Fairy Garden 2012

I have finally finished work on my first Fairy Garden!  After checking the internet for ideas - and elements I could buy instead of make - I ended up constructing most of my own accessories. 

I decided a mobile garden would work best; however, some people constructed theirs under trees.  I got a large, rectangular basket at Michael's, laid down a large, plastic lawn refuse bag as a liner, and used a Miracle Gro soil that protects against over and under watering.

The trick was figuring out HOW to build the stuff, since there were no generalized instructions online. I began with a "house" and found a wonderful, small log in the firewood with two great knot holes.  I sliced it into two different sized pieces with a sloped cut for roofs.  I glued them with Gorilla glue and secured them together overnight with rubber bands.  Then I began decorating.  Small vertical then horizontal sticks formed the roofs, with popsicle sticks for the door.  For decorations, I purchased a bag of assorted moss, tiny "wedding" roses, some tiny silk flowers, a package of tiny terracotta flower pots, a tea light that resembled a gazebo, some sign wood, and a couple bags of their smallest river rocks.  I already had marbles (for the gazing ball), a bag of sphagnum moss, several pieces of sliced agate (for the bench), and very narrow ribbon, copper wire to make an arbor.  Once you start sticking on moss, and flowers and such, you find the more stuff you stick on, the better it looks!

The wishing well was constructed of the tiny river rocks held together with hot glue.  I used the hot glue gun to decorate also, using the sphagnum moss as "vines," further enhanced with tiny flowers.  I did manage to find a fairy, bird bath, bucket, and garden tools at a garden center.  The path is just filling in with tiny river rocks to make a path from the arbor at the front to the fairy house.

The "bird house" was actually made of popsicle sticks on a wooden skewer base with a toothpick end for a perch!

Then it was off to the garden centers to buy plants.  The "grass" is actually a perennial called "Irish Moss."  Flowers include other perennials such as the hosta in the front right corner called "Blue Mouse Ears" which has very tiny leaves and flowers, "Snow-in-Summer Silver Carpet," "Papaver Summer Beauty," and "Red Creeping Thyme" in front.  I got a lot of what I consider "draping plants" that hang and dangle softly over the sides of the large basket that holds the garden.  The annuals included "ficus ripens variegatus," lobelia, zinnia "Crystal White," "Easter Bonnet Deep Rose" alyssum, "Green Yellow Alternanthera," Helichrysum, "Madiera Crested Yellow," and "Asparagus Fern." 

And finally, I added a sign to the front that I saw online and recreated!