The latest fad for gardeners is a fairy garden. Your existing garden area is the perfect place to set up your own fairy garden. For those fans of fairies, gardens and flowers, designing and planting your own fairy garden is a great hobby.
Children love fairy gardens. Planting a fairy garden with kids is a good way to involve them in outdoor activities. Sitting in a fairy garden to read and play gives children the best environment to use their imaginations.
Create a small fairy garden by choosing a place that is mostly shady for the flowers to grow. The furniture and collectibles should remain out of the direct sun, to avoid fading or damage caused by the heat in the sunnier months.
The plants placed in a fairy garden can be found in the words of Shakespeare or in books that are written for children. The wooly thyme plant makes an awesome groundcover for all fairy gardens and is mentioned in the works of Shakespeare in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The fairy queen slept in the wooly thyme in the Shakespearean tale.
Ornamental strawberry plants create a beautiful floral pattern in the spring and remain green throughout the summer months. Irish moss covers the ground nicely and produces a tiny flowery appearance as the white blooms burst out in the spring, remaining in bloom throughout the summer.
The blue star creeper is a delicate flower with a bluish-purple tint, making it an absolute must for any fairy garden. Baby tears, cranesbills, brass buttons, primroses, rosemary, candula and tiny roses add to the sights and smells that create those magical moments spent in a fairy garden.
Plant your choice of fairy garden flora around the garden site. Add fairy statues, miniature tables and homes made from twigs and rocks. Plant smaller shrubbery such as boxwoods that can be trimmed and kept small. Some local craft stores or nurseries carry products in the fairy garden line.
Crafted tables, chairs and homes can be set up around your fairy garden. Use leaves as bedding or as hammock style sleep areas. Tiny fairies can be purchased through craft stores and online.
Placing a small fountain or miniature birdbath in the garden adds to the magic. Using a pile of rocks and pea gravel, design a small waterfall with pools of pea gravel to catch the water for your fairies to enjoy. The wild birds in your area will soon join your fairy village to enjoy splashing around in the small pools of water you have provided. Run a small fountain pump from the base and connect tubing up through the top of the rock pile. Add pea gravel in the shape of bowls or pools to capture the water as it flows from one section to another. The gravel gives birds and fairies a place to play in the cool water during the hot days of summer.
If you have children, add a tiny mailbox to the fairy kingdom. This allows them the opportunity to exchange letters back and forth between them and members of the fairy family. Write letters in reply, to give kids the chance to receive mail from the “fairies.”
Play with fairy lights. Fairy light strands can be purchased in craft stores and online. The fairy lights add glittery magic to any fairy garden.
The shady area in a fairy garden is a great place to read a book to a child or makes the best spot to sit and read to yourself. Relax and enjoy all that spring and summer have to offer. Be creative and look around – fairy garden furniture can be made from plants, flowers and twigs or rocks found in your yard. Glue and twine can hold furniture designs together.
Creating a fairy garden is an imaginative way to give children an experience they will never forget.
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