Create a Fairy Garden

Nothing is quite so magical as the thought that fairies may be making their home in your garden. By planting flowers and adding fairy homes to your garden, you are sure to create a garden that is a place of wonder. Follow these steps to create your own, beautiful fairy garden.

Steps

Creating Your Fairy Garden

  1. Pick a location. If you already have a garden, decide whether or not you would like your whole garden to be a fairy garden. Perhaps you would just like to keep a portion of your garden as a regular garden (to give the fairies some privacy perhaps.) Creating a divider with stepping stones, river rocks, wood, or small fencing can do the trick when making a border for your fairy garden.
  2. Plant flowers in your garden. Try to layer your plants by planting Choose Ground Cover Plants, medium-height flowers, and taller flowers. Planting flowers of different heights will give your garden a lovely, layered look. Be sure to select plants that grow well in the environment you live in. For example, if you live in a desert, it’s best to avoid trying to grow jungle plants. Ask an employee at your local home improvement store for the best flowers to plant in your particular area.
    • Plant ground cover plants like moss. Moss is soft to the touch (perfect for resting fairies) and will cover up any patches of dirt left in between flowers. Other choices include creeping phlox, with its low growing soft fern-like foliage and delicate looking flowers from late spring to early summer. Don't overlook herbs. Thyme grows close the the ground, smells great, and can even make its way into your kitchen.
    • Plant some brightly colored flowers. Fairies (and people) are incredibly drawn to flowers that are bright and cheerful. Try miniature roses, forget-me-not, lily of the valley, violas, miniature bell flowers, baby's breath, and chamomile. If the flowers smell really nice, that’s an added bonus.
    • Check out Alpine nurseries, they specialize in miniature plants; flowers, trees, herbs, and ground covers.
    • Add a trellis for your flowers. Trellises consist of interlaced, painted wood or metal. Vines will climb up trellises and create what appear to be walls of plants. Check out sweet autumn clematis, unlike other clematis varieties, this produces masses of small white flowers with a heavenly scent. You can purchase flat trellises, entryway trellises, and archway trellises.
  3. Attract birds to your garden. Fairies love birds. The best way to get birds interested in your garden is by hanging feeders. You can either hang feeders from trees in your garden, or get a feeder that hangs from its own pole. Be aware that different types of birds have different feeders and food that they need. For instance, attract hummingbirds with red feeders filled with sugar water.
    • Provide nesting boxes for birds. You can build your own birdhouse or buy one at a store.
    • Add a Make a Bird Bath to your fairy garden. The birds and fairies will both appreciate the extra source of water.
  4. Attract animals to your garden. Fairies love animals, but keep in mind that those furry woodland creatures might also enjoy dining on the flowers you just planted. To avoid this, add food for the animals (to distract them from the flowers.) The easiest things to plant in your garden that will attract animals are berries. Plant berry bushes; the animals, fairies, and your family will all enjoy the berries that come from the plants.
    • To attract butterflies to your garden plant flowers like Aster, Daylily, Lavender, Hollyhock, Goldenrods, and Zinnias.

Adding Other Touches for the Fairies

  1. Add a fairy house. Fairies, like any other creature, want a place to feel safe and rest their weary heads. You can either purchase a fairy home at a garden center or build your own.
    • Build a fairy house out of natural materials. Gather four sturdy sticks and stick them in the soil so that they will not tip over. Lean or wrap bark on the sides to create the walls. Place two stones at the front of the house, leaving a space between the two so that a door is created. Use large leaves as the roof of the house or place another piece of bark on top. These are all merely suggestions; feel free to get creative with your fairy houses; they can be very fun to build!
  2. Add wind-chimes. Fairies need music; wind-chimes are the perfect way to provide a beautiful sound to your garden without disturbing the neighbors. Hang wind-chimes from branches or on metal poles you place in your garden. You can also make your own windchimes.
  3. Add a water element. As stated above, a bird bath is a great way to add a little water to your garden. You can also have a fountain installed, build your own small pond, or add a Make a Rock Waterfall. All of these watery additions will attract birds, animals, and fairies to your backyard.
  4. Leave out sweets. Fairies love sweets such as candy. Designate a small pot or bowl for leaving candy in. Make sure to unwrap the candy so that no animals who may want to eat the candy will have to deal with the plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a shady part of your garden.
    • An excellent choice of treats would be Rock Candy. The crystalline appearance adds a magical touch, complimenting the overall theme of your fairy garden. It's easy to make and you can even create different colors. How pretty!
    • When providing sweets, avoid chocolate. Chocolate can melt into a mess and can be toxic to some animals, including dogs.

Creating a Fairy Garden in a Pot

  1. Decide what sort of container you are going to use. For a more natural look, use a natural colored flower pot or create your own from hypertufa. Make sure the pot you decide to use has a drainage hole (drainage holes allow excess water to drip out the bottom.)
  2. Fill your pot with potting soil. You can choose what potting soil you want to use based on the types of plants you wish to add to your fairy garden.
  3. Use a stick to ‘sketch’ out how your fairy garden will look. Using the stick, make lines in the soil for where you would like to put each of your plants and items, such as tiny fairy benches and beds.
  4. Pick a ‘tree’ for your fairy garden. This ‘tree’ should be a plant, such as a boxwood or a woody herb such as sage, that resembles a tiny tree. Scoop out some potting soil in the spot where you will plant your tree. Remove enough soil so that the top of the root ball is about an inch from the top of the pot. Tease the roots of the ‘tree’ apart and spread them out it in the hole you have made. Pat the soil down around the plant so that it covers all of the roots.
    • Plants that look like tiny trees include boxwood, dwarf cypress, junipers, dwarf Alberta spruce, and woody herbs like sage, rosemary, or lavender. For something really special you can use a Bonsai tree. Browse your local nursery or greenhouse for a plant that you would like as your ‘fairy tree.’
  5. Add your decorations. What better way to attract a fairy than by making your pot look incredibly comfortable? Add miniature houses, benches, chairs and tables--whatever tiny furniture you would like! You can also put rocks in place for sitting.
    • Create your own tiny furniture out of natural materials like bark, old bird nests, etc.
    • To add water, get a small clay bowl. Remove enough soil to create a hole so that the mouth of the bowl is even with the ground. Place the bowl in the ground and pat the soil around it down so that the ground is even. Add water to the bowl. For a sparkly touch, place glass beads at the bottom of the bowl and then add the water. Make sure to clean the bowl every so often so that little organisms don’t begin to grow in it.


Tips

  • Ask your local plant nurseries for ideas on suitable plants for your area. This is especially important when ordering plants on-line.
  • Alpine garden suppliers specialize in miniature plants: trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, and ground covers. The selection is more extensive than you can imagine.

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