Specialty Gardening: Fairy and Miniature Gardens in Containers, 1 by kiwiluvsme

kiwiluvsme wrote:
Hello -
I am new to this forum and am really enjoying my contacts so far in the terrarium gardening forum. What an impressive website this is!

I thought I would share my photographs and experience making my first Fairy Garden, where my husband built me a 24" square box to make it in. I used an old birdhouse and some annuals and mini landscape embellishments, and built a little path with landscape rocks and a terrace to put a bench on. I'll post some pictures of the finished project. I even tried to figure out how to save money on a mini gazing ball, and made one out of a spray painted toggle bolt and a marble (see pictures)! My husband and I took some branches from a bush in our front yard, stripped the leaves, twisted a few together and bent them around a nail to dry out into an arbor arch, which I used in the garden. It was fun trying to be innovative and save money on the embellishments.

I had so much fun, like a kid playing in a sandbox! I'm trying to come up with other ideas for containers - I'm working on one now where I took a polyurethane whiskey barrel liner and spray painted it with textured paint for plastic to look like stone or concrete.

There is a nursery in our area where I first saw the mini garden idea - they have a clever one on display with a stone cottage and fencing, in an old wheelbarrow! It's adorable!

Please share your experiences with me if you've done some creative mini gardening in containers. Thanks!