Fairy garden... A work in progress.

When I knew it was official that we were moving to our house this spring, I promised my daughter to make her a fairy garden.  I didn't have a clear plan or design in my head, but I knew I wanted to make her one and that it was a promise I would keep.

You see, my son is a country kid through and through.  He loves the outdoors and could play out there all by himself for hours if he had to.  My daughter, on the other hand, used to be one of those toddlers who didn't like walking in the snow (or grass for that mater), until she was almost 4.  So I figured that making her a fairy garden would be a good way to get her excited about playing outside.  And I was right!

We ended up making her garden by a beautiful big tree in the yard, where she could play in the shade, and the tree just adds a bit of interest to the garden I think.

I dug all the grass around the tree (with my girl's help) and we lined the area with stones that I got from our local landscaping place.  I have to say, I was pretty surprised to see how inexpensive the stones were, so that was a great bonus.

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to flowers, so I couldn't tell you the names of the flowers we planted, but I just picked some that she liked and made sure they were flowers that would thrive in partial shade.  Also, some of the flowers are a bit higher, and some will stay quite low, to make more the right scale for the fairies.  

I also found the toadstool garden stakes that I had bought last year, and decided they were perfect for this!

There is more that we have done since I took these pictures, such as add a pond and a clothesline, and my daughter painted a little "fairy house" (aka bird house), but I still have to varnish this one so it can last through the elements.  I also plan on making her a fairy door and putting it against the tree in between the plants, in the picture above.

She has been enjoying helping me through every step of making this garden and she is so proud of it, she's been showing it off to everyone who's been visiting since!  This little project has also got her excited about gardening and the kids were both helping me weed the "disaster area" this evening :)

I am sure we will continue to tweak and work on the fairy garden all summer long, as we get more ideas, but this is what I have for now.  I will make sure to share the pictures once the fairy house and doors have been added and will also show you the pond at the same time.

It's been so much fun!

In case you missed the post, here is what the tree looked like before the fairy garden was made...

I love that area so much more now!  It's my favourite corner of the yard!

Have you ever made a fairy garden before?

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