With Cicely Mary Barker Fairies
How to Make a Fairy Garden
What you need:
- a 10.5 inch Diam. x 5 inch High Tin tub (Mine was from Michael's)
- some potting soil
- a piece of netting or wire mesh about 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches
- 'Pear Blossom Fairie' by Flower Fairies
- Miniature bench (mine was from Jo-Ann's)
- Miniature trellis (mine was from Jo-Ann's)
- a bonsai False Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia) mine is from San Gabriel Nursery.
- 2 Creeping Wirevine (Muehlenbeckia) full sun to part shade, for the trellis. Mine is from San Gabriel Nursery.
- White Isotoma (Pratia/ Isotoma fluviatilis) sun ground cover with green leaves - tiny white flowers (1/3 a flat)
- 'Charm' varity, Heron's Bill (Erodium chamaedryoides ) full sun,silver green ground cover with pink flowers(half a six pack)
- Santa Barbara Daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus) sun to part shade (1/2 a six pack)
- Baby's Tears (Soleirolia soleirolli) part sun or shade ground cover with tiny green leaves.
- Abalone shells and white sea shells small or broken pieces.
Tools and Materials:
- Clear Fishing Line
- a needle
- a produce knife
Steps: 7
Rated: Careful Work
This tutorial will show you step by step how to make a Fairie Garden with one of the fairies based on the drawings of Cicely Mary Barker. This new obsession of fairie gardens started when my best friend sent me a copy of Fairy Gardening by Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner, available on: http://www.floristinyou.com/-shop-fairy-garden
It's beautifully done and has lots of ideas for fairy gardens. Many of the gardens in this book feature fairies inspired by the drawings of Cicely Mary Barker. Barker born in South London and first published a set of postcards when she was 16 years old. The first of her series of Flower Fairie books was published in 1923. You can see the covers of her books and purchase them at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cicely-Mary-Barker/e/B000APU0RI
Cicely Mary Barker fairies are made by Flower Fairies and distributed by Add An Accent, Inc. and they can be purchased at Fairy Garden Expert: http://www.fairygardenexpert.net/product/fairy-gardening-book or at The Turtle Trail: http://www.theturtletrail.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=10_128 The Turtle Trail also features many 'retired' Barker fairies, which are vintage and very finely detailed. You can find Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairies at Fairy Homes & Gardens: https://www.fairyhomesandgardens.com/flower-fairies/
They can also be purchased on other on-line sites and at some retail gardening centers. When selecting fairies and accents remember it is important to keep everything at the same scale to have your garden look right. Well if you have your fairy, plants, and planter, we are ready to begin.
Drill 1/2 inch hole for drainage. Put a piece of netting or wire over the hole.
Put a good potting mix soil in the tub.
Break up bottom of root ball or cut 1/2 inch off it and fit into tub.
Push into back left corner of tub. You can trim bottom branches off to make bonsai.
Loosen some dirt from roots of Creeping Wirevines. Position to back right of tub.
Make hole on both sides of where trellis will be and plant.
Thread needle with fishing line. Tie Wirevine onto trellis with 2 knots in each place, then trim.
Like so.
Dig our area to plant Isotoma on right third, behind trellis. Plant row of daisies on right.
Plan pink flowered ground cover next to daisies with Baby's Tears to the left of it.
Place bench under tree and shells down path over Baby's Tears.
Place fairy on bench. You can secure with floral putty.
The Pear Blossom Fairie is right at home among the flowers.
Water very carefully about 3 times at last half an hour to an hour apart right after planting. Don't tear up the little flowers!
This garden is meant to be outdoors most of the time in California climates. Use your judgement in snowy climates. Enjoy!