Thursday, May 22, 2014

Our New Fairy Garden

One of the things I love about the yard at our new house 
is the shady spot along the south side of the house. 
There is a flagstone path that leads to the back yard and deck.  
Along both sides of this path there are beds lined with landscape timbers and full of pine mulch and pine cones from the surrounding trees.  
This helps hold the hillside in place but also offers a cool little spot to escape the relentless afternoon heat in the backyard, which currently has no trees.  
And its a safe shady spot for the kids to play away from the busy road.
With its hillside perch, shade and the wealth of creeping juniper to work with, 
this was the natural spot for a new fairy garden.  It really was full of 
nothing redeeming except the creeping juniper but was full of weeds.  
So last summer as we focused on the house I allowed the hubby 
to spread weed killer on everything else (*gasp* I know right...).  
I was pleasantly surprised this spring to find that there were 
some tulip and daffodil bulbs tucked in one bed.  
So the kids and I spent a couple of hours dragging all our fairy 
garden bric-a-brac out of the shed at the old house and 
finding new homes for each piece in the new fairy garden.  
This little aluminum canning jar cover was in a full box of 
miscellaneous scored at an auction for $.50 (for the whole box).  
The curved log it hangs on was claimed from the woods.
This colorful plastic plate glue to a thick branch offers a little shade to our bunnies.
A tiny gnome stands guard in front of his door 
(a broken piece of a china bowl turned upside down and tucked between the rocks.
The frog prince and princess snuggle up on a fairy bench in front of their home - 
a piece of a broken terra cotta pot turned upside down and 
tucked at the base of the tree.  The path is thin pieces of brick that 
have come off the outside of the fireplace over the years.

A section of fence divides the "sea world" from the rest.  
The area to the right is a drain so the kids decorated it with old fish tank items.
This sweet fairy and her sister were gifts to my daughter from 
my grandma when we first started collecting fairy garden items.
Our bright fairy tree has relocated.  You can see how we made this here.
And this cute little guy watches over it all and greets visitors to our fairy garden!

1 comment:

Liz said...

How much fun is that? Love all of the little details. I am working on my first fairy garden. Thanks for sharing!