Fairy Garden Extravaganza

 

In early and mid June I was posting about a dragon shepherdess, flock of fairy sheep, and a magical sheepdog that I was making from stoneware.  I was planning to enter them in an art show, but after that I envisioned them in their own fairy garden.  So day before yesterday I built this box (it's 30" long, 16" wide, and 9" deep) and today I planted it, leaving room for the cottage.  (I've made four stoneware cottages recently for my Etsy shop.)  Of course it takes a while for the plants to establish themselves and spread.  I have a little copse at the right in the elevated area with two European beech (my favorite tree) bonsai starts and one Japanese maple bonsai start.  I wish it could all be beech, but I could only get two and thought I needed three trees for a good copse.  There are a few baby tears that will eventually be a ground cover under the trees.  The lower area has Irish moss (the yellow green) and Scotch moss (the darker green.  The black tubes are automatic waterers.



 

Do you see the arch at the top of the stairs?  I made it from grapevines.  I wired them with copper wire to shape them, and have a small chandelier crystal hanging from the top.  (...love those vintage chandelier crystals which I find on Etsy.)

 

These gardens are on a 6' wide elevated deck at the front of my house, with a gorgeous multi-trunk live oak tree just off the deck. That tree is full of many kinds of birds as well as some cute gray squirrels.  Yesterday, while I was planting the new fairy garden, there was a deer enjoying the shade of the tree also.  I'm sitting in the same chair taking all of these pictures. 

 

Here's the second fairy garden I built - to provide a setting for the little stoneware thatched roof cottage.  The banner over the door says "majik happens here."  The ground cover is baby tears with a few creeping violets.  An upright fuchsia is behind the house, with a miniature Japanese elm at the center back.  The tiny bit of blue you see through the violet leaves is the reflection of the sky in a little pond (which is a clear plastic container sunk into the ground).

 

This is the first one I built, a bit to the left of the second one.  That's also the first fairy house I made.  Carving all the "stones" was laborious, but fun.  To the far left is a little gazebo of stoneware.  The plants are Japanese maple, trailing violets, baby tears, and a fuchsia.  I tried elfin thyme, but it all died out - which was OK because it tended to get brown and crispy underneath.  The star you see hanging in the center is one of several that I made from rusted can lids.  It's hanging from the deck railing and each one has a vintage chandelier drop hanging from the bottom.

Here's a better view of that little stone house.

 

And here's a close view of the thatched roof cottage.  You can see the crystal on the door.

 

Here's the view looking sharp right from that same chair.  There's not much color except for so many different shades of green, which is my favorite.  Being in the shade of the big oak tree and surrounded by green and bits of fantasy is calming and actually seems nice and cool even on a hot day like yesterday (over 100!).