Grandma's Enchanted Fairy Garden: Fairy Garden Class

Greetings My Fairy Folks! I'm back with another Fairy Garden Class. I hope you are enjoying them. I recently spent $15 at The Dollar Tree (click here to read that post) on a handful of fairy garden items that included fairies, gnomes, houses, bird houses, little critters and more - nearly 30 pieces.

This class will show you how I created one container garden using some of my haul and in my next post I'll share the rest of "Dollar Tree Village" (the name isn't official) to show how I utilized all of the pieces to create a small community.

For this container garden I used a pot I already had and gathered some succulent clippings. If you happen to know anyone that has some

succulent plants in their yard, ask them if you can take some clippings. Clipping a succulent plant will not harm the plant and it will strengthen your friendship with the homeowner! Clippings are a very cheap way to create container gardens and succulents thrive easily. Finally, succulents are great for container gardens because they are small yet beautiful.

Any clipping you take from a succulent plant will need to be laid out for at least 3-4 days. This allows the clipping point to callous over. If you plant a succulent without allowing it time to dry, you risk root rot.

Succulents are very special. They do not require too much attention - they require watering maybe once a week (or even less in colder

weather). The reason for this is that unlike most plants that have flat leaves, a succulent plant has fat, fleshy leaves that actually store water! Some succulents can even bloom beautiful flowers. I highly suggest that if you have not tried to incorporate succulents into your garden yet, do so soon.

Since this plant needs little watering, having them in a yard with automatic sprinklers might not be a great idea. In that case, I'd suggest having them in an area that the sprinklers cannot reach, or in a container that can be moved.

The tallest succulent pictured will have its lower leaves pulled off so that there is a long, bare stem to put in the soil.

I prepared three containers but only used one for this particular project. First, a coffee filter that will allow drainage but prevent small gravel from escaping. Secondly, some large pebbles that also aid in drainage and prevent the soil from retaining too much water. Third step will be filling it with soil. You will want to fill the the inner ring and never to the rim.

I planned the layout of the plants to allow a few of the fairy houses to look tucked into the greenery.

The roof of these buildings almost blend right into the greenery.

Adding small pebbles over the soil allow for a flat surface and helps the soil retain moisture. I used some glass stones to create pathways to each building.