Something Wicked This Way Grows: Gothic Gardening
Okay, I was going to write about the Birds and Butterflies class today but all this morning, all I have heard about is how today 6/6/06. As a former Goth, I have to say something about Gothic Gardening. I will be writing about the Birds and Butterflies tomorrow.
But more about Gothic Gardening. How to make your garden beautiful and deadly or creepy. What Fun!
The original site “Gothic Gardening”, of early internet fame along the lines of the dancing hamsters, is gone (and has been replaced by a domain squatter 🙁 ), which is too bad because it was a fun site. But through the magic of the internet and archive.org, you can still see the old gothic gardening site.
The theme gardens are fascinating. Everything from Gardening for the Fey (Fairies) to An Abortionist’s Garden.
If you don’t have room in your garden to dedicate to a gothic garden theme, you can always do tabletop gothic gardening with this odd, little Graveyard Garden.
This terrarium garden contains Moonflower, Sensitive Plant, Dragon Tree, Black Dragon Coleus and Aloe.
All very interesting, but all of those plants get to be a pretty good size. I am not sure you could grow it on a table top for long. You may be better off starting these plants in the terrarium and then moving them out into the garden later.
If wicked gardens are not your thing but you still want to do a bit of gothic gardening, there is always combining a bit of guerilla gardening with gothic gardening.
There are hundreds of historical cemeteries or deserving but forgotten headstones that need a little gardening TLC. Get a group together to help clear weeds and plants flowers at a cemetery near you.
6/6/06 only happens once a century but then again, so does 5/5/05 and 7/7/07. Hmmm… 7/7/07, maybe I should book a trip to Vegas next year.
Oh my, thank you so much for posting the link to the archive! I don’t know why but I never thought to search there for the Gothic Gardening website. I have loved that site for years, and had hoped the person who wrote it would make a new site or actually have a book written about it.
Thanks so much for posting the link to Gothic Gardening! I had never heard of the archive.org site and really missed mAlice when she went away. I have now copied all the info I needed out so I will never be without it! Thanks Again. Joolz
Necropost!
You know, for S&Gs I sometimes google ‘Gothic Gardening’…was surprised to see this the top link. It’s nice to know people (ok, 3 people) miss it this many years later. The domain squatter getting my address was sort of the last straw for me & the web. I am glad people still know how to get the info, though….
Oh my black void of space!
I am soooo excited I found this page, I remember going to the bookmark one day and seeing “something wicked…” had disappeared with much sadness and disappointment that I had never thought to write down any of the information. Ah the naivete of youth, thinking internet sites last forever. Anyway, I am now grown enough to start planning my own garden, and though I wear a lot less black than I once did, I still want it to have some blood red flowers and beautiful night blooms.
Kudos and thanks are in order.
Bravo.
mAlice –
I would love to find out how to contact you!!!
I am interested in publishing your content in a book form as I love it so! I have just *finally* bought my first house and am setting out on my first gardening adventure. Here I am, a breeder in my 30s and I keep thinking back to your wonderful knowledge and site. Thanks to this blog I found out how to access the old information you came up with but I’d love to see it in book format and could get it published.
The only thing is that I would hate to do so without your permission or some royalties paid.
If you ever get this, please let email me at lookingformalice@hotmail.com!!!
~CA
The mAlice???? I LOVED your site. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into it!!! That it was something you really cared about was evident in how in depth it was. Coming back to it one day and finding the squatter instead was a sad moment for me. I have now gone to the archived site and used a flash drive to copy each page. Don’t worry, they are for my use only. I would never infringe on the rights of something I held so dear. I just want to make sure that I have access to your wonderful work forever.
Thanks again to you both!! To you Something Wicked this way Grows for helping me find the archive, and to you mAlice for its original creation.
Let me know if you ever get it published!!! I want a signed first edition!
Me again….yes, really me. Count me surprised when I get an email that this site has another comment on my long-dead website. I know I could at least sell 5 copies of a book 🙂
Unfortunately, the lookingformalice@hotmail.com address that Mocaba mentions doesn’t work….and just when I was looking for a creative outlet! Oh well, I think I’ll work on the book anyway, if for nothing other than my own gratification. It amazes me, seriously, that anyone remembers web pages from fifteen years ago.
Has it really been 15 years?? Wow. I guess that makes me an elder goth. I’m surprised that you’re surprised. Your site was quite the little underground phenom in its day.
I am glad to hear you’re thinking about having the book created. It would be nice both to own a copy and to hear that you’d been compensated for what must have been months of work.
Sign me up as another book buyer – I absolutely adored the old website – the sound effects and graphics and information were so cool and brought such a fun and new dimension to think about when looking for plants. I always plant at least one container or garden bed of black-ish plants and think of the site as I look for varieties each year. Something that original and beautifully done will never be forgotten, thanks malice- and I bet a book would be a big hit.
I remember keeping Gothic Gardening in my bookmarks as a child, looking forward to someday putting it to use.
It is time!
I’m glad to see it still exists in archives, and would like to mention that I think a book would be awesome.
I wanted to just add a note that I completely loved Something Wicked by mAlice. I couldn’t have a garden at the time when your site was there but oh, I could dream. I would walk among all the gardens and dream. Thank you for the link of the archive of it and it sure made me smile to see that mAlice was here too. I said to myself the same thing – THE malice? I hope you do write a book on gothic gardening and all your other lovely gardens. I, also, wanted to say that I really love the miniature garden. It has me thinking.
Hugs and sparkles
WG
mAlice,
I am delighted to see that there are still links to the ‘something wicked…’ archive. I found your site inspirational and altho i printed out hard copy of the pages, it is nice to know they can still be acessed online.
I’ve never been a goth myself, but over the years I have discovered a spiritual dimension to gardening and in fact currently give a lecture on Sanctuary Gardens which looks at how different cultures / faiths have taken the garden as a theme in their symbolism and how it seems to be at the core of thier beliefs (the Islamic Paradise garden or the Christian Garden of Eden for example). I would be thrilled if your work gets published, and altho based in Ireland, would be very keen to get hold of a copy.
Thank you for all the work you put into the original site and for the inspiration.
Best wishes mAlice, Paddy
I am so pleased to have found the Gothic Garden website via
this page. Thank you. It was an absolute fave of mine and
I have missed it for all these years. Hopefully a book
will be forthcoming. How will we know if this happens?
Linda