Dirt You Shall Become

Genre: Horror; paranormal, modern, comedy

Length: About 60 pages

Published: June, 21st 2025

Format: Paperback, ebook

Four short horror stories inspired by gardens and the hidden terrors under the mulch and behind the roses.

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Elders of the Ground

Tackling the unruly weeds in her picture-perfect garden is her only goal. She will clear them to make space for a bee-heaven, full of color and life.
The weeds, however, are not so easily tamed and bring more than just nightmares.

Dirt You Shall Become

In the corner of Grandma's garden, under the yew where it's always cold and shady, lies a compost. It's full of coffee grinds, potato peels, and worms, and it's not that Mille doesn't want to help grandma empty the bucket from the kitchen, it's just... The compost have eyes... And it's watching her!

Murder, She Grew

Susanne is not a bad person. She's just very tired of hearing her husband complain about the roses in his garden. Couldn't he complain about her instead? Or at least talk to her? She's not resentful - she's really not - it was just a bad day...

Gnome, Sweet Gnome

Uncle Paul has rules in his garden. First, no dogs are allowed. Second, you only feed the koi five pellets a day. And third, and most important, you do not walk on the lawn.

Stuck for three weeks over summer, Becka struggles to keep in line. But what Paul doesn't see won't hurt, right?

My Heart is a Tulip

It's so peaceful to live on the country side...

Unless of course you're trying to keep deer out of your yard.

One woman's struggles turn into a war where neither deer nor human are ready to give in.

The Gardens

Elders of the Ground

This was the story that kicked off this collection. The garden is my own and the story inspired by my very real fight with getting rid of ground elder from our ditch. I really don't like ground elder. It's boring and it spreads like a decease! So I spent hours and days digging up the entire root system. I think I tossed close to 100kg of plant material!

Instead, I've planted wild flowers <3

Dirt You Shall Become

Dirt You Shall Become is a mix of two gardens: my grandma and pa's (on Mom's side) and the garden where my best friend lived when we were in first grade.

The compost and yew was in grandma's garden. There was a narrow, but short, path to the mulch and I didn't like to be behind there. The rest of the garden was always full of flowers and they had a big veggie garden where we picked peas and beetroots. They had green house with cucumbers and we'd go to a farm every summer and pick loads of strawberries!

My friend's garden was HUGE and at the very back it was a wilderness of old trees, ivy, and ground elder. It was creepy as hell back there!

Murder, She Grew

This one is my partner's grandparents' garden. At their country house they had the most amazing garden just overflowing with flowers and roses. There was probably around 200 different rose bushes throughout the grounds. It was epic and so unbelievable beautiful!

Gnome, Sweet Gnome

The garden in Gnome, Sweet Gnome is inspired by my grandparents on Dad's side. Their garden was not nearly as neat as the one in the story, but I remember the lawn being very short and neat possibly because they liked to play "Krolf" (golf on the lawn with big clubs and wooden balls). They also had a fish pond with gold fish and grandma just had strange porcelain figurines all over the house. You weren't allowed to be in the living room (only when "real" guests came around or it was a holiday) and this strictness inspired a bit of the "don't touch the grass" in this short story.

My Heart is a Tulip

This story was written in 'the heat of the moment'. I have had a disagreement with our local deer, who keeps coming to our garden and eats our flowers and kale. I've sprayed the flowers with this 'deer-repellent' stuff, covered my kale with nets, trying my best to be friends with the deer but also kindly telling it to f*ck off.

Then this year I thought it was all good. I'd sprayed the flowers and what not and still (!) that dumb deer munch on all my tulips! It even ate the big beautiful buttercups I had in a pot on the porch!

So I snapped. I got very angry. I fenced in my garden. And wrote this silly story.

Karen Lykkebo

Fantasy & Horror Author

Dirt You Shall Become

The Gardens