I always return from a visit at Sewing Sister’s with at least one crafty project. I was completely enthralled with the planters on my sister’s back deck set up like fairy gardens. Turns out, she has a local gardening center with an entire (small) room dedicated to fairy garden accessories. Oh, for the love of all things mini! My heart (and Miss Priss’) skipped a beat when we entered the room.

Several months ago, we started a fairy garden in a planter box on our back deck after Miss Priss’ kindergarten teacher shared the book, Fairy House Handbook, and Mr. Star Wars completed a fairy tale unit about the same time. The original plants had been growing wildly for 3 months or so, and the fairy garden was ready for a face lift.

The Location

• According to Miss Priss’ kindergarten teacher, fairies like hidden or out of the way locations. Look for a spot that is quiet and away from big people feet.
• Nooks and crannies of tree stumps are great. Flower pots or deep flower pot saucers work well tucked in a corner of your yard.
• We used one of the empty plant boxes that surround our back deck. One end of the box has a large jasmine vine growing up the corner post, so it provided a nice covered area.

The Plants

• Ask your gardening center for succulents. Here is a list of a few we have growing.
  • Pachyphytum oviferium
  • Sedum adolphii
  • Aeonium bella
  • Sedum brevifolium
• Certain kinds of moss or plants that are good ground cover for paths and borders work well. We just added the two below and are waiting for them to fill in a little.
  • Blue Star Creeper (Isotoma fluviatilis)
  • Irish Moss (Sagina subulata)
• I think herbs like tarragon or thyme would be the right size and would have that wild look in a short amount of time.
• If you can have something tall like our jasmine vine mixed with the shorter items, it gives the fairy garden a little variety.
• The fairy garden looks much better after several months of growth. Now that our succulent plants have filled out, the garden looks much more secretive and cozy. The pictures above show just planted this past March (far left), 2 months later (middle), and this past week (far right).

The Accessories

• Fairies prefer naturally found materials, but we had to sneak some very tiny man-made items in our garden. Fairies also like colorful and shiny items like the sea glass.

• We made a table and stool from bottle corks with sand dollars hot glued to the top. I purchased mini sand dollars, and I had regular sized sand dollars (for the table top) from a recent beach trip.
• We used shells to line paths and placed pieces of fencing along the paths. We scattered blue sea glass to look like water in a stream.

• We found a mini metal garden arch, and we tied twine to a piece of bark to make a swing.
• We bought mini rabbits, a fairy, and some mini flower pots at Sewing Sister’s gardening store. My niece recommended using any tiny plastic animals we had in our toy collection if we wanted more wildlife.

The Fairy Note

• It is possible that fairies will leave a very tiny note if they are happy with the home you create. Miss Priss is positive fairies are real because they have left behind a note or two. She keeps the tiny notes with a note the tooth fairy left her.
• I think the fairies must use a pen with a very fine point to be able to handwrite such tiny letters. 

The Sources

• Sugar Creek Gardens in St. Louis had the little ceramic fairy and rabbits. We also purchased the ceramic foot bridge, the sea glass, the turquoise bird feeder, and turquoise flower pot there. I picked up the ground cover plants for paths and borders at this gardening store too.
• Hobby Lobby had the mini sand dollars, the garden arch, and the fence pieces. I think they also have other fairy garden items.
• I found the succulent plants in my local Ace Hardware’s gardening section. 

If you have a fairy garden in your backyard, please share photos on my Facebook page!