Fairy Garden Class - Valentine's Garden Terrace

February has long been considered the most romantic time of the year thanks to Valentine's Day. For this month's Fairy Garden Class, I ran with this popular theme focusing on the colors red and white. I began with a large terra-cotta pot, placing about an inch or two of small rocks to allow drainage before filling in the rest with potting mix. Be sure not to fill to the rim of the pot; leave an inch or two. This will insure that water and soil doesn't spill out and it also helps to give your plants support.

Once you have chosen the plants you want to use, be sure to lay them out in the position you envision prior to taking them out of their containers. This helps you to design your garden and get the spacing correct and allow you take a step back and make changes without having to irritate the plant too much. Once you're happy with your arrangement, it's time to transplant them into their new home. Here I used Alyssum for the white and some sort of red shade plant (both from Home Depot).

For this garden, I've decided to use a mushroom house as the center focus point. I have placed a small terra-cotta saucer upside down to act as a firm foundation and to keep my decorative house from getting soil on it. I've also decided to cover the soil with moss. Other than visual appeal, moss can help to contain moisture in the soil. Moss can be helpful in hiding things you don't want people to see, like the saucer platform, and moss also gives it a more woodsy feel. Now that your pot is full of flowers and ground cover, it's time to add decorations.

As mentioned before, I've added the mushroom house (which incorporates the red and white theme) and surrounded it with moss to hide the foundation.

Next (pictured below), I added small features like a white picket fence that I picked up at Hobby Lobby and two leaves that I literally picked up from the ground (they are dried Poinsettia leaves). I saw that they curled to make the shape of a heart and felt they would be a nice, natural feature to this garden.

After taking a few pieces out of storage and a trip to the Dollar Store, I was ready to fill in the arrangement. What started as one terra-cotta pot expanded outward. The bottom level was created by placing two small pots upside down and placing a flat board on top which you can't see thanks to the cover of the moss that blends nicely with the greenery I've placed around it.

These decorations can all be found at dollar stores (yes, even the plastic butterflies that light up) and give a pop of color to this arrangement.

This is the top tier; the terra-cotta pot we initially started with. Tommy rides his bike, very pleased with his new yard.

Thomas and Rosie fill out the bottom tier amidst flowers. They enjoy each other's company.

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Valentine's Day

I asked Queen AmberLynn if I could decorate her throne area and take some photos today for the upcoming holiday, Valentine's Day. She laughed and laughed and when she finally caught her breath, said "you know that fairies do not celebrate that holiday, right?" I replied that, yes, I did know that but I wanted to make a festive post for my blog and keep up with the holiday themes.

She nodded her head, smiled her sweet smile and said "that would be alright with me but quickly because today I am helping with the construction of my new housing."

The Queen sits in the middle of Valentine's decorations, finding it hard to keep her wings from fluttering with excitement thinking about her new housing.

Not only have the flowers surrounding the Queen's throne bloomed nicely,
but the courtyard flower are also coming in and should be in full bloom shortly.

On my way back inside, I saw a family of mice. They introduced themselves to me before I asked to take a photo. Thomas and Rosie (L to R) were new in the community and brought their son, Tommy. I was able to capture their Valentine gift giving (because mice DO celebrate Valentine's Day). I found out that the family is currently staying with a fairy family who has taken them in until the rest of the new homes are built. They hope to move into a home that is red and white because those are Rosie's favorite colors.

Thomas has given his wife, Rosie, a bouquet of her favorite roses and a red heart-shaped box full of cheeseballs while her son, Tommy, has found one large rose to gift as well.

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