Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Fairy Garden Experiments


I became interested in making fairy gardens after a visit to my friends house that lives near Minneapolis.  She had the sweetest little fairy garden that was planted up in a wicker window box.  It had a stone path, a diamond dust plant, some Irish moss, and other little attractions.  We admired it while we were relaxing on the deck.  I had to make one when I got home!  And of course, I have more that one and have encouraged other people in my life to make them too!  This gardening hobby can be very contagious.

Starting to assemble First Fairy Garden
      My mom and I got a lot of our materials at the local greenhouse, La Crosse Floral. Two of our fairies were purchased there at very reasonable prices and so were the trellises and the planting urn.    They are really into promoting fairy garden planting and have scheduled some classes on the topic.  They have made a place on their Facebook page to submit photos of individual fairy gardens as well.

     I am in the process of looking for more small items and I noticed Hobby Lobby had some cute picket fences that I may get and then handpaint myself.  They also had some cute wooden doors that could be added to tree  trunks if a person wanted to make one right on the ground in the garden landscape.

My First Fairy Garden
The cute little gingerbread style house is really a tealight candle holder and I picked it up for a very reasonable amount at the Goodwill store.  Isn't it great that someone else's junk can be a treasure to another???

My Mom's Fairy Garden with a Creek and Bridge

Her garden was placed into a coco mulch liner for a hanging basket and it is held in place by a metal basket she found at Goodwill.
The little turtle climbing out from under the bridge is a perfect little touch!  The little maple leaf fairy is resting on a flat rock.  I think that icicle plant in the background is a lovely texture!

My Friend, Debbie's Fairy Garden with a Raccoon

Debbie's garden has a really neat idea for a container.  This was planted up in a upturned glass lamp shade.  It already came with the perfect hole in the bottom for great drainage.  She has a blue fairy, a trellis, and a cute little raccoon in the scene.  Be sure to notice her unique floorcloth.  She made it after she visited a quilt shop in New York.  She met the author of the book, "Floorquilts" and took a class from her.  After her return home she made this unique home decorator mat.

My Second Fairy Garden

This little scene is planted up in a white wicker basket and I have been enjoying it out on the patio.  Notice the mossy covered rocks in the foreground.  I picked those up quite inexpensively at Walmart in the floral dept.  So far they look decent and only one was bitten into by our pesky squirrel.

3 comments:

Ellen said...

Love the little fairy gardens - no weeding! I will have to find out more about the floorcloths. I had been thinking about trying to make one using latex paint on the canvas. The idea of making one from fabric sounds intriguing and from what I could see of your friend's it looks great!

april said...

Oh my gosh! I have been wanting to do one of these. Adorable! We need to live closer together, Kathy!

The Magic Onions said...

Hello!

This is Donni from The Magic Onions. My children and I loved your fairy garden from last year! I wanted to invite you to participate in our 2012 Fairy Garden Contest. We are accepting entries through August 1st. We look forward to seeing your ~beautiful~ fairy garden! :)

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2012/04/fairy-garden-contest-2012.html

Blessings and Magic,

Donni Webber
http://themagiconions.blogspot.com
themagiconions@gmail.com