Our Fairy Garden

Our Spring break has come to and end.

It was relaxing, without a schedule and unrushed.

Just what we needed.

We did manage to get one project done though, we made a fairy garden.

I “pinned” many of these over my Pinterest days and then a few weeks ago a catalog came to the house. They had fairy furniture in the catalog and it was super expensive.

It was just the push I needed.

I went out last week and picked up a basic bird house at Michael's, a fence and a few plants. I looked at the dollhouse furniture, but again, too expensive.

I decided that there had to be a way to make the furniture ourselves and to use as many things as possible from what we already had.

We did buy the the “tinkling toadstools” (they jingle when the wind blows!) at a local nursery this past weekend (you can find some here). They were just too fun to pass up.

So the other day we gathered what we already had and then hit the basement.

The thing about going to auctions is you end up with boxes of stuff you are not sure what to do with (that came in a lot with the stuff you did want), but then you have “stuff” to work with on projects.

I had this bag of all these little stick type of things. No idea what they are. We knew there was fairy furniture in there somewhere and we stared at them for sometime before we figured something out.

I lined up the tops, four for the base, three thinner ones for the back. The bottoms do not line up, but that is the part that is going into the ground so it did not matter.

I also had some moss type ribbon that I cut down…

..and used it as cushions on the chairs.

I also used the sticks to make a table (I wrapped jute around it to finish it off), used one to anchor in this small statue, also found in one of the boxes of “stuff”, and

I grouped four to form the shape of the roof. After that I hot glued pea gravel from the yard on to the sticks.

I think the little statue fits perfectly in the garden.

We already had the galvanized container filled with dirt because we have planted annuals in it for several years. We painted the birdhouse, added small stones and some of the same moss to it. Behind the fence on the left, we planted moss and then added simple variegated annuals throughout.

The small tree was on clearance in Home Depot for $4. In theory, it could grow to 12 to 15 feet, but we decided that wouldn’t happen in the container.

We added rocks for a path, some fake mushrooms, a twine “beehive” hanging in the tree (made just by looping it around my finger and then gluing it), some small ceramic leaves my girls had and covered everything in peat moss.

The best part is that it was a project that we really did together. Peanut’s interest waned at some points but overall she really enjoyed it. Sunshine was so excited for each part.

Peanut added the small shells as plates on the table…

and placed them in the “bird bath” made from a vintage tart tin and another one of those stick things.

Even if you don’t have a basement filled with lots of random stuff, you too can create a fairy garden. Some plants, some rocks and some childhood imagination and it can be done.

I found once I started thinking about things in “miniature” that is when I found the statue, the tart tin, the small shells and even the mushrooms (off of floral picks). You may have the makings of a fairy garden already in your home. Other ideas – buttons, thimbles, bottle caps or children’s toys.

Don’t have a large container or the space for one? Place some fairy details in an existing plant on a windowsill.

Don’t have any weird stick things like I found? You could use golf tees, sticks, matches or popsicle sticks.

It just takes a change in perspective from big to small to find what a fairy would like!

The biggest problem is that is was so fun I might become known as the crazy lady with all the fairy gardens!

Thanks so much for reading!

I will be sharing at The Nester's