Grandma's Enchanted Fairy Garden: Fairy Garden Class

This month I'm going to show you how to make a tiered container garden. Tiered gardens allow you to be more creative, not only with a theme, but also with plants. For this particular garden I chose to do a Halloween theme and stuck with succulents as my natural feature. Just like with any other container garden you'll need to start with creating drainage holes on the bottom of each container that will be housing living plants. In order to make the floating tiered illusion, you'll need some small terra cotta pots and saucers.

Plan your design next. In a tiered garden, you'll want to make sure the highest tier is in the back so it doesn't block any other features. Once mental planning is done, you'll need to place the terra cotta pots upside down to begin your tiers. It's important that these pots are stabilized in the bottom of the large container. If your pots are not different heights (important for a tiered effect), an easy fix is to stack two terra cotta pots together, giving it a little more height.

Next, fill the large container with wood chips (not mandatory, just a suggestion to save on the amount of soil used) and potting soil, fixed around the terra cotta pots. Place your saucers in their designated spots so you can make sure the spacing and height works. This is the time to make stress-less alterations.

Once everything looks like it is fitting nicely, it's time to work on your saucers. The great thing about tiered gardens is the mobility; you can take off a level and move it to another area of your garden or replant on an individual level. As always, the theme and layout is up to you, so let your creativity run wild.

Once you have planned out each saucer (drainage, wood chips, soil, decor), you can begin to plant in the large container. The succulents I used were clippings that had a few days to scab over (dry out at the clipped area) which helps a succulent to lay down it's roots. I planted them in areas that would still be visible once the saucers were placed. Afterward, I used moss to cover up any exposed soil.

Once the planting is done, place each tier in it's place and make alterations as needed. I decided that Pumpkin, the fairy seated on a pumpkin, looked better on the top tier surrounded by other gourds. I also placed a few other large potted plants on either side of the large container to add to the atmosphere.