So, you’ve spent hours and hours on Pintrest oogling a million adorable fairy gardens. But you’re not crafty enough to make something like that, right? Wrong! All you need is a little help getting started. Here are five easy design tips to help kick start your creativity.
1. Find a Creative Container Fairy Gardens can sprout up anywhere – broken pots, wheelbarrows, red wagons even coffee cups. See what kind of interesting containers you have lying around and let your imagination fly! If your container doesn’t have drainage, fill it about 1/3 full of charcoal. This creates an evaporation area into which water will drain. The charcoal will also wick away any bad smells from stagnant water. Next, pour a small layer of pea pebbles about 1” deep. This will also help insure proper drainage. Then, fill the rest of the container with potting soil.
2. Pick a Theme – Are you building a quaint
Victorian cottage or a royal French garden? Maybe a Western cactus scene or even a fantastical moonscape? Deciding on a theme can really give your fairy garden a sense of unity and help you make decisions on what to include.
3. Find a Focus – Pick the one element of your garden that you love the most to be the center feature. It can be anything you want – a fairy house, an arch, a tree, a rock. It doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive, just interesting enough to draw the eye into your little world.
4. Avoid Clutter – There are so many adorable fairy garden accessories, it can be tempting to stuff you garden full of plants and knick-knacks, but a few well-chosen accessories and plants will look much nicer than a bunch of clutter, no matter how cute. Don’t be afraid to leave stuff out and save it for the next fairy garden!
5. Tell A Story – Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner, in their book Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden suggest using your fairy garden to tell a tiny story. This is a fun way to really make your garden come alive. "If you’re unsure about finding your fairy garden story, remember you can’t go wrong with a pleasant conversation," they say, "Simply position two figurines so they face each other." Even a small interaction like this will really give your garden a spark.