New Fairy Garden Accessories

I started carrying fairy garden accessories in the shop! It was only a matter of time before I got into this stuff.  I love all things miniature, and I ALSO love regular non-tiny human gardening.  The two things together are almost too much. Almost.  So now along with my regular minis I have an assortment of tiny furniture, metal carts and tools, and fences for your creative enjoyment. So since I have all these cool accessories I decided to build my own miniature garden to keep outside near the back door.  I liked the idea of having live plants, albeit on a tiny scale, where they could change with the seasons. Initially I started with two-level design using a rescued pot and a square planter that I picked up for buck at an estate sale.  After I had the two levels set up though, I decided I wanted a little more space where I could put in a creek bed with a bridge.  I added a wide metal tray for the lower level, and the entire production is about a foot and a half tall.

I started by filling everything with dirt, and defining a logical pathway.  Naturally, I did this by imagining I was 3 inches tall and magical.  Once you start undertaking a project like this, you really have to let go all of your adult hangups and just play like a kid.  It's good for you!  Zen gardens were the thing in the 90s - kind of an  excuse to play with a little rake and rocks and sand. Fairy gardens are where it's at now.  It's creative, it's meditative, and it's fun.  And you can pretend you're a fairy. Or faerie if you really want to get into it.

I knew I wanted the house to be up top because that made sense to me.  If you are a fairy, and you live in a backyard with squirrels and aggressive birds, and the neighbor's nosy cat, you should have a raised house.  So I put down some stepping stones leading up that way, and connected the tiers with little ladders that I made out of jute twine and twigs.

I collected a whole bunch of little smooth pebbles to make the creek bed on the lower level. The bridge is actually one of the rustic fairy fences that I sell in my shop. I just cut off a short length of it, and bent it into an arc to go over the creek.

The house I made from some things I dug up out in the yard.  I found this chunk of old wood, and thought the texture was really neat.  The twigs were mossy bits from the lilac tree that I just pruned.  So the other night I just plopped down in front of the tv and played with the twigs and some wire until I figured out how to make a roof and door.  

Once I had all the main structures set up I filled everything in with greenery.  I got 4 different tiny plants from the hardware store.  The dark "trees" are actually chocolate mint from my herb garden.  (it really does taste like chocolate mint!!) Last summer my friend gave me a tiny cutting of it, and over the last year it's spread and crept all around, so I had plenty. So I went and grabbed some of that to plug in here and there. I scraped some good old Seattle moss off of the fence behind the garage to fill in the rest of the soil.  I'm guessing not all of it will live through the summer, but I can always replenish in the fall when the moss comes back.

I feel like every good fairy garden has at least a couple pieces of real furniture.  It makes the space look "lived-in," and is a great way to tell the story you're dreaming up.  I sell these adorable wheelbarrows in my shop, and they have a mesh bottom so you can actually plant stuff in there.  If I were doing an indoor garden I think succulents would look really cool.  I put a clump of moss in mine.

I also have these wire benches that are just the sweetest.  This is actually my favorite part of the garden because it's like a lookout point.  I found a flat rock and set it into the second tier, and placed the bench there facing outward to the yard. I like to imagine that the fairies come out at night and sit on the bench to look at the stars.

Lastly, I couldn't resist putting some mushrooms in.  These are plaster mushrooms that I made.  The tutorial for them is here.  I think they add a nice pop of color, and a little quirkiness.

Well I certainly hope you enjoyed this tour of my wee garden! Have you made one of your own yet?