and place them in the yard or hang them from trees. Dummies are also a good idea and are quite easy to make. All you need are some old clothes, the more tattered they are the better, and stuff them with batting, other old clothes or whatever is handy. The head of the dummy can be a cloth covered plastic bag filled with leaves, tie the open end and stuff it into the top of the dummy. The face can be painted on or you can use a mask. You can now prop them up anywhere in the yard in whatever poses you want. You can place a skeleton or dummy in the driver's seat of your car or truck, in an open trunk or even hanging from your roof. All you have to do is look around your yard to get some ideas for placing dummies and skeletons.
Ghosts are very simple to make also. Use some white fabric, preferably some old sheets, and tear them or cut into the size ghost you want. You can use a ball or stuff together crumpled up newspapers into a round shape to the size head you want, place into the center of the sheet and draw the edges and corners around it and tie it off letting the fabric hang down to float in a breeze. Once you have created as many as you want just hang them where there is enough room for them to flow. You can use the eaves of the house, tree branches, or the antenna of your vehicle; you can even hang a small ghost from a free standing mailbox. Some other decorations you might want to consider would be scattered straw, pumpkins, scarecrows, spider webs, witches or monsters.
Repetition is a
landscape design feature that can be used in for your outdoor Halloween decorations. By repeating the use of one or two items in a number of places on the lawn will incorporate the entire landscape together. In arranging the Halloween yard decorations, you could repeat such items as the ghosts, dummies, jack-o'-lanterns, pumpkins, or bales of hay. Halloween yard lights have become very popular in the last few years. Some of these holiday lights come in fall colors or the lights have are in the shape of ghosts, witches, or spiders. They can be used to highlight a walkway or an entry way for safety.
Do not think that your plants have no role in your Halloween yard decorations. Chrysanthemums, the perennials with those beautiful fall colors, can be arranged, whether they are planted in the ground or in containers, among some of the fall
yard decorations. Some annuals also offer an array of color if kept in good shape for use during fall. The trees and shrubs that display fall foliage also play an important role in holiday yard decorations.
