How Do You Make A Simple Fairy Garden?

If you are wanting to learn how to make a simple fairy garden, you have come to the right place. There are two ways to create a simple fairy garden. There is the soil way or there is the moss way of planting your garden. You can make it whimsical or elegant.

You will need:

• A wooden bowl or dough bowl to put your fairy garden in.
• Choose plants for your container according to how much sun and how much maintenance you want. Succulent plants are a good choice for a simple Fairy Garden.
• Choose cactus and succulent soil for succulent plants. Espoma, Miracle Gro, or Black Gold are all quality soils. Or you can grow your succulents in sphagnum moss.
• If your container doesn’t have a hole in the bottom for drainage, you will need some heavy plastic. You can use a freezer gallon bag. (Cut off the top.)
• Accessories can be handmade or store bought like little fences, benches, a cottage, animals, a fairy or gnome doll. Also a cute bunting would make a fun decoration to your garden.
• Purchase a wooden unpainted birdhouse . Or buy a little pre made fairy door or fairy house.
• Natural elements make a fairy garden cozy like pinecones, wreaths, rocks, twigs whatever you can find in your own backyard that will add to your indoor garden.
• Purchase a large or small syringe for watering your fairy garden. It works really well for watering a succulent garden.
• You will need two types of moss. Some sphagnum moss and some green forest moss too for either method of planting your fairy garden.
• Grab some glue sticks and some clear Alene’s Tacky Glue.
• Purchase some fairy lights.
• Put your garden together.

You know how people say it is all in the details? Well turns out it really is! Fairy gardens delight the young and the old. I love how magical they are. The more unique your garden is, the more magical.You can add as many little accessories or details as I mentioned as you would like to. It isn’t too hard to make one. Just keep it simple and you will be fine in creating your garden!

Creative Container

Ok you were probably thinking we were going to choose a terra cotta container or some kind of ordinary planter to put your plants in for your fairy garden. Nope not this time. It will still be easy to do but we are going to make it more chic. You can choose a simple unconventional but beautiful container for your garden that will brighten the space where you put it. We are going to work with something like a wooden dough bowl or a wooden bowl to put your garden in. You will use plastic to make sure your plants get enough drainage and plastic to protect the wooden surface.

Choose Your Plants

If you are a beginner, Succulents are your friend.! They are amazing! They are fairly maintenance easy! Once you plant them in your container, then you water them once a week or every two weeks. Place them where they can get four hours of morning sunlight. They love the sun. Here are some beginner friendly succulents:

• Zebra plant is great for beginners. It requires little light and little water.
• Crassula Jade Plant comes in a variety of colors.They do require a lot of light but when it comes to watering, it doesn’t need so much.
• Kalonchoe or Panda Plant. They look great in a succulent arrangement with their chocolate covered edges and soft leaves. They do well in really dry conditions another great reason to use them in your fairy garden.
• Rainbow Elephant Bush or Portula Caria Variegata succulent plant. It can handle more watering and is good to put in and around other succulents. It can stand tall and provide a thriller effect or use it as a spiller so as it grows it spills over the sides of your container.
• Gasteria Flow succulent can go a long time without water. We are talking weeks! It also needs very little light.
• Donkey’s Tail or Burrito Sedum works well because you can pot it and leave it! It might need a slight trim every now and then once it takes off.
• Succulent cuttings are great for gluing on top of sphagnum moss on the sides of a cottage and on the cottage roof you will make for your garden.

Add Rocks To A Shallow Container

Succulent Soil or Sphagnum Moss

You can plant your succulents in soil if you plan to set your fairy garden on a level surface to display it. Soils like Miracle Gro, Black Gold, or Espoma Cactus and Succulent Soil work well. You would use sphagnum moss if you plan to do a wall arrangement and hang it up to display. More about these two methods of planting in a minute.

Plastic

You will want to put some plastic in the bowl where you will put your soil or moss. A freezer bag gallon size will work if your bowl is small. Spread it out in the bottom and sides of the bowl.If your dough bowl is bigger than the size of a gallon freezer bag, find a large piece of plastic that is fairly heavy that will cover the entire bottom and sides of the bowl. Then trim it off so it comes just below the edges of the bowl. The soil or the moss will hide it.

Accessories Are The Deal Breaker

Accessories accent your plants and make your fairy garden look all put together. You can put small benches, fences, fairies, and gnomes. A cute cottage would be adorable to add to your garden too. A felt banner glued to sticks draped across the top of the plants would be a great addition to. You can make it very easily and I will show you how later in this post. Also, I put a paper fairy sitting on a “hammock” made of some net I found around the house. I glued it or you could tie it to a twig placed in your garden. Etsy has a ton of fairy downloads if you are interested. You can copy them on card stock or watercolor paper. Or be brave and make your own fairy to put in your fairy garden display.

Fairy Home

A cottage makes your garden inviting and cozy looking. You can create a house out of about anything you have around. It can be a wooden birdhouse. Store bought fairy garden house. I used a planter pot turned upside down. I added a tin roof .(I actually found a flat rusted tin can when I was out running with my hubby. (I find beauty in odd things including old rusted items .) Rocks glued on a chimney make a quaint accent for your fairy cottage.

Use Natural Accents

Pinecones, twigs, wreaths, and small or large rocks look at home in your fairy garden. Make stepping stones, little pinecone trees, or hang a twig wreath on your garden cottage or birdhouse.You can make a nest and fill it with faux eggs or a small bird.

Watering Large or Small Syringe

Amazon is a great place to find a large syringe for watering your succulents. It makes it so easy to water around the individual succulents according to how much water they may need. You can use a large one or even a small dropper will work for a small garden.

Plant Succulents in Moss and Make a Banner

If you want to create a fairy garden to hang on the wall, sphagnum moss makes your container lighter. You can plant your succulents directly in the moss or glue it in the moss and they will still thrive. Finish your fairy garden with forest green moss. It adds a beautiful finished look to your arrangement. The bunting or banner is just felt pieces cut out and glued to some twine. Each end of the twine is glued to a tooth pick and tied around it. Then the two toothpicks are stuck into the grapevine container.

Type of Glue

You can use hot glue to glue succulents onto surfaces such as the roof of your birdhouse or cottage. You will want to use small succulent cuttings so they don’t droop or weigh the roof down too much.

Magical Lights

There are a variety of magical fairy lights (actually called by that name the fairy lights part) you can hang on your felt bunting by two skewer sticks or wherever you think will accent your garden best. It makes it look cozy and whimsical.

Time To Assemble Your Garden

Soil Method:

Please don’t think because there are several parts to this garden that you might get easily overwhelmed. No problem! I will walk you through it.

1. Take your wooden bowl, or dough bowl and set it on your counter.
2. Lay your plastic in your container making sure to cover it completely. If it extends beyond your container, cut the plastic close to inside the edge of the bowl.
3. Add rocks if your container isn’t heavy enough to sustain the soil and plants. You don’t want the plastic to move around in your container. Sometimes your container is shallow so the rocks help to keep the plastic from moving.
4. Fill it with cactus and succulent soil.
5. Water your soil carefully.
6. Place you plants and your birdhouse cottage where you want it to go. If you are planting succulents in soil, then make a hole big enough in the planter to plant the succulent. Remove it from its container and set it in the hole. Then pat the soil around the base of the plant.
7. Put little accessories around the birdhouse. Add a sweet picket fence or a fence made of natural twigs. Add some stepping stones. Set a fairy or gnome or some small animals in your garden to add some cuteness.
8. Take some felt and cut little triangles out. Grab a piece of twine and glue the felt triangles like bunting across the twine. Glue each side of the bunting to the skewer sticks. Put the skewer sticks on each side of your bowl in the soil so your bunting hangs across the front of your cottage. Or wherever you think it would look best.
9. Add some green forest moss around your plants and accessories.

Sphagnum Moss Method

• This is so simple you won’t even believe it! Place plastic in your container. Smooth it out so it covers the entire inside of your container.
• Soak the sphagnum moss in water. Wring it out well. Then fill your container with it.
• Place your birdhouse cottage or other cottage on top of the moss.
• Take your plants and remove as much of the dirt as you can. Then place them around cottage in your bowl or dough bowl. If you want to, you can glue your moss to the top of your fairy house or container and then glue in the succulents.
• Add whatever accessories you think will enhance the look of your fairy garden. Add some faux berries around your container, a paper fairy, and a small wooden house or whatever you would like to.
• Place some green forest moss on top of your fairy garden to finish it off.

There you have it! Probably the hardest thing you will have to do is pick out plants! That is the part that always takes me the longest is the choosing!

Related Links

Plants always bring a natural feel to a room. If you like plants and bringing the outdoors in, take a look at Make A Unique Garden Indoors.

We are all about DIY and learning to do things yourself. If you like plant topiaries, try your hand and make your own. You will be surprised how quickly you can make it come together! Check out our How To Make A Boxwood Topiary.