Grendel's Lair

I just couldn't resist making another fairy garden.  The "house" I made from stoneware is meant to be Grendel's Lair.  You can perhaps see Grendel's girlfriend peering out of the window.  Most depictions I've seen of Grendel show him as a troll.  Trolls, however, don't appeal to me, so I made Grendel - and her girlfriend - dragons.

The lair is both a house for Grendel and a pot for plants.  As you can see, I planted baby tears and miniature ivy over the roof.  As they grow, they should cover all the bare dirt and grown down a bit over the roof of the lair.

The garden is planted in a shallow box I made from cedar fence boards.  And I attached the fancy knob just to add a bit more fantasy.  I made the arch from green twigs, twisting copper wire around them to hold them in place while they dry.  I've hung a vintage chandelier crystal from the top of the arch.

You can see Grendel standing on the path.  Here's how I made the path.  I cut the shape from plastic from one of those packages that cake comes in at the grocery store bakery department.  I coated it with a thick (a bit less than 1/8") layer of acrylic gel medium, then sprinkled the little colored glass stones over the medium and pressed them in lightly.  I got these sweet little stones at MiniatureGardenShoppe.com.  I also got several of the plants from that web site.

For a newly planted fairy garden, I think it looks pretty good.  Oh, by the way, the "rock" you see at the base of the left part of the arch is actually hollow stoneware.  I incised runes into it that are a transliteration of "Grendel's Lair."