Our very own fairy garden.
My daughter has been obsessed with The Girls’ Book of Flower Fairies for years now, and is always scanning the pages for fun activities and ways to bring the magic world of fairies into our humdrum daily lives.
Her latest obsession is the flower fairy garden, and she insisted that we make one IMMEDIATELY. Which was a bit of a challenge, because it is the dead of winter. But I hit Jamali, my favorite prop house in the flower district in Manhattan, and then bought a couple of lovely easy-to-care-for indoor leafy plants at Sprout Home ( a polka dot plant and some kind of fern) and we were in business. You can see the results above.
First off, here’s the book. It’s got everything a lover of fairies could want. Stories, pictures of all of your favorite flower fairies, recipes for making fairy snacks and drinks, and best of all, lots of fairy related craft activities. And the drawings are old fashioned and beautiful, unlike so many of the Disney-esque glittery-ass fairy stuff out there these days.
The ultimate guide to the world of the flower fairies.
And then here’s the page about fairy gardens:
the how to…
We made a few changes. Flowering plants are hard to come by in January, and I chose a more palatable round metal tub for a container, since we’re going to be living with this in our apartment for the foreseeable future. We made a path out of the colored pebbles we’d used in our dearly departed goldfish’s bowl. Didn’t know why I was saving them until just now.
We bought potting soil from the Union Square Farmer’s Market (where we drop off our compost in the winter) and, after placing a layer of styrofoam peanuts on the bottom of the pot for drainage, filled up almost to the top (see photo.) We chose plants that don’t need a ton of sun and that like the same amount of water, to make taking care of the garden easier.
A pool came courtesy of Jill Platner’s metal jewelry boxes, a little bird from Jamali keeps the fairies company, and if they get tired, they can sit on either poker chips or a sea urchin shell.
Voilá. All a girl needs to ensure that the local fairies have someplace nice to hang out. Now if we could only catch a glimpse of one…
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