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It's true..size doesnt matter

Category: Fairy Garden | Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:30 am

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It's true..size doesnt matter, but only when it pertains to hail and Fairy Gardens. Hail, no matter the size, is not Fairy Garden friendly.

Last Monday night Kansas City had a few good size severe thunderstorms roll thru. As fate would have it, the part of the storm with a whole lot of hail rolled right over my house. Hail usually just last a minute or two and it's gone but not that night. It just kept coming and wouldnt stop. I was sick..I just stood there watching and listening to all the pops that everything was making as it broke for a good solid 25 minutes. And there was not one thing I could do.

Around my covered patio I have two full grown maples. All the new leaves and baby (helicopters) seeds were literally beat out of the trees. Tulip foliage was shredded. A Garden Totem (another blog post coming) was knocked over. A mushroom was lost in the Fairy Garden..and the bridge was broke. That night I'd put a little abandoned Robin egg in the Fairy Hut and it too was smashed. To top it off a green flood light I have hanging in the tree exploded so I had glass everwhere.

Oh well..I'll sprinkle more Fairy Dust.

Everything white you see here is hail. This is the area that I have covered in pea gravel and stepping stones that's right off my patio. It's where I have the Fairy Garden and my puddle aka water garden. I had just reworked this whole area the day before and layed some bricks and had it looking good.

More hail and debris with the 'Mean ol'Cat'(bottom left) hightailing it to the back door

The beat down Fairy Garden the next morning.


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Completed Fairy Garden with Great Photos!

Category: Fairy Garden | Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:14 am

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As promised..here's the pictures of the completed Fairy Garden in the planter. 16 pictures to be exact.

This shows the entire planter. I tucked moss around the inner circle of flowers and then put tiny gravel down as a path following the edges of the moss. I secured the moss with floral pins hoping to discourage birds and high winds. On the outer edges I mulched the plants with a old bag of orchid mix I had and added my left over moss crumbs pressing it into the soil hoping it stays put.



Welcome to a world of enchantment. On with the good stuff.





























This is the Watch Bird. He tells Ma-Ma when short people are doing things they arent suppose to be doing. Madysons always saying "How'd you know?" and I tell her a little bird told me. Here he is! And yes, he has invisible eyes in the back of his head.



I bought tiny Fairies from this link
http://www.miniature-gardens.com/baby-fairies.html

It's a great company..I had my Fairies in 3 days. I will say this though..the measurements are listed as 2" high and they are not. They are more like 1 3/4". I was still happy with them and plan to order 2 more that were out of stock when I purchased the first 5.

I did alter my Fairies so my photographs and the websites photos will look different. I changed some hair color to make them different, and glued them to some of those bigger flat gems so they wouldnt fall over. They all recieved a coat of laquer hoping to prevent color fade.

It's kind of nice to know what kind of Fairies you'll be using so you know how big (or small) to make things. I also discovered that it's hard to find inexpensive Fairies in stores.

Hope you enjoyed this..everyone needs atleast 1 Fairy Garden somewhere. Fairies are multiplying at my house so more photos to come : )


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Fairy Garden In a Planter

Category: Fairy Garden | Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:49 am

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Here's my first Fairy Garden that I've done. I'll do my best to explain what I've done and how I did it.

My Fairy Garden is in a planter that's made out of concrete and measures 30", its a big huge bowl planter. Since it will stay outside, everything I've made or bought..I've sprayed with a high gloss laquer hoping it will all hold up better to the elements. Crossing my fingers.

I started this project about 4 weeks ago and it's been alot of fun. I was inspired after going to a Flower Lawn & Garden show in February and I saw a small Fairy Garden done up in a bird bath. I searched the net and got ideas and then I was off and running in full Fairy Mode.

While it was still real cold outside I started on things I knew a Fairy Garden needed. Structures! I had a few old orchid pots in the garage so I used one of those. This pot is a 9". I had little stones also and went and bought a bag of sheet moss. I stepped into the front yard and picked up pieces of bark that had fallen off one of my trees that has seen better days. For adhesive I used Goop 'marine' since I wanted waterproof. That got expensive so I do plan to find another adhesive that I think will hold up outside but will be cheaper than 6 bucks a tube. First I glued stones inside and outside of the pot. Then glued pieces of moss to fill in the gaps. I wanted to use the bark for the roof. I felt that the roof might need more than moss to be glued to so I used pieces of a broken clay pot for the roof base. After glueing the bark on, when it was set enough, I tucked tiny pieces of moss in the cracks. After everything was dry I sprayed several coats of laquer over the entire pot. I also did a little step for in front of the pot which is just a piece of bark glued onto two stones.



I wanted a Pot O Gold to go in the middle of the planter. I found a clearanced planter at Michaels for $3 and bought a big bag of gold gems. I already had a small water fountain pump. I buried the pump in the bottom of the planter, put a few rocks on top to hold it down, added gems..wahlah a Pot 0 Gold. I have electricity by my Fairy Garden and I'll put this POG down into the dirt.



I start wondering how I'd cover the cord that's coming out of the POG. I made a bridge..same concept as the step only bigger.


My Fairy Garden was supposed to be built by the Fairies so I had my 4yr old Granddaughter come over to plant The Pink Magic Mushroom! This was fun and she bought it hook line & sinker. She sprinkled Fairy Dust all over this so more mushrooms would grow. Where there's mushrooms..the Fairies surely live. I've also discovered I'm quite capable of telling Fairy (tall) Tales.



Finally I could go out and start putting the Fairy Garden together. I had to show her a picture of the magical things happening. Her magic mushroom turned into 5 mushrooms and a Pot O Gold. I got to test the water feature buried in the dirt theory and hide the cord : )



Spring cant come fast enough for me. Lowes was putting out their little pots of spring bulbs so I picked some up and a couple Dianthus. (Trying to do alot of perennials) I also put my Fairy Hut out and found a piece of iron edgeing that had a hole in it. I placed that in front of the hut.



I found this little house at Hobby Lobby for $4 when they had their bird houses half off. I dont know about anyone else, but I find it hard to pay full price at HL when they always run things half off. All I did to this was spray it with laquer and I attached a small triangle hanger on the back. I have it hanging on the tree and I made a ladder out of a few small sticks. After I glued the rungs on I wrapped each rung with small jewelry leather and glued the knots. Sprayed it too with laquer and now there's a tree house. (I later moved the tree house up a few inches) Fairies are good at moving and arranging.



I'd decided that the Fairy Hut was to big and took up to much valuable Fairy room so I made another one out of a smaller 6" pot I had. I added some pine cones to this one. It fits much better.



Doesnt it seem like the plants will never get to the garden center? Kinda like Santa Claus..Christmas cant happen fast enough. That's all I was waiting on to finish this up..was plants! The other day I was driving by Home Depot and saw the flower trucks! This was truly better than Christmas. Most people would say.."oh it's too early" but not me. I was in heaven. I planted it all up today and bout froze to death doing it but I was as happy as a pig in.....



What I planted and hopefully wont have to replace;

English Ivy x 2
Angelart Nemesia
Primrose
Grape Hyacinth x 2
Provence Lavender x 2
Daffodil (dwarf) x 2
English Daisy
Columbine
Dianthus
Viola x 8
Lobelia x 8
Snap Dragon x 4

I also totally finished the Fairy Garden today with more moss and tiny gravel for the paths, along with a few ornaments. There was even a Fairy sighting! As soon as the sun shines I will take more pictures of the finished planter and get them posted.


Last edited: Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:09 am

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