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Make a Fairy Garden

So…you’ve decided you want to attract the fun and mischievous little people to your yard by making a fairy garden.  These next sections are all about MAKING A FAIRY GARDEN!

LOCATION and SIZE:
The first thing you need to decide is where you want to locate your fairy garden and how big it will be.  If you want your fairy garden by the front steps, you may only have room for a small one foot by one foot fairy garden or container, but maybe you have space for a large ten foot by ten foot garden where you can build rolling hills, put in lots of fairy houses, pathways, water features and fairy plants. That will work, too. There really are no limits to size and location, except that you will want to consider three main things:

 

  • The amount of sun an area gets

  • The amount of traffic an area gets

  • And…how much time you want to devote to making a fairy garden and maintaining it.

 

Regarding sun, some fairy plants like Elfin Thyme and succulents can take full sun and actually prefer it, but some miniatures, like baby tears, are more delicate and prefer some shade, especially in hotter regions.

 

A couple other thoughts about location:

Fairy gardens can be peaceful and calming places, so if you want

  • a place to sit and enjoy the ambience of the setting, place your garden where there is some privacy or where privacy can be created.  We have some great small yard ideas for you to check out if you have a small yard with very little privacy.

  • any sort of small “fairy lights” think about safe access to electricity (same thing if you want some sort of water feature that will need a pump).

 

But mostly, remember that fairy gardens can be as easy or complicated as you want them to be.  Do what feels right to you.

 

Now, it’s time to go for a walk through your yard and find just the right spot for the fairies to call home.  Have fun and let your imagination take flight…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAIRY GARDEN PLAN / LAYOUT

Hopefully you now have a spot in mind for your fairy garden.  It’s time to make a plan!  No worries…you don’t need an elaborate plan (but for those of you who thrive on planning, go for it).  This will just be a general plan.  You can fill in with specific fairy plants and fairy furniture next.  If you already have your heart set on particular plants or furniture, by all means, place them in your plan.  Otherwise, just make note of where you might like a house, or a plant, or a water feature, etc.

 

This plan will help you figure out what you might want to buy or make.  You can be casual and just draw your plan or there are even garden planning computer programs where you can plan it all out.  You can check a couple of them out here if you’re interested in that sort of thing.  Do whatever you’re most comfortable with.  Here are three examples just to give you an idea of how they can look:

 

A couple other thoughts about planning: 

  • As you’re planning, remember what areas get sun and what areas get shade. (It’s best if you can check your spot several times throughout the day, so you can see how the sun moves over it.) 

  • Think about the direction people will be looking at the fairy garden and put the taller features in back.  If it’s a garden that people can walk around, you have more flexibility about where to place objects and plants.

 

 

We’ve included a few fun photos of fairy gardens for you to check out.  You can see how simple, elaborate, creative, colorful, delightful, whimsical, peaceful…  There are so many adjectives that can describe fairy gardens!!  We’ve also included a couple of links to sites that we’ve run across that have some great photos for “jumping off points” for your own creativity.  Happy creating.

Links for more photos and information:

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