How to make the miniature gardens (fairy gardens)

Yesterday I blogged pictures of some of the miniature gardens I have.  I promised that I would show how they are made today.  The first step for me is to find basket and containers.  I have very good luck finding baskets Goodwill or at Stein's (a local garden store) for less then $4 a piece.

Supplies you will need:
basket/container
cardboard or newspaper to line baskets
soil (I use cactus soil since I use succulents)
pea gravel or small stones
plants (I use hardy succulents since mine stay outside year round)
Miniature items or other items to decorate gardens.  If looking for miniature items to decorate your gardens there are two great sources that I trust: Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center, LLC out of Seattle and Miniature-Gardening.com which is out of the Winter Greenhouse in Winter, WI.  Both have online stores and retail stores.

1. Line the inside of the basket with cardboard or thick sheets of cardboard.  If basket comes lined with plastic make sure to puncture holes in bottom to allow water to drain.  Any standing water in the basket will cause succulents to rot and in winter it will cause freezing.

2. Fill the basket with soil.


3. I usually add the miniature which will be the main focus of the garden now, so I can build my garden around it.

4. Then I add my plants, remembering to add different colors, heights, and textures.

5. I then add my pea gravel or make my paths (see below) using mosaic tiles that can be found near stepping stone or stained glass supplies in craft stores.

It's really 5 steps to make these cute little miniature gardens.  The most expensive part of the whole project are the miniatures used to decorate, but you can make them as cheap or expensive as you want.  You might be surprised what you find in Goodwill or in the dollhouse section of a craft store.

Miniature Container Gardens / Fairy Gardens

Here are pictures of some of the miniature containers I have in my yard.  Since I have pretty much run out of garden space I have turned instead to miniature gardening.  It's great for people with little space, and everyone who visits my garden from young to young at heart love them.  I use hardy succulents in my containers, and they overwintered for me, though they did not look great this spring before they bounced back.  I just moved them to a location up against my house and covered with leaves in fall.  I have also learned that you can cover them with a styrofoam cooler for fall.  Tomorrow I will show how to make these containers.

What's Blooming

Ligularia japonica flowers.

Stoke's Aster

Early blooming rudebeckia and coneflower

Crocosmia

Conflower 'virgin'

Blackberry Lily

Morning Glory 'Grandpa Ott'

Parade of Peacocks daylily with brown-eyed susans in background.

Candy Lily

Hibiscus 'Kopper King'

Cameroon Twist daylily

Coneflower 'Green Envy' just starting to bloom.

Using containers to brighten up shady spots

Containers are a great way to add color to a garden.  Do you have a dark corner, or a spot under a shady tree?  I did, and those always seem to be the areas where nothing will grow.  So over the years I started experimenting with containers as a way to add color or height to areas that were otherwise almost impossible to grow in.  My biggest struggle has been that I have a lot of hand watering to do, since these dark, shady spots are usually far away from where the hose can reach.  But now that I have my rain barrel and two watering cans (one filling while I use the other one) I can usually get it done in about 15-45 minutes a day depending on weather.

This was used to add some more color under a huge maple. Coleus and Impatients add the color.

My backyard neighbors don't mow their lawn and the pines are dying at the bottom, so I used this old door from my grandmother's house to block a bare spot and added a little planter with some impatients for color.

Used a frog chair I found on clearance to add a little height and some color with coleus and impatients.

Another frog chair to block a dead spot under pines.  Planted with coleus and impatients.

Adding a little bright color with coleus.

Needed a little height here. So I added this column planter planted with what else.....coleus and impatients (yes, I am almost as obsessed with coleus as I am with hosta).

This is a two tier planter I picked up 10 years ago on clearance at Kmart (do they still exist? we don't have any here).  It blocks air conditioner (not too close).  Planted with coleus, impatients, morning glory, and mustard greens.

I picked up the bench at the farm market a few years back, but I built the towers from recycling old book shelves.  Here I have impatients and King Kong coleus.  It block out our wood pile.

This large red container adds a pop of color to a very shady spot under two large pines.  A great time to pick up containers is in fall when they are on clearance.  This one is planted with coleus, impatients, and balsam for height. 

This is a little wooden bench I found at a flea market one day.  I nailed a long planter box to it, and made it into a planter.  It's planted with coleus, pansies, impatients, and vinca vine.

This is a bench I received as a present from my in-laws.  I put it under a very large, and very old Honeysuckle (that is more tree then vine).

Close up of planters.  I used shamrock plants and impatients.  I put dark color shamrock in light pots, and light color shamrock plants in dark pots.

Corn in Planters

Close up on leaves of Japanese Striped Maize.

Whenever I need some plant therapy in the winter I cruise through the seed aisles in the local gardening stores.  This past winter I happened upon some seeds for Japonica Striped Maize.  I had seen them before online, but had never seen them locally.  I don't have room for growing corn of any kind, but the foliage on this corn really drew me in.  So I decided to buy the seeds to see if I could grow them in my containers.  I always like to put a tall focal point plant in the center, so why not try striped corn.  If it worked I would even have my very own popcorn come fall.  The seed packet said it did not recommend  starting them indoors, but I decided to try starting half of the packet indoors and had great success with them.  I planted them in the middle of two of my planters, and I am really happy with the results.  I even  noticed today that I have little ears of corn starting on my plants (I hand pollenated them, just to make sure).  

Corn in one of my planters.

Corn in another planter.

Tassels developing on corn.

Ear forming on corn.

Further view of corn growing in planters.

Click on pictures to make them larger.

Seed GROW Project August Update 2011

It's hard to believe how fast things grew in the garden in just a months time.  If you look back on the Seed GROW post from July  you will see how tiny everything looked.  Plants never stop amazing me.

My 'Italian Cameo' basil dried out from almost drowning in June and has now taken off.  My tomatoes are almost ready, so I am looking forward to some Caprese, which is fresh basil, tomatoes, and mozzarella seasoned with a little salt and I also add olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

 The 'Summer Splash' marigolds started bloom about a week and a half ago.  I am looking forward to their blooms all August long.

The 'Garden Babies' lettuce is growing like crazy.  It still hasn't made any little lettuce heads in the container, but I am wondering if I should be thinning them out.  I had one plant growing within my hosta garden that was just starting to form a tiny little lettuce head, that was until one of the few rabbits the hawks have not eaten found it.  It's really disconcerting to be out in the garden and hearing the rabbits scream as the Cooper's hawks carry them away.  Even more when you hear the little hawk babies screaming in delight as mom or dad hawk bring them the rabbit for dinner.


I'm growing with the SeedGROW project. Thanks to Renees Garden for the seeds.

Hostas in Containers

In Wisconsin there are few plants that you can winter over in containers without bringing them inside.  This is not because of the cold weather, but because freezing and thawing is very common.  Since weather is Wisconsin is very unpredictable, we could have rain, snow, sleet, etc at any time in the winter months.  As snow melts or it warms enough to rain the soil collects the moisture.  Then as Wisconsin weather often does, it freezes causing the soil and the roots to freeze.  Since the bottom of the containers often stay frozen, not allowing the moisture to drain, more ice will collect in the containers killing the plants.

There is a solution for keeping hostas in containers all season long.  I wait until after the leaves have been killed by a hard frost.  Then I move my hostas to the north (or shadiest side) of my house.  I tip the pots on their sides to keep moisture from collecting in them.  I then cover them with leaves, and leave them alone until my hostas in the ground start showing signs of coming up.  This past winter I also buried pots halfway into the ground and covered them with leaves, and these hostas also came back fine in spring.

In the summer months remember to keep your hostas in container well watered.  Most plants require one inch of water, but hostas are water loving plants so they will do better with more than one inch of water per week.  Some hostas actually prefer to be root bound in pots, such as the hosta 'Tattoo'.