Creative Fairy Gardens

 

Want to create a fairy garden in your yard?  Need some creative inspiration to get you started?  Well, I have the solution for you!  Just attend the Fairy Festival at Summers Past Farms to get your “fix” of creative fairy gardens!  Oh, wait a minute – you don’t live in San Diego County?  Oh, and the Fairy Festival is over for this year (it’s an annual event)!  Well, no worries; just scroll down the page and see the pictures I took just for you!

 

 

Part of the Fairy Festival includes the option of entering creative fairy gardens into a contest.  This contest, open to fairies only (children), is so popular that getting close-up to see the fairy gardens can be challenging!  Just check out the photo below!

 

If you are bringing a fairy garden to enter into the contest, it’s best to arrive before the Fairy Parade.  But, since everyone is arriving around the same time (9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.), it can be a little overwhelming while fairies and their helpers transport fairy gardens of various sizes to the fairy garden viewing area!  Here’s a close-up of Princess P’s creative fairy garden entry into the contest.

 

This was her first time participating in the contest.  She and her helper (Mommy Tiffany) creatively decided to use a tray.  Not only did using a tray limit the size of her creative fairy garden for ease of transporting to the Fairy Festival, it also allowed her the freedom to use her imagination on a smaller scale, thereby not overwhelming her with too many decisions to make!   Fairies, stepping stones,  a fairy house, a butterfly, bushes and a tree, toadstools – her fairy garden has it all!

 

The above fairy garden is a multi-level creation using a four-tiered planter.  What a great idea to contain a fairy garden, especially if you have limited space in your yard!

 

 

The one above arrived in a large yellow planter.  Look at all the “sections” this one has separated by white picket fences.  Lots of beautiful, small-scale flowers mixed in with faux topiary trees – so cute!

 

 

This one (above), planted in a galvanized bucket, is so charming!  Trailing lobelia and a large hydrangea with a fairy perched on a leaf.  Rustic wooden fairy houses are hiding among the flowers.  Beside it is a giant tea cup and saucer, full of wild colors and paper drink umbrellas (not good for an outdoor fairy garden if you live someplace where it rains!).

 

 

 

 

The above multi-level fairy garden was a masterpiece!  Made in a large wooden box (about 3 feet by 3 feet square), it had a tree trunk with multiple tree branches in one corner.  The tree branches were cut off to support platforms that were turned into fairy “rooms”, much like a multi-level tree house.  Not to be outdone by the treehouse, the bottom of the display had fairies galore and a pond with live water-loving plants!

 

 

Then there were the gourds!  Large gourds with windows and doors cut-out and leaves plastered on top like roofing tiles!

 

 

The inside of the gourds were decorated with furniture for the fairies.

 

 

This one in the wheelbarrow was so charming…the handles were wrapped in ribbons, white picket fences, small flowering plants of every color and teeny, tiny fairies hiding among the flowers.

 

 

 

And, this Halloween one!  A little early since it’s not yet summer, but this one gives you the idea that fairy gardens can be “seasonal” with just a few creative touches such as a ghost, miniature pumpkins and cobwebs.

 

 

This one, in a rectangular wooden planter, had a more “arid” feel in that the plants were rosemary and succulents, plus a fairy riding a horse (mustang?).  A question for you:  why would a fairy need to ride a horse when it can fly?  Maybe broken wings?

 

 

I absolutely love this tin gazebo!  And the “joyous” fairy reminds me of the picture of Princess P taken by her grandfather, Poppa Z, last summer at the beach.  You can see it here:  A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words.  See, too, the tiny ladybug on the right?

 

 

The “tree stump” table and chairs, above, are adorable!  Can you see the tiny birds nestled here-and-there?  Love the change in groundcover, too.

 

 

This Tudor house with the thatch roof is so evocative of fairy tales!  Plus, I love the mushrooms with faces and the crenulated fencing surrounding this fairy house like castle walls.

 

 

How about this adorable fairy in his vegetable garden full of carrots and watermelon?  Was he the culprit that surprised me with my watermelon garden last year?  Check out my post, Gifts from the Garden Fairies, to see what I mean!

 

 

This one, too, is so cute with a pond and a frog big enough to be classified as a “giant” frog next to the fairies, planted with sweet-smelling alyssum, a red wagon, little chair and a fairy cottage with a bumblebee!

 

 

And, this one in a hanging basket, just proves that even small displays can be utterly whimsical and charming!

 

 

 

Do you have a fairy garden?  What’s in yours?  Share in the comments – we’d love to hear your ideas!

Tootles,

 

 

Related Posts:

(other fairy posts)

• A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words
• Gifts from the Garden Fairies
• The Magic of Fairy Days