Grandma's Enchanted Fairy Garden: Perennial Pointe

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Fairy Garden Class - Large Box Container

Perennial Pointe had a new addition recently with this floppy cottage. This is the lovely cottage that I purchased at the Fairy Garden Festival back in May that was hand crafted by Grace Bagwell from Diamond Bar. I finally decided where I wanted this lovely artwork to go and documented my journey to this finished product as a walk through for this month's Fairy Garden Class.

I bought this wooden box at Home Depot a few years ago, probably around $30, which contained an array of succulents and other plants for Spring. Since then the succulents have been moved (and the other plants had died long before that) and left me with an empty box. But as you all should know by now, anything unused can be reused for a container garden.

For wooden containers, I would suggest you line it with plastic and poke holes in it before filling with drainage material (rocks, wood chips, etc.) to keep the wood from rotting and allow a long-lasting container. This wooden box came with open slats on the bottom that allows for great drainage. Rocks and soil in place, I filled the bed with an array of colorful flowers.

I put down an old T-shirt in the exposed soil where I wanted to lay down some decorative pebbles.

There are multiple reasons I use this material: It holds moisture, the pebbles remain separate from the soil which keep them clean, and it makes removal of pebbles much easier by simply lifting up the T-shirt instead of picking them out a handful at a time.

Stacking a few different sized terra cotta saucers upside down in a line creates a cute path and base for the fairy cottage.

How do you feel about this container garden? Do you have a similar one? Please feel free to share your container gardens with me by sending me some photos and descriptions to my email - they may be featured on my blog! If you enjoy these online fairy garden classes and would like to be added to the emailing list for updates on our in-person fairy garden classes (in the Inland Empire area of Southern California), please send a request to grandmasefg@gmail.com.

If you'd like to contact Grace Bagwell (the artist who created the ceramic cottage), her email is gbagwell318@gmail.com and her phone number is 909-576-3894.

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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Fairy Garden Class - Wheelbarrow Garden

Wheelbarrows are a necessary tool for gardeners. I bought one quite a few years ago when I began gardening so it had become a bit weathered and run down, causing me to buy a new one recently. Instead of throwing out the old one, I decided to turn it into a fairy garden. Home Depot is where I bought this one for $20 so they're not too expensive and because it's plastic, my husband was able to easily drill holes in the bottom for drainage. As you know, drainage is very important. Also, while I was at Home Depot I noticed they have different colored wheelbarrows now to help bring color to your yard.

Of course you want to fill your wheelbarrow with rocks, wood chips (this is basically for filler to cut down on the amount of potting mix needed) and potting mix. The wood chips will decompose causing the soil level to lower over the season, but I will add more potting mix at that point (since most of these plants are seasonal and I'll be redoing this garden).

I planted a few different plants here and kept them on the outskirts of the wheelbarrow, allowing a lot of room in the middle for fairy related decor. The tallest plant is placed in the rear which will accent the fairy house once it's placed.

Once the plants are all in place, I decided to put a few different rock sizes and colors.

I placed this house in the middle of the scene on top of a saucer (as we know, they provide a level foundation) and a cluster of moss. I also made a rock path leading to it.