The perfect table-top fairy garden chock full of dainty miniature plants!
Supplies for Creating a Miniature Fairy Garden
- A decorative or plain terracotta dish.
- Well draining, good quality potting soil.
- Slow release fertilizer
- Silica crystal (optional - but recommended)
- Small leafed plants (try looking for weeds in your lawn!)
- Bonsai tree (optional but recommended)
After adding potting soil to the desired depth start placing the plants in an appealing manner. There really is no wrong way to do it; but staggering different heights really makes the garden seem more "real".
Even weeds from a person's yard can seem like a unique centerpiece plant in a small miniature garden.
Try using Glechoma hederacea "Creeping Charlie" in a mounding, mass planting (or even as a vine) . When healthy it blooms generously with gorgeous tiny purple, fluted trumpet shape flowers. The more restricted the plant is in way of root growth, the smaller the leaves grow. Consistent trimming will also aid in smaller leaves and bushier growth.
Placing a bonsai tree on a slight hill adds the illusion of the other plants being under the canopy of a standard sized tree. If one wanted to, the roots of the bonsai can be partly exposed to allow mosses and the like to grow on the visible wood. This enhances the "magical" properties of the entire planting.
If a person desires, the addition of silica crystals can help to cut back on some watering. Use as per the manufacturer's directions.
Do not forget to create various pathways with tiny gravel or even sand and wood chips. Try to lay them out so the "walk ways" do not go in a straight line. Gradual bending and winding paths tend to seem more relaxed.
Small ponds are an added visual candy store. Anything that can hold water can be used as a fairy garden pond. You will not be keeping fish in it so it need not be fish safe. Lids, saucers, single serve applesauce containers, and much more are fully appropriate as miniature ponds.
Try adding a few pieces of Lemna minor "Duckweed" or Azolla caroliniana "Azolla" to the water. They can act like waterlilies (without the colorful blooms of course).
The addition of tiny flower pots, animal food dishes and even houses and chicken coops really help to add to the nostalgia of a new Miniature Fairy Garden!
Ongoing Care for a Miniature Fairy Garden
Water
Anytime the soil feels dry. The more sun the garden has the more water it will require.
Feeding
As recommended for the type of fertilizer one decides upon; (usually houseplant strength doses.)
Trimming
Remove spent blossoms and any ungainly growth. Even miniature plants require trimming when placed in small spaces. Those that do not grow up tend to spread out.
Sun Exposure
Part sun to shade. In such a small amount of soil; full sun could bake the plant roots if a person forgets to water regularly.
Possible Plant Species for a Miniature Fairy Garden
Make sure to research each plant and it growing requirements before using!
- Alpines:
Delosperma album
Delosperma cooperi 'Mesa Verde'
Delosperma dyeri 'Psdold'
Delosperma sphalmanthoides
Delosperma nubigenum
Pleiospilos nelii
Oscularia deltoides
Aloe 'Harry Butterfield'
- Sedum:
Spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco'
Dasyphyllum 'Major'
Hispanicum 'Blue Carpet'
Spurium 'Elizabeth'
Sedum Hispanicum 'Minus'
Album mulbrantii
- Shrubs:
Pyracantha koidzumii 'Low Dense'
Rosa Miniature Rose
Erodium reichardii Alpine Geranium
Vaccinium uliginosum Alpine Bilberry
Rhodohypoxis milloides Pink Star Grass
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Miniature Sedums For Small Gardens
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