Here at The Magic Onions, we LOVE Fairy Gardens. It has become our annual tradition to make a new Fairy Garden each Spring. We have an AMAZING Fairy Garden Page… be sure to visit it later to see all the magical Fairy Gardens we have made over the years.

 

How To Make A Fairy Garden that children will Love

Before you enjoy this awesome tutorial,

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As you can see, Kitty’s Fairy Garden was looking a little worse for wear.

How to make a Fairy Garden

To clean it up, First, we cleaned out all the dead moss. We have used an old wine barrel for our Fairy Garden. Kitty loves the big size as she plays in it for hours but you can use a much smaller container such as a planter, a tin basin or even a salad bowl. You do, however, have to make sure that the container has a hole in the bottom for proper drainage. Drill a hole if your container doesn’t have one. You will be watering your Fairy Garden often and it is important that it can drain adequately.
Once you have picked out your container, fill it with potting soil, leaving it about 6 inches deep.

Getting the container ready for your Fairy GardenNext, plan how you want your Fairy or Gnome Garden to look. Kitty drew a detailed map, indicating where she wanted a hill and a valley, were the pond would go and even where she wanted the path to be placed.

Drawing a map of our Fairy Garden

We propped the plan up in the papyrus and got to work landscaping our garden. We created the hill on the left by mounding the soil and the valley in the middle by grooving the soil.
Mr T was in charge of finding earthworms in the veggie garden to put in the new Fairy Garden. He was very good at his job and found quite a few…

Catching earthworms
Earthworms are optional. They are great soil aerators and help for good soil drainage (plus, they give the little one something to do so that he doesn’t keep destroying the soil hill you have so carefully built…)

Now, it is time to plant your ‘trees’ and plants. When choosing plants for your Fairy Garden, be mindful of the scale you are after. You want it to look like a miniature garden. Moss is the main ground cover and too many other plants may detract from the mossy atmosphere. Let your imagination run wild as you choose plants that you think might attract the fairies in your neighborhood. We used an immature Tea Tree for our tree. We know that it will want to grow very big and we need to trim it often to keep it stunted. The tree sets the scale of the garden and makes for that miniature feeling. If your garden is in a smaller container, a shrub will have the same effect as a tree. Also, keep in mind the color combinations… silvers, light greens, dark greens, browns… we like as many colors as possible as it adds texture and interest to the Fairy Garden. Another consideration when choosing your plants is to make sure the combination you choose all like the same amount of sun and water. If you are going to be using moss, remember that moss likes sun to part shade and lots of water… make sure you choose other plants that like the same. If you are going for a desert garden appeal, pebbles, rocks and various cacti look wonderful, but do make sure that too many prickles won’t deter your little one from playing in his garden.
When your plants are in their place, set in your pond. Your pond can be any smaller container. We used a coconut shell but you can use a glass bowl, a porcelain bowl, a metal bowl… anything that lends itself to the magic and natural feel of your garden. Do not place your stones until you have planted the moss.
Emerald green mossy Fairy Garden
With the pond in place, it’s time to plant your moss. We used a whole moss flat that we bought from Home Depot. Carefully break off chunks of moss and contour it over the landscaped hill and valley, around the pond and the tree. Remember to leave space for your path.
Then set in your rocks and pebbles for your path. All at once, your Fairy Garden looks like the magical wonderland that it is.

Beautiful Fairy Garden
Water your Fairy Garden well…

 

A Fairy Garden for the imagination
And then put all the little fairy and gnome bits and pieces in place…

A rock that we painted into a toadstool. (we made this toadstool rock here)
Painted red rock toadstool
A bench, a table and a chair.
Red rock toadstool

An arbor…

Miniature Arbor for our Fairy Garden
A few fences and your Fairy Garden is complete!

Magical Fairy Garden
Can you believe that we found all the above fairy furniture at various garage sales? If you have none, fret not as I am going to be showing you how to make fairy furniture over the next couple of weeks… a tiny table and chair, a fairy or gnome house and even an arbor. As we all know, things are much more magical and valued if we have made them ourselves!
Here are a few photos I couldn’t resist taking… can’t you just see the little fairy or gnome taking a skinny dip in the pond?
Creative play in our Fairy Garden
Resting comfortably on the moss?
K has been playing in her new Fairy Garden all day.


And we suspect that the fairies and gnomes will be playing in it all night!

 

Magic in our Fairy Garden

I hope I’ve inspired you to make a Fairy Garden with your own little ones and enter it into our Fairy Garden Contest. Not only is it incredibly fun to make a miniature garden like this, but there are such AWESOME prizes to be won.

Be sure to check out the Fairy Garden links below…

Important Fairy Garden Links :

Fairy Garden Page with lots of photos, links and ideas, tutorials and instructions.

2014 Fairy Garden Contest Rules and Entry Form

Detailed Tutorial on How To Make A Fairy Garden

AWESOME Prizes for the 2014 Fairy Garden Contest

 

Fairy Gardens : Pinterest : The Magic Onions

 

Happy Fairy Gardening,

Please sign up to receive delightful Fairy Garden tips and special features… BONUS : subscribers go into the monthly draw to win special gifts from The Magic Onions Shop.



Blessings and, especially, magic!

Donni

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60 Responses

  1. Thanks for all the information. Our gnome house collapsed, so I guess I need to make something or find something sturdier. Can’t wait for your tutorials. Inspiring!

    I love that you let your daughter plan it out.

  2. We love fairy gardens! Each of my kids has their own pot that they can decorate any way they want. Then, we connected them to each other! I don’t know who loves it more, my kids or me! I love how yours looks. Thanks for the inspiration on some additions for ours!

    Rebecca

  3. I just discovered the world of Waldorf this week and I have to say… I’m in love! This is going to be a great project for my kids and I to start with! Thanks for the great idea :)

  4. what a pretty garden, I would like to have one of it some day with many kinds of flowers and plants, perhaps a nice tree with a house for my future kids. It would be so nice if I could add a pool too.

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  5. I love this little project of yours. This activity is also something you could do with your kids. Just like other family activities like creating wind chimes, tending gardens like this is a good bonding moment with the kids.

  6. Hi good day ! nice post you have . It’s very nice , I have plan to setting up my garden can you give me an idea or steps on how to make it beautiful. i have heard some garden accessories such as garden spinners , wind chimes , wind spinners and many more . I want to try this things in my garden but i don’t know how to get the right accessories . I hope you can help me . thank you .

  7. My children and I were so inspired we ran right out and got supplies to create our own Enchanted Garden. I also have been inspired by blogs like your to create my own blog. It is called creatingwithkids.blogspot.com. My first entry was today about the making of our Enchanted Garden and I created a link back here your site to give you credit for the idea that inspired us. Thank you for sharing your creativity.

    Christina

  8. Absolutely LOVED this idea, so I made one myself! I used a lot of your ideas, so thank you! Was wondering where you found the ladder that hangs down the side of the barrel?

  9. I’ve worked on it over the past year it’s 2 story’s tall and it’s about 1 foot in height and 1 foot in width.It has 1 bedroom and bathroom, has 2 beds, a dinner table, fireplace, garden and even a balcony!!

  10. Susan,
    Beautiful designs! One thing I would suggest everyone add to their gardens is the most enchanted plant- The TickleMe Plant. All Kids and my students love this plant. Tickle the plant an it closes its leaves and lowers its branches. This magical plant can be grown anywhere, anytime of the year indoors. Just search TickleMePlant to see a live one in action.

  11. I recently made a small fairy garden for kicks. but never thought of doing one with my niece, who is 6. I really appreciate all the “do it yourself” ideas as it’s not as fun to find all the little furniture at craft stores and online shops. Making it yourself is the only way to go! Will post a photo in the coming weeks when we get around to making one.

  12. I am gonna do this in my own garden I have I’m my front yard all I have is a house right now (and a few “snacks”) but I am starting to make a few things to expand it… Can’t wait till I see it finished!!! I do need help though, an 11 year old can’t do every thing by herself! :) thanks for all the ideas you gave me!!!

    1. Hi Megan,
      Sometimes. Sometimes she takes out her little animals…or fairies… sometimes we make peg fairies… whatever she is feeling like :-)
      xo
      Donni

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