This Fall scene is created with autumn-inspired decor such as the stacked pumpkin house, a hay bale and a wheel barrel full of a fall harvest. Send me photos of your fall gardens and I'll feature them on my blog. I'd like to put together a slideshow of all the seasonal gardens and decor sent my way and share them on Instagram. I will choose one entrant at random and share something of their choice (blog, YouTube or other social media)
Pumpkin (middle) and Susie-Q always work together to during harvest season.
This month's featured light post is for this interesting strand of lights that I purchased over the summer on sale at Walgreens. It was $3.95 for this one strand which is battery operated. I am calling them "ghost pumpkins" to be festive.
The scarecrow in the rear is lit up by a well positioned lighted orb - I mean, a pumpkin spirit!
This Farmer's Market stand and bundle of wheat in the rear came from My Fairy Crate subscription box this month. With a closer look at the light, they are entwined in a twisted wire which make for a unique look. I might even be able to use these in a western themed garden and call them tumble weeds.
A few months ago I received some pictures from one of My Fairy Folks that I knew would be perfect to share this month. This first photo is a jack-o-lantern that Gus from Riverside carved and decorated her porch with last Halloween. Very creative. After the festivities had ended, Gus hosed off the porch and called it a day. By June of this year, some interesting development had begun to happen near the front porch. A personal pumpkin patch had grown!
In July, the plant had grown significantly. "It's tripled in size over the past week" Gus wrote.
A beautiful bloom.
Mid August is when the first pumpkin showed up.
In September, I got this update: "I had to cut most of the pumpkin plant off because it was dying. The only one that grew is still going strong though so I left him some leaves for shade and a plate to rest on so his pumpkin butt doesn't rot in the wet grass. We named him Ichabod."
And here is the most recent picture. What a wonderful story! I'm eager to hear what becomes of Ichabod. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful garden adventure.
They say a picture can say a thousand words - it's a shame I can't trade some of those words for a smell because this picture here smells delicious! We're prepping for the Fall Festival here in the garden.
The scarecrows are keeping a look out, making sure no critters come and mess with the food before it's ready. They are also great whistlers!
These cuties begged to help with the food prep and it's their first year. They're so excited!
Pumpkin - the fairy - sits between some of the harvest, examining a small pumpkin, trying to decide what recipe would best suit it.
In the Fall, I noticed a new fragrance in the air of my Fairy Garden. I followed the scent which led to a small container full of herbs which are great year round for cooking. After a little snooping, I discovered it was the work of Brianna who arrived short of two years ago. I sat down to talk with her and found out that she has been working with the children to learn about herbs and grow them. "That's right," I said "I remember when you were offered the job, you were so excited to teach!" We planned to meet again soon so I could take pictures of her work and possibly sit in on a class.
Start with a container. I used a typical terra cotta pot.
Find some herbs you are likely to use in your cooking. I found this at a local Stater Bros. Market which includes Rosemary, Thyme and Sage.
This German Thyme was found at Home Depot.
This Lemon Thyme is also from Home Depot.
By placing your herbs around the edges and rear of the pot, you allow yourself room to place decor of your choice to make this a decorative yet functional container garden!
If you have any questions about herbs, container gardens, or anything else we share here on the blog (including questions about a fairy in particular), please feel free to contact Grandma Sandy in the comment or via email.
Photo credit: CertainlyCaroline, YouTube (please visit her page for a tutorial for this polymer clay beauty)
Pictured above is Pumpkin, one of the fairies in our community. Her favorite season is Fall and this week she invited three of her closest friends to a lovely dinner party. She served many Autumn delights but the one which received the most praise was her Pumpkin Soup. I was able to get a picture of the dinner table set up, which I found so interesting - bowls made of acorn tops and soup served in a small pumpkin. It was a lovely event.
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.
I wanted to share with you an example of how one simple addition can really change a scene, even on little to - in this case - no money. In my previous post I introduced the Haunted House scene with Andy the Scarecrow and a circle of Fairies making candy. I decided there wasn't enough spooky ambiance so I gathered some dry twigs and turned them into dead trees for this scene. I love the dramatic change in spook-factor.
Also, since I have your attention, I wanted to give a very huge thanks to everyone who is following me on Google+; toward the end of September my page reached 10,000 views! I excitedly rushed to tell the fairies and they were also very excited, even though they weren't exactly sure what Google+ or the internet was. PLEASE COME VISIT MY FAIRY PAGE www.facebook.com/GrandmasEFG grandmasefg@gmail.com
This is my first attempt at a spooky scene for my fairy gardens. Pictured above is the focal point; the Haunted House, surrounded by pumpkins, spider webs and a cemetery off to the side.
Here is a closer shot of the Graveyard amongst the hay. You can also see a pumpkin and a spider in the foreground.
A closer look at the Haunted House reveals a happy gathering of pumpkins of all kinds as well as some dead trees and a rock path as accents.
Andy was brought in to scare the crows away, but with a charming smile like that, he's making more friends than enemies.
Rose, Tink and Samm are busy making a holiday treat for the rest of the fairies; apple and mint candies.
An overall view of my first spooky garden. I love how the sunset adds to the spook-factor by adding an orange tint. I'm excited to grow from this and show you and even better spooky garden next year.
