Embrace Your Dark Side to Create the Perfect Goth Garden

Does a dark and moody garden fit your style better than a bright, perky cottage or farmhouse garden? Then a mysterious and brooding gothic or “goth” garden may be the perfect solution for you.

Garden Layout
Literature is full of gothic settings featuring crumbling stone walls covered by ivy and concealing a hidden door. Or meandering paths leading to a secret garden.

Think of garden scenes from your favorite spooky movies for inspiration to create paths and dark corners, just keep it all a little mysterious. Forget about “open concept” when designing your goth garden. Instead, create small spaces or corners in your landscape, each with a special feature, such as a fountain, pergola, statue (angels, cherubs, gargoyles, dragons), stone bench or special plantings. Use plants and hardscape – and your imagination! - to create these tucked-away spaces.

Hardscaping Creates the Theme
Gothic architecture from the 12th to 16th centuries featured pointed arches, ribbed vaults, large windows and elaborate scrollwork designs in stonework, windows or iron. Including a few hardscape items, such as an aged and weathered trellis, elaborate iron gate or fence, or dark reflecting pool, will help create a gothic ambience. Stay away from bright shiny metals or consider aging them to develop a weathered patina.

Add in aged or formal containers in dark or muted colors, gazing balls and maybe even a topiary or espalier to create the ideal “goth” feel.

And don’t forget lighting. Uplighting on trees creates shadows and mystery. A spotlight on your favorite garden statue creates a wonderful highlight for evening enjoyment. Pathway lighting helps visitors find their way through the garden to each focal point.

Goth Plants?
Of course, for any gardener, choosing the perfect plants is best part of the project. Look for plants with dark-colored flowers or foliage, such as the plants listed below.

Plants with Dark, Nearly Black Flowers

• Sorbet® Black Delight Viola – annual, dark purple-black flowers
• ‘Black Magic’ Petunia – annual, black flowered petunia
• Crazytunia® Black Mamba Petunia – annual, dark maroon-black flowers
• ‘Dark and Handsome’ Hellebore – perennial, Zone 4-9, maroon-black flowers
• ‘Queen of the Night’ Tulip – perennial bulb, Zone 3-8, dark maroon flowers
• Black Knight Iris Germanica – perennial bearded iris, Zone 3-9, purple-black flowers
• ‘Blacknight’ Hollyhock – perennial, Zone 3-9, maroon-black flowers
• Supertunia® Royal Velvet® - annual, dark purple flowers
• Captain Beretta Calla Lily – frost tender herbaceous perennial, overwinter as rhizomes, maroon-black flowers
• Fritillaria persica – perennial bulb, Zone 5-9, dark maroon flowers
• Dark Chocolate Baptisia – perennial, Zone 4-9, charcoal-purple flowers
• Water to Wine Fountain grass - perennial ornamental grass, Zone 5, black flowers, bright green foliage changes to burgundy in fall

Plants with Dark Foliage

• Astilbe Dark Side of the Moon – perennial, Zone 4-9, deep chocolate brown leaves, rosy-purple flowers
• Coleus ‘Black Prince’ – annual, nearly solid maroon-black foliage
• Heuchera ‘Black Pearl’ – perennial, Zone 4-9, jet-black leaves with rosy-purple undersides, white flowers
• Canna Tropicanna® Black – tender herbaceous perennial, deep bronze foliage, bold red flowers
• Grass Black Mondo – perennial grass, Zone 5-10, dense purple-black grass-like foliage
• Ninebark Diabolo® - shrub, Zone 3-7, deep purple foliage, creamy white flower clusters
• Elderberry Black Lace® - shrub, Zone 4-7, lacy black foliage, pink flowers
• Weigela Dark Horse – shrub, Zone 4-8, dark bronze foliage, purplish-pink flowers
• 'Zwartkop' Aeonium - tender succulent, not winter hardy, purple-black foliage

For more goth garden plant suggestions, including 1) more plants with black foliage, 2) plants with nearly black fruits and vegetables, and 3) plants with unusual shapes, visit the National Garden Bureau’s Goth Garden: Spooky and Beautiful.

Images

1. Diablo ninebark. Image from Monrovia Nursery.
2. Create small spaces or corners in your landscape, each with a special feature, such as a fountain, pergola, statue. Image of gargoyle from Pixabay.com. 
3. Astilbe Dark Side of the Moon. Image from Proven Winners.