Fairy Garden Class - Built-in Decor

This unique container was purchased at Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago, priced at $20. 

I found this terra cotta container to be a great deal since it is tiered and came with a few decorative pieces already attached and also has drainage holes, so it's ready to go!

These flowers were purchased from Lowe's for $1.50.

I would love to find more containers like this. The plant in the rear is Marigold and was also $1.50. I feel like the dwarf cup flower was a bit too bushy for this container and in the future might stick to small succulents.

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Garden A Day Challenge - Day 24, Atop the Pot

This fairy garden home is the third home to round out the terra cotta trio. This home is a mix of crafted and natural, using a terra cotta pot and saucer for the bulk of the home, topped with a pine cone roof and embellished with some mushrooms.

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Garden A Day Challenge - Day 22, Terra Cotta Cottage

I've had this fairy home made of stacked terra cotta pots for about a year. I found it in storage recently and remembered I have two other pot-related fairy houses that were purchased before this one. This is now the perfect opportunity to create a themed area of the garden which was the purpose of purchasing the piece in the first place. I re-used plants, pebbles and rocks from previous gardens. 

I'll get to work on the other two terra-cotta houses but would appreciate some suggestions to name this new area of the garden. Please comment here, email me or reach out to me via social media. See you tomorrow!

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Fairy Garden Class - Garden Under $10, Part 2

For this week's "Garden Under $10" segment, I had some help from my youngest granddaughter, Lily. Among other projects we've been working on (which I will reveal later this year), we decided to choose this existing container garden as the base for a new spruce up project.

As you can see, it's pretty disheveled but the Dusty Miller and Viola have survived quite nicely. Accents include a white picket fence and a saucer (it's under all the rubble, I promise). All of this and the terra cotta pot are not factored into the final cost of this spruce up.

With all the junk out of the way, I put a small layer of new soil. When sprucing up any container garden, it isn't necessary to replace all the soil but it is a good idea to put a fresh top layer. This will allow fresh nutrients to permeate down through the existing soil. I began to place some new flowers from Home Depot that I got as part of a six pack.

My shopping list includes: 

Six pack of flowers - $2.50

English Moss  - $4.95

Three Garden Gnomes - $1.00

Mushroom House - $1.00

The gnomes and mushroom house were from the Dollar Tree and the flowers and moss were from Home Depot. The ground cover (green pebbles) was gifted to me and can be found at any pet store because they're aquarium pebbles. If you know of any friends who are getting rid of an aquarium, tell them to re-home the pebbles to you!

Once all the flowers and moss were planted, the saucer was placed and then the house on top of that. The pebbles were spread out and then the gnomes were placed. Fairy gardens are a great, low-cost way to spend time with children. It allows them to be creative and get involved with hands-on projects while at the same time teaching them a little bit about the living world around us.

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Fairy Garden Class - New Paint, New Life

This Fairy Garden Class post will be split between two projects that represent what a little paint job can do. A little paint and a little patience can go a long way in saving you money and beautifying your garden.

This fairy garden lawn decoration was given to me by my daughter a few years ago. Due to it being made of metal and being in my garden with the natural elements, it unfortunately became rusted. One day I'd finally had it with looking at the colorless decoration and took it as an opportunity to share with My Fairy Folks how to turn an eyesore into a completely new item!

First, clean your item very well. There's no sense in painting something that is dirty because then the paint won't be able to evenly coat the item. I had a plan in my mind, but if you need to draw out a plan or make notes to remember your plans, feel free to do so. For this project I needed to purchase a few things.

• painter's tape
• spray paint
• acrylic paint (for small details)

I was lucky enough to already have some spray paint in the colors I wanted to use so that brought my cost down a bit. After my item is clean and dry and I have laid out some protection for the surrounding work surface, I sprayed the entire piece with a white spray to act as an even base coat. Patience is definitely a big player in this game, especially if your working area is outdoors in the elements. Wind and rain make it hard to work on a project that involves spray paint and paint of any kind needs time to dry, so be sure you don't have a tight deadline for your project. Also, be sure the paint you are using is appropriate for your medium. My fairy decoration is made of metal so the paint I bought was Rust-oleum brand which is good for wood, metal and plastic.

After being sure the paint was dry, I used my painter's tape to tape off sections that I wanted to be different colors and proceeded to spray paint those sections. Be sure your painter's tape is pushed completely flat so no color strays.  And again... patience.

Lastly, once all the paint has dried, I can add detail. Through a little trial and error, I decided that acrylic paint was the way to go for details. Below you can see the details that were added on with the acrylic paint.

While I had sprayed the white base on both sides of the fairy, I only added color to one side, deciding that the other side would be in different colors, giving the illusion that the fairy had two sets of clothes that I could alternate between.

I realize that this garden decoration is something not all of you will already have, so I also did another paint job with some items that might be easier for you to get your hands on.

*  *  *

I began with an urn that was given to me by a friend. It is made of plastic but with the right paint, can be made to look like the real thing. I also grabbed two terra cotta pots that were less than $1 each. If you're into gardening and see terra cotta pots at the dollar store, you'd better grab them up because there is always a use for them. Since I already had the white spray paint from the previous project, I used that.

After a good cleaning and covering my workspace, I sprayed each item with paint and let it dry. Pretty simple. And the rest is also pretty simple and has been explained in previous classes; small rocks, potting mix, plant the flora and water thoroughly. Putting the three containers together in my garden makes them pop.

As an after thought, I'd like to apologize for this class post being late. My schedule and Mother Nature's wind and rain clashed this past month making painting outdoors difficult. If you have any questions, feel free to comment here or contact me via email.

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