A Tour of My Fairy Garden

Gardens are always a work in progress...remember when I showed you what a mess the fairy garden was the other day?  Well here are some pictures after I had a couple of hours of peace and quiet working on it on Mother's Day...

Still needs a heavy dose of mulch - that truckload is coming soon...

This drives my husband nuts...see the pile of crap on the right?  If I have the day to work in the garden I'll hook up the mower and dump cart and have it ready to toss the weeds into.  But if I am limited on time or just "taking a quick look" I will often just start pulling weeds because I can't start to leave them and toss them into a pile.  Sometimes it might be a couple of days before I get back to them...  I can't be the only one, am I?

Here is my Ms. Kim lilac that is finally getting bigger than me after being snacked on by the bunnies for the past several years...

And see the fence holding the grass back - yeah I haven't gotten to that part yet...

This bed started when this tree was still alive.  This was an ash tree that had very shallow roots.  After dulling the mower blades on them for about 2 years, I told my husband I would rescue him and plant over the roots.  I started this with a no-till, no-sod-removal method of layer gardening.  In the fall, I laid down newspapers overlapping and about 8-10 pages thick.  Then I covered that with a couple inches of leaves and composted manure and let it sit for the winter.  In the spring I planted and mulched heavily.

There are sweet little fairies in both of these pictures if you look closely...

After the first full year I decided to expand a dry creek and "pond" area to keep the erosion minimal on an area in heavy shade that really didn't grow any grass and was always muddy.  It needs another topping of rocks - its about time to take the kids out and pick rocks out of the pasture and this makes a great spot for them where they won't bruise the horses' hooves.

I've slowly expanded this bed to make the mowing lines easier.  This area is just starting to be expanded and planted.


I've been adding around the edges of the "pond" too with perennials that can handle the flow of the water when it rains.  This little pond area leads down the slope to our ditch.

The fairy garden evolved later when we started going to the fairy day event at Heavenly Scent Herb Farm.  We've incorporated projects and finds from fairy day into the garden and also started to hunt for other things that fit the theme.  (See the little arched branch we found in the background?)  This little fairy tree was a planter we made at fairy day.  It started with a plastic mixing bowl with a small amount of cement in the bottom and a copper tube stuck in the center.  Then smaller copper wiring comes out of the tube and you thread it with beads, buttons and other little pretties.  The wiring on this one is starting to wear out but I have an idea in mind that might just make it hold up to the weather a little better.  A project for another post...




Here's a cute little ceramic plaque magnet I found at Dollar Tree.

This sweet little arch and accessories were picked up at fairy day this year.  I love the chandelier and little bugs.

This is the remnants of our goldfish experiment.  It was a great way to use the old stones whenever we cleaned the tank.  But alas, our fish did not make it for more than a few months and we decided we were better off creating a "sea" portion to the fairy garden.











I just love the ray of sun shining down on this lovely girl.  With other family knowing that we have a fairy garden, they are on the lookout for fairy items too.  My grandma found this and the one below for my daughter's birthday.

This area is the beach/lighthouse area.  It gets full sun and I was having trouble keeping things alive by the pine tree.  I dumped out the old sand from the sandbox here at the end of the summer, added the lighthouse my dear hubby got for my birthday and my sister-in-law brought me a bunch of seashells from Florida to complete the picture.  It could still use another bag of sand so that is on the list too.

This sweet girl was scored at CVS pharmacy - if you look in the picture above you can see her in the right corner too - she's a wind chime and plays the most lovely music.




Hope you enjoyed the tour!