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Sprucing up the Fairy Garden

May 15th, 2012

Remember when I put together a Fairy Gardening Kit with my nieces & nephew last fall? A few of the plants didn’t make it through the winter, so we purchased some plants last Monday at the greenhouse. Yesterday, I met them at my mom’s and we spruced up the Fairy Garden for the coming season.

The Fairy Garden had a rough winter and only one of the tiny plants had survived. That’s OK though, the kids were not discouraged and it’s a good lesson to learn. Plants don’t always survive. We pulled everything out, mixed some chicken manure into the soil and set off designing and planting our new fairy garden.






If you’ve got kids and want to help them learn to love gardening fairy gardening is the perfect way. My nieces and nephews are fascinated with the fairy garden and always have to water it and monitor it when they go to my mom’s.

I’m hoping to put in a fairy garden in my outdoor garden someday, what a fun thing to do in a little nook. It’s also a great way to keep those low-growing plants in one place and reduces the risk of them being overshadowed and overtaken by larger plants.

What great things have you learned captivate kids when it comes to gardening? Have you ever seen a fairy garden?

12 Comments to “Sprucing up the Fairy Garden”
  1. connie giovanni on May 15, 2012 at 6:31 am

    Susy, I made a fairy garden for My grand kids years ago and still have it. Its under the huge tree in the back yard. Fairies do magical things at nite, they move from spot to spot, sprinkle fairydust,fairy stones and seashells. They hide under plants and in the nooks of the tree. Currently they have gathered sticks and stones in a wheelbarrow to start on anew fairy house. The kids always love to come and see what they have been up to. If your ever in town Id love for you to come and see it!

    Reply to connie giovanni's comment

    • Susy on May 15, 2012 at 7:34 am

      Would love to, it sounds wonderful!

      Reply to Susy's comment

    • Lorna on May 15, 2012 at 9:14 am

      my husband brought me home several fairy garden plants..my grandkids loved them..but so far i am not having any luck growing them…is there certain soil they should have?

      Reply to Lorna's comment

      • Susy on May 15, 2012 at 9:22 am

        Sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge finding the right plants. Do you have them in a container? If so, overwatering is the most common problem with container plants. Perhaps a weak fish emulsion once a month will help as well if the soil isn’t the best. This also helps plants get established better. Sometimes plants just die for reasons unkown, transplanting can be a bit of a shock to them.

        to Susy's comment

  2. Robbie Lowry on May 15, 2012 at 9:05 am

    I made a small potted garden with my girlfriends one evening and then the next day, took it and made a larger one outside with my kids, we have some plant loss with our mosses but others are thriving. We decided to try our hand at another one right next to our front door walkway, it has everything from a river to a hobbit house and we’re only a quarter of the way done. Our plan is to have fairy gardens all over our yard and home that their can be no doubt that ‘we do believe in fairies’

    Reply to Robbie Lowry's comment

  3. Janet Anderson on May 15, 2012 at 9:55 am

    That is so wonderful! I looked up their website but they didn’t list Canadian retailers on it. How much is a kit? I would like to send one to a friend in the US so if there is an online source I would love to hear!

    Love the blog as always…you inspire me as I try to wrestle my gravel yard into a garden. :-)

    Janet in Winnipeg

    Reply to Janet Anderson's comment

    • Emily Sorenson on May 17, 2012 at 2:59 am

      Hi Janet,

      We do actually have a few companies in Canada carrying our merchandise now! Florists Supply Limited is in Winnepeg, so please be sure to check them out. To order online for a US gift, try http://www.bachmans.com

      Hope this helps,

      Emily

      Reply to Emily Sorenson's comment

  4. Pam M. on May 15, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    I have never heard of a fairy garden! But this looks very interesting! Do you think I a fake river would be a great addition to this?

    Thanks for sharing!

    -Pam

    Reply to Pam M.'s comment

    • Susy on May 15, 2012 at 2:17 pm

      I little fake river would be great in one of these! I’ve seen on with a little pond incorporated into it.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  5. June Coady on May 15, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    In my small, often shady garden. there is a corner that has always been known as our fairy garden where there are small ferns, violets, a toad house, a couple of fairies supplied by my granddaughter who just completed her first year of college and still peeks at it once in a while. Fairies are delightful folks and they deserve a delightful place to play. We all need to ‘dwell with the fairies every once in a while. mdl

    Reply to June Coady's comment

  6. Katelyn Faye on May 16, 2012 at 9:50 am

    My grandmother very firmly believed that one of the reasons a garden would not do well was if the gardener had “made the little people angry” by not providing them with somewhere to stay when they visited. Sometimes i think they were old wives’ tales, but every year I make a little fairy garden with a bench and walkway and flowers, just in case she was right.

    Reply to Katelyn Faye's comment

  7. Michele on May 17, 2012 at 10:08 am

    I love Connie’s ideas. We started one under a huge tree in our backyard. It was started as a rock garden, that we expanded to be a fairy garden with lots of low, spreading plants. We also planted some Lambs ears that we grew from seed, so they’ll have some soft leaves to play with! We hope to add a water feature, some sparklies, and more fairies to it this summer.

    My kids are still little (8,6,3) so we have a very kid-friendly garden. We did a bean/pumpkin trellis arch, a sunflower forest and a cutting garden for my sweet girl. This year we have pink cutie popcorn to try.

    Reply to Michele's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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