How to Pimp Your Pond for Halloween

Many people have water gardens or goldfish ponds in their front yards and they are often sources of great pride and enjoyment throughout the years. However, as winter approaches, many water gardeners begin cleaning out the flowers and other vegetation they used to decorate the borders of their ponds during the spring and summer months. Instead of leaving it bare for the winter, take the time to decorate your pond borders and the pond itself for Halloween.

Choices of skeletons, scary masks, pumpkins, ghosts, bats and more will give a Halloween experience to visitors they will always remember. Placing tombstones and crosses around the outside of the pond is always appropriate. If you make your own, they can be prepared quite easily using cardboard or styrofoam and painting them with flat gray water-based paint. Use black markers to inscribe the tombstones and crosses with appropriate Halloween sayings.

Another thing you can do is to add floating pumpkin baskets in the water itself and include a small push light inside of each one. Float some fake body parts like hands, ears, fingers, eyeballs or faces on top of the water and watch them swirl around from the water circulation. You may also want to use some floating candles on top of the water. They will provide a nice glow and will provide just enough light for the other, strange and creepy decorations to be easily seen.

Another idea would be to float a small swimming raft made out of styrofoam on the water and add either a witch or a ghoul. After all, even ghoulish creatures love an evening swim. If you have fish, they will come investigate and many will help push the decorations around. Using two or three wooden stakes at the back of the pond, string a wire between them and attach ghosts made out of white plastic bags. They will seem to be hovering in the air and look really spooky.

Adding red, green or orange pulsating lights to an existing waterfall will give the water an eerie color and look. The addition of a waving hand at the base of the waterfall would be great entertainment for both young and old to see. If you do not have a waterfall, use the lights to shine on the pond itself. You can also have the lights alternate with different colors and add music synchronizing with the changes. Many sound effects, filled with screams, screeches, and scary music will make chills run up and down their spines.

In addition, placing a few bales of straw near the front of the pond would be a good place to hand out treats. Dress up as a scarecrow, witch or skeleton and hand out the treats yourself. Add a spotlight to make you stand out. Include several carved pumpkins with a light inside in a number of places. You could even make a path that leads to your special area with the pumpkins. Add a gate they would have to open and decorate the gate in spider webs and scary spiders or other creatures. You can also add spider webs to any existing shrubbery near the pond.

Decorating ponds for Halloween requires some imagination; however, the pleasure of providing something creepy in your yard will provide a wonderful visual of safe but scary fun for the young and old Trick or Treater's who will be visiting. Don't forget, safety is your main concern for both your visitors and your pond. Keep this in mind when you place your Halloween decorations. Use small push on lights instead of candles around the borders. Use only materials that are safe and will not harm existing water plants or fish. Although you want your pond to be scary and fun at the same time, careful placement of decorations will keep your visitors from getting too close. Have fun and have a safe and Happy Halloween!