Build it, and the fairies will come

by Amanda Cleary Eastep

My youngest step-daughter and I knelt under the huge pine tree in her yard in Kentucky. We were building a house for the fairies. Sticks, leaves and rocks formed walls, a door and places to sit and rest your wings.

I hadn’t been with her dad that long, and this collaborative construction also built a small bridge between us.

That memory came back to me while my elder daughter and I did the same thing this weekend.

We built a house for the fairies.

fairy garden

Why would we spend two hours repurposing a clay pot that busted during the exceptionally harsh winter into a pretend house for make-believe creatures?

Because it’s fun.

Fairy gardens are so popular now that the plants we used for ours were actually sold as “fairy” foliage. Genius marketing. And a far cry from the sticks and leaves my step-daughter and I used years ago.

Taking a detour from my veggie adventure last summer, I filled our small plot with herbs and flowers this year. This project adds some whimsy to our patio space, makes use of what would have otherwise gone into the garbage, and is much more economical to make than to buy pre-made at the garden stores.

What you’ll need…

For the plants, you can use various ground covers, mosses, miniature trees and succulents.

Containers can be anything from a broken clay pot to an old wooden drawer.

We bought a ceramic “pitcher” at the craft store and a small bench for this garden that will be a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. The stone “path” is made from the rocks we collect each summer at the beach.