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Top Ten Reasons to Grow a Fairy Garden

Everyone loves a top ten list.*

If you’ve been on the fence about starting a fairy garden, read on. By the end of my top ten, I hope you’re ready to let your creative juices take flight.

Lets dig in.

10

Fescue yurt and an orange peel umbrella

Fescue yurt and an orange peel umbrella

Fairy gardens are a short cut to our inner child. Not the cranky, I-don’t-want-to-take-a-bath-and-go-to-bed inner child but the child that loves digging in the dirt with a spoon.  Remember chasing butterflies and dandelion fluff on a warm summer day? Fairy gardens are a wonderful way to express that carefree joy once again.

9

Replanted Fairy Garden, The Long View

Fairy Garden on the Deck

You don’t need a lot of space to grow a fairy garden. You can plant in a pot on your patio or fill an old wheelbarrow in your back yard. Grow your tiny garden indoors or out. Let your imagination be your guide.

8

fairy garden lavender bed

Lavender mattress frame

Fairy gardening is affordable…or free. You don’t need to buy a thing. A traditional fairy garden might live under a shrub or near the forest floor. Smooth stones make wonderful seats and twigs are perfect for fences, walkways and four-poster beds.  Fairies enjoy resting on the soft side of a flower petal with a blanket fashioned from a sprig of fern.

7

One spooky Halloween night

One spooky Halloween night

Decorating on a dime. If you love decorating but have run out of money or rooms, this is the hobby for you. You can switch out the decor of your tiny garden as often as you like. It’s fun to put up lights for the holidays or lay down green stones for St. Patrick’s Day. The sky’s the limit, without the price tag.

6

fairy garden chairs and tableFairy gardens are a fun way to up-cycle household items. I’ve used wine corks, empty tea light holders, scraps of ribbon and the cap from a bottle of champagne, pictured above. You can use up old paint, or give a second life to a discarded toy. I love the challenge of using things I have on hand.

5

Fallen Log Bridge

Fallen Log Bridge

Scavenging for your fairy garden is a great way to spend time outdoors. I brought home a tiny “log” from one of my hikes and turned it into a bridge. I used broken twigs from a pine tree to make a small rope ladder. One year I fashioned a hammock from the soft petal of a magnolia. Using nature’s discards is fun.

4

fairy garden birthday

Celebrating birthdays in the fairy garden

At a loss for words? Fairy gardens are wonderful conversation starters for guests five through 105. People always have questions or comments when they see my fairy garden. Chatting about fairies is a terrific icebreaker.

3

Fairy House

This fairy house roof line is decorated with straps from an old pair of sandals, a bottle cap and a bit of glitter. The door is cut from the tough bark of a large fern with a seed for a door handle.

Fairy gardening is a unique way to express thoughts and emotions that are hard to put into words. Creative endeavors help lower stress and anxiety. An hour in your fairy garden can help you feel calmer and happier. It allows you to create something uniquely yours which in turn can bring you a sense of pleasure.

2

fairy garden sign and hammock

Tiny garden gifts from friends: a wee little welcome sign, a small hammock and a woodland chair

Your friends will join in the fun. A few of my friends started their own fairy garden. Several others send me wonderful little garden treasures in the mail. I’ve found a few anonymous surprises on my doorstep and even more in the garden. My neighbor’s daycare children add flowers and the odd sticker to let me know they’ve stopped by. It’s fun to be a part of this not-so-secret society of fairy lovers.

1

fairy garden rope ladder

This way to the fairy garden

Designing and tending a fairy garden allows your imagination to soar. There are no rules, no guidelines and no restrictions. Creative endeavors relax the mind and feed the soul. Even the busiest among us can carve out time to tend to a wee garden. In exchange, the tiny garden will tend you.

Stay tuned for my latest fairy garden creation: time at the lake.

*There’s a website called ListVerse that publishes top ten lists. According to their About page: “We publish lists that intrigue and educate, specializing in the bizarre or lesser-known trivia.”

32 thoughts on “Top Ten Reasons to Grow a Fairy Garden”

  5. Your fairy gardens are always a delight, Alyss. I especially love the delicate, French chairs, made out of champagne corks!! I hope the fairies got to imbibe a little too. 🍾

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  7. Such sweet gardens, Alys! ♥ Heartfelt thanks for sharing a wee bit of magic today! I just love the thought of the neighborhood children coming to visit your fairy gardens. I know it is something they will always remember! Happy gardening! ♡

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  8. I would love to know how many people become ardent fairy gardeners as a result of stumbling upon the idea here at Gardening Nirvana Alys. It is a wonderful thing to do for little children – and for the inner child too as you say. I do not yet have fairy garden of my own – but do have a teeny tiny garden that must make fairies feel at home 🙂 ……….. and which includes a growing number of smile making delights that were gifted to me last Christmas. I must make sure to include them in my next garden post.

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    • Oh, Christmas gifts for the garden. I will look forward to your next installment with curiosity. You do have a teeny courtyard garden and the sweetest little residents too (Siddy and Orlando). You also make magic every day with your light catchers. I’m pretty sure I spotted a fairy inside one of the crystal orbs when the light hit it just so.

      It’s lovely to contemplate inspiring others to create a fairy garden of their own. Thank you for saying so.

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    • Lisa, you could install a stealth fairy garden this summer, then play dumb when people come around and notice little things appearing here and there. You could start with a small door and attach it to a fence post. Then tiny furniture will appear. People may add to it when you’re not looking. It could be great fun. You’ll never look at a muselet the same way again.

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  10. Magical! I always love seeing the latest creations in your fairy garden Alys. That rope ladder is just one of the ingenious ideas you have had that I love so much! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Cathy. I have so much fun with these tiny gardens. I made the rope ladder with twigs from the pine tree and left over raffia from my Halloween costume last year. It’s fun coming up with different ideas each time. Are you tempted to start one in your garden?

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      • I am very tempted Alys…. perhaps in the summer when I have more time and materials at hand. I imagine it is also real therapy to get engrossed in creating something like this. 🙂

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  12. Good Morning dear jardin muse, how fun to voir beaucoup de belles ‘jardin de fées de Alys’

    Thanks for sharing all your ideas and photo’s. Your front entry bench appears to be custom made for your fairy gardens, what a perfect find. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for small tropicals to get mine going. Every says ‘next week or by the end of the month’. Usually the grocery markets have the odd bunch but nothing yet. I have a couple of critters to make an appearance too, so that will be fun and I’ve really been missing it.

    Thanks to you, I have a lovely menagerie of fairy ephemera and containers too boot. You’re so right, it’s a creative childlike outlet for grownups. You have so many good ideas and I’ve always loved that you re-decorate for each holiday. oh, and I’d love to sleep on a lavender mattress ❤ ❤ smooch x k

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    • Oo la la.

      Thanks sweetness. I love that bench and remember the day I bought it, the fire sale at the nursery, and how the nursery is now reinvented into a more open air, but successful place.

      I hope you don’t have too much longer to wait for your tropical plants. I’m excited to see the next iteration of your garden. You’re so creative.

      It would be wonderful to sleep on a lavender mattress, so cool and fragrant and soft. The butterflies would visit as well, but only to tickle you in your dreams. Ah, the life of a fairy.

      Smooch right back.

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      • It’s really great that the garden centre was able to rebuild and you were there to support their efforts. Things are greening up now in a big way. I’m looking out the family room window at trees with little leaves. We really really need rain though. I watered well yesterday. Fingers crossed. Have a beautiful day dearest xox

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        • Has it been unusually dry for you this year, too? Fingers crossed. We’re supposed to get some rain this Friday, which will further extend the life of my cottage garden. We had a two day heat wave breaking records, now down again and the rain. Nothing is predictable anymore.

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          • Happy for the moisture coming your way! I saw the news on Houston last night and gasped. Sorry sad for everyone down there, what a mess. Let’s hope our moisture comes and in the end, measured amounts. xo

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  14. Pingback: A Fairy Garden for Elizabeth – Gardening Nirvana

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