My first Miniature Garden ( fairy garden ) planter ...

We always go to the San Francisco Garden Show every year, they always have this section were they let the kids ( classrooms ) make these little mini gardens ... I was like Hey those little gardens are kinda cool !!! So I started researching on the internet and found there are many people that make fairy gardens in there yards ...then I started searching furthur on DG and found a little bit of info about the mini gardens where you use actual dollhouse garden stuff ?? Well needless to say I now have a new hobby !!! Ebay has alot on inexpensive garden/dollhouse stuff and I found quite a few websites that sell fairy garden kits w/ garden accessories....

Am I the only one doing this ?? Come on Miniature/Fairy gardeners speak up !!

More pics to follow as I start getting more stuff in ..............................

here is a close-up pic

Here is a variety of the mini plants I got at the Miniature Plant Kingdom in Sebastopol, Ca that I will be putting in my next Miniature garden ............

That is adorable.........now I want one!

Do you have to water all the time? And how long do they stay so small?

Pam

So cute! I love your little gardening tools there!

One of the nurseries out here has a little fairy garden displayed that is just incredible. Definitely makes me want to do one too!

SuzySweetPea.... love that name by the way. That is just too cute! Can't wait to see more!

Thanks everyone for the nice replys ....to answer a few of your questions these are dwarf plants so that is about as big as they are going to get. ( i guess ?? ) Are'nt they cute !! I always wanted to do a dollhouse, but I am not really a sit down at the table for fun and do that .......... so I found these little mini gardens w/ miniature dollhouse stuff............and the rest is history..
I would rather have dirt under my nails anyway !!! thats fun to me LOL

This is the site that I found out about all of this http://www.iloveplants.com/html/Garden_Information/Fairy/
and also I got my little garden tools from http://www.shop.twogreenthumbs.com/main.sc?sourceCode=tgtsite
But just google search " fairy garden" or " miniature garden" and it should pull up all kinds of info........

I know that as any container garden you do need to have drainage. The one shown is a low container that I got at HomeGoods ( My fav store ) when I am out I am now I constantly look for long, low containers at a good price that can have holes drilled in the bottom for drainage.
My fav flower are Sweet Peas so my husband always calls me Suzy Sweet Pea so thats why I used it on this site...

that is too cool!! everytime i put in a garden it leads to about 10 more! I could do this and not spend so much money maybe?? lol is hard ...but fun... being a gardening addict!!

Alysum from seed would be perfect! It is beautiful!

Yes it is an inexpensive hobby !!! I hope ?? My husbands says " you are always getting into something or another "
I guess it keeps the mind active to have so many hobbies ?? I am really not finished with the first mini garden ? I was just so excited and wanted you all to see it !! I always wanted to plant a veggie garden ( I am really into periennals ) so I told my Hubby that this was my veggie garden ?? I think I am going to look for same fake dollhouse size veggies and lay them in rows on the soil as if it is a "true" veggie garden. what do you think ?? This is all shade plants anyway so it would not get hit with any rain or anything ?? and yes alysum seed would be very cute. I was thinking about getting a little mini lawn mower and putting it on the moss for fun ??

This is so much fun .................

Hi SuzySweetPea!
I love your name too! And I love sweet peas. I have perennial sweet pea vine that I make wreathes from every year....but I digress.
Since you sent me a dmail, I assume you saw my miniature garden? Not sure where it is on here? Anyway...this winter was very hard on it...and the container it was in....which was wood. Not a good choice for outdoors all winter! I see yours is in a metal container. Much better choice! And I love your miniature garden!!! That is just darling!!!
Thank you for dmailing me to come see!
Mine has fallen apart for the time being. I will have to make a new one.
Of course you probably don't have the winter weather that we do here....so yours won't do that. Keep up the good work!!!
Marcy

Thanks for your quick reply...I d-mailed because your garden that you posted was way back in 2006 ? That is to bad yours did not make it through the winter !! I just bought a cedar planter that is waist length ( supposed to be weatherproof but I may go ahead and put heavy coats of water protector on it ) I tried to put it together the other night but gave up...wait for hubby to do it..LOL I am only good with gardening tools. The metal container I did is all shade plants so I have it sitting on my covered patio as a centerpiece. The other one I am going to do will get direct sunlight so I will do all full sun plants.
I will post pics when I get started. I already have started collecting all the garden accessories very similar to yours !!

here is link to the above/waist high planter that I just got http://www.charleysgreenhouse.com/index.cfm?page=_productdetails&productid=1052&s=above%20wood%20cedar%20planters&cid1=-99&cid2=-99&cid3=-99

Thanks Suzy

SuzySweetPea, you inspired me! I ran around and got a bunch of stuff and put my first fairy garden together today. I couldn't find a decent sized container that fit my criteria, so I ended up doing a tiered thing with 3 pots. Here's the final result.

I put more pictures on my blog along with pictures of the fairy garden at our local nursery (Enchanted Forest) that originally inspired me to do one. Check it out for more details.

http://www.digigirlsgarden.com

Those are toooo cute! My very first experience as a child seeing a Doll House was out in my Aunt's neighbors' yard. It was litteraly a "glass house", and you could see all of the miniatures, lights and all! It was so precious and left a lasting impression. I now have a nine room dollhouse with all of the trimmings...lights and all. My Mom even sculpted me little people for my house. Presently it is packed away (after we evacuated for RIta). The grandkids have been asking to unpack it and put it all back together again...but here in two weeks it will be hurricane season AGAIN. Hopefully it will be like last year, and we won't have to worry about evacuating again.

In the mean time, that would be just perfect to have a "Miniature garden". I probably have stuff that I could already use. It'll take time to find it all, but that is just too cute!

Hobby Lobby has a lot of miniatures for Doll Houses. Michaels used to. Some of the toy stores that handle HO train scenery has miniatures also.

Sounds like a lot of fun! Good Job Y'all! Thanks for posting!

Jeanne

Dollhouse miniatures used to be my hobby when I was in my early twenties and I collected some really awesome pieces (expensive too). But then I got busy with other hobbies for years and after a long time, I finally gave in and sold off all my great dollhouse furniture. Naturally, here I am just a few years later, now living in Texas, the hobbies in CA that had distracted me no longer applicable, and I'm drifting back into miniatures and fairy gardens, etc! Have to start all over. Figures! ;)

Digigirl---These are so sweet!! Are those miniature plants as well? Or did you improvise? I love these!


Texasgal---If you need to evacuate again from something like Rita.....you can come here. During Rita, we had a family of four, plus a cat, plus a very large dog living in our guest house for three days. And we had never met these people before....sorta a friend of a friend thing. Gardeners have to stick together.

Pam

They are the smallest plants I could find. There are some really tiny ones listed in the PlantFiles and around the Internet if you go searching (which, of course, I did), but I was too impatient to wait for ordered plants, so I just went and hunted around the local nursery.

Here's the list of plants I used. Most grow very small, but the teensiest is the first one - it grows only a couple of inches high (according to the tag) and has these so cute little purple and white itsy bitsy flowers on it! Adorable!

Pot #1 (with the house) - clockwise from the house:
Lindernia Grandiflora (blue moneywort) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54742/
Sagina subulata (Irish Moss) both sides of walkway - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2910/
Lindernia Grandiflora (blue moneywort) again
Viola Hederacea (trailing viola) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1419/
Polyscias fruticosa (Ming Aralia) the tree - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54631/

Pot #2 - clockwise starting with tall coleus:
Coleus - unknown cultivar
Sedum spurium 'Tricolor' (two row stonecrop) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/3296/
Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' (golden creeping jenny) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58136/
Selaginella kraussiana 'Gold Tips' - I think - no tag on this one - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/68539/
Lindernia Grandiflora (blue moneywort) yet again (can you tell I liked this one?)
Hypoestes phyllostachya 'Splash Rose Select' polka dot plant) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/105855/

Pot #3:
Impatiens walleriana 'Fiesta Ole Peppermint' (double impatiens variegated) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/155736/
Viola Hederacea (trailing viola) again
Coleus Trailing Queen (I think - it didn't list the cultivar on the tag) - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/165426/

Thanks Morganc, I hope this is a calm year again, and we can just stay here. I sincerely appreciate the offer!

I just love the miniatures. My doll house is full of accessories! It is exciting to think what all you could do with a "little garden"! That is so neat!

I have all kinds of doll furniture...from the dollar store, to Hobby Lobby's (They have a 1/2 price sale periodically that is wonderful.) I have visited some of the miniature doll shops in Houston, but decided I wasn't going to pay their high prices. Mom made a sofa and chairs for me!

I think I have some tools, a porch swing, and a lawn mower. I'll have to make a list of all of those tiny flowers. Thanks!

Digigirl !! So glad I inspired you !! Yours are beautiful....I like the 3 container look . I just got back from the local nursery and found all kinds of mini plants.. for about $4 and up . And the fed ex truck is pulling up every now and then with dollhouse goodies and everywhere I go I try I am looking to find cheap stuff also to use. Dollar stores have great colored rocks . I also wanted to to the "dollhouse" thing but I am not one to sit in 1 place very long. They should start a seperate " Miniature Fairy Garden " Forum..... for all of us . Anyway I have all my stuff together and am still playing ( landscaping ) around with my next "large" mini garden. Will post some pics soon.

Digigirl, those are adorable! Good Job!

Well, I made 2 mini fairy gardens for my sis while visiting her in SC. One I did in a white whicker laundry basket, One I did up against an old tree stump. They both turned out pretty cool! My favorite plant 4 a fairy garden was something i found in a garden center. I'd never seen this particular plant before, don't know what it was, but it was PERFECT!! It's the plant in the back of the basket with the chartruse, oval leaves. And it has fine straight stalks w/ tiny flower buds that look like tiny beads. Soooo cute! BUT...lol...I don't know what it's called!!! Do you??

marip, very nice little garden.

I think your plant is a Limon Talinum.

suzysweetpea! See what you started?? LOL Here is another pic of my basket fairy garden, My first attempt at going small! Still don't know the name of that plant though! The tee-pee sorta house I made out of wild ivy vines growing on my sisters fence. Then I found the old bird nest in a bush, so I set that in the top of the tee-pee. After all, the fairies like to watch after the birds too! Sorry has took me so long to get back, has been a summer full of surguries 4 family members. Hopefully will get a chance to build my own fairy garden here in michigan this summer! You have really gotten something going here!! Mari :)

WOW! Lacewing, that was fast!! And I think you're right!! limon talinum! LOL You just saved some poor greenhouse worker from me! LOL Ok so....here is a pic of my 2nd attempt at makin a fairy garden. This one I tried to go all natural....as in...used what i scrounged outta the woods to build it....lol....and cleaned sis's yard at the same time! It is decorated with rocks, pinecones, feathers, and seashells. only things that didn't come outta the woods was some potting soil i took from an old planter, the seeds, which i bought, and the sea shells! This one was really fun!! The seeds were a wildflower mix. The rock in front of the doorway had a dent in just the right spot, so every day when i watered it, it formed a little fairy pool!! Soooo cool! :)

oh marip I hope everyone in your family is doing well now Your basket garden is adorable. I have wanted to do a basket garden but never did one yet !! Maybe yours will inspire me ? love the outdoor one too..
It is really hot in the summers here so I want to start another one, but will wait till it cools down...

Thanks for the kind words...