COMPLETE AND ABSOLUTE GUIDE TO FAIRY GARDENING

A fairy garden is small, but how small is up to you. Some fairy gardens are planted in tea cups! Others take up a bit more real estate—say, in a hollowed-out tree stump, wheelbarrow, birdbath or whiskey barrel planter. The larger the fairy garden, the more options when it comes to incorporating hills, valleys, water features and multiple settings. While a small fairy garden might be limited to a small hobbit house, a larger one could include a whole neighborhood. Small fairy gardens have at least two advantages: they’re cheap to put together and portable enough to take in the house as indoor planters, if desired.Really, the best plants for a fairy garden are any that look like miniature versions of full-size plants. Bonsai are a natural and you can buy them inexpensively at big box stores rather than having to create one from scratch over the course of several years. Other options include calibrachoa, sedum, ageratum, gomphrena, Irish or Scotch moss, blue lobelia, sweet alyssum, dwarf conifers and a host of smaller sedums such as Angelina. Look for small plants that mimic the shapes of landscape plants: a round shrub, an upright tree. You can even use bare twigs to represent deciduous trees that have shed their leaves.Once the fairy garden is planted, water plants deeply, ensuring excess water drains away. After that, you’ll probably have to water every other day, provided your miniature garden isn’t in all-day sunlight. In that case, daily watering will be necessary. Because of their small size, fairy gardens dry out quickly, so consider using a soilless potting mix containing a slow-release fertilizer and water-holding crystals to lessen maintenance. Keep the garden where it gets afternoon shade.If you’re not sure where to start, a fairy garden kit is a good option. It can be simple, inexpensive and kid-friendly, like this fairy garden house, or more extravagant, like this fairy garden village.Once you have the structures in place, you can add small plants and paths, streams, picket a fence, arbor and, of course, a whimsical fairy or two. Fairy gardens have gone mainstream, so you can find kits and accessories on Amazon, eBay and Etsy, as well as crafts stores, big box stores and discount stores.