Pyrex Fairy Garden

Disclaimer: no vintage Pyrex was harmed in the making of this garden :)

My daughter Hannah is very much in to fairy gardens. Last year she made her own garden using some some of her own toys and doll furniture. Nightly she would check the garden in hopes that the fairies would come. Eventually the fairies did find her garden and they stayed around all summer - periodically leaving notes and treats for her. She was delighted with it all.

This season she is still interested in making a welcoming home for any fairies who may be traveling by. Luck would have it that I found out about a wonderful fairy garden making class at a local nursery and I signed Hannah up. At the class she had a great time creating a container fairy garden. After watching the professionals at the garden center show how to make a fairy garden, I took their ideas and decided to make my own version - but in a Pyrex bowl. I have a few extra yellow 404 bowls hanging around not being used and figured one of those bowls would be a great container for my new little garden.

Here are the supplies that you will need if you want to make one yourself. You could use a regular flowerpot or any other container that you have around.

1. Potting Soil

2. Plants. The folks at the nursery recommended having one small tree, a ground cover plant and a succulent. I chose Rosemary for my tree - which will grow larger and resemble a tree, Hens & Chicks for my succulent and a small-leaf ground covering called Baby's Tears/Golden Coins. At the garden center they had a whole assortment of plants sized just for fairy gardening. You can see the plant tag below shows a fairy on it. Choosing your plants needn't be complicated - just choose small-sized plants that won't grow very large.

3. Accessories to decorate your garden with.
Here is the fun part! Since fairy gardening is popular now most garden centers and large craft stores sell miniature items marketed for fairy gardening. Caution - most of the accessories are pricey and before you know it you have a small fortune spent in cute things for your garden. Be creative - I'm sure you can find many great things out in nature or in your home if you look around}

For our garden we used small pebbles (think fish tank), small pieces of wood to represent a walking path, a fairy statue & a ceramic toad stool. Other things you could use are sand, small glass pebbles found at the dollar store, miniature furniture, twigs, sea shells, sea glass, pebbles, small pieces of rock.

Here is how we made our garden.
1. I put some stones in the bottom of my bowl for water drainage since I didn't want to drill a hole in the bottom of my bowl. If you are using a standard flower pot with a hole in the bottom you can skip this step.

2. Next fill your pot with soil up to the rim. Pack it down.

3. Once the soil was in we laid out how we wanted the garden to look. Hannah made a pebble pathway through the center of the bowl. You could use stones, sand or small wood pieces here also.

4. Now add your plants. At the garden center they showed us how to cut the plants in half using scissors. I cut this one in half so that I could put it in two different spots.

 

 

 

5. Next add your fun accessories. The possibilities here are endless. There are so many things you could come up with for your garden.

Here are some pictures from our fun day at the nursery. The nursery we went to is Michael Bros. Nursery. If you are in the Pittsburgh area I highly recommend a trip. It is a beautiful family-owned nursery with a large selection of plants, green houses and a great shop. Website found HERE.

Hannah's garden has a lot of cute accessories. She has a little bridge, a mini bird bath and a mini gazing ball. She kept adding stuff that you can't even see the soil anymore! {pictures below}

 

 These are some gardens that were on display at the nursery to give you an idea of what you can do. Each includes the small-sized plants and accessories. They are so cute.

 

I think this one is my favorite with the stone patio.

To achieve this just break apart a larger stone using a hammer.

 

Beach scene fairy garden. Love it!!! Glass pebbles from Dollar Tree.

 

We will keep you posted if any fairies come to stay at our garden!

KayteeJane

Vintage Seed Packets

After a two-year hiatus the vintage seed packet/seed catalog collection is back out on display! When I first looked at it I thought it was too busy - but it has since grown on me and I love it!

 

This is one of my favorite collections. It just makes me happy!

KayteeJane

Chalkboard Plant Markers

I planted a garden this year for the first time in many years. I'm a little late in getting it done, but no matter. I am hoping that come August I will have a bounty of homegrown veggies. I made some garden markers using paint sticks and chalkboard paint. It is super simple to do and inexpensive too. Here are the steps.

You will need some paint stirring sticks, chalkboard paint & chalk. I got my sticks from our local Ace Hardware for free.

I used a quart of Chalkboard Paint made by Rustoleum and applied it with a paint spraying gun. If you don't want to do that just brush it or buy chalkboard spray paint.


To write on the painted sticks I used a chalk marker that I bought at Michaels. They are available in white and also colors. I figured that the lettering would hold up better in the rain with a marker than with traditional dust chalk. Use whatever you have on hand.

Here are the sticks after painting and lettering.

Here they are in the garden.

I like how they turned out.



KayteeJane

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Probably my most favorite collection has to be my vintage gardening collection.

 I bring it out each spring & summer. This year I've chosen to display it all on a corner cupboard.

Included in this collection are vintage seed packets, flower frogs and old seed catalogs. This collection makes me smile no matter when I look at it!