Affiliate links may be included for your convenience. View our privacy and affiliates policy for details.
We’ve had an indoor fairy garden for a long time, but I always wanted to add an outdoor space where the girl could play in some dirt, have some special plants and a few fairies and fun things to play with.
While husband was out of town recently I finally did it. This is a really easy project and a lot of fun to make and to play with. The girl loves it.
What You’ll Need
- half whiskey barrel
- two or three 40-pound bags of topsoil, depending on how deep you want it
- plants
- fairies and fairy garden accessories
How to Make a Fairy Garden
First decide where you want your fairy garden to be. You want to assemble it where it goes and not try to lug 100 pounds of barrel, soil and plants across your yard. I put ours near the fence, under a tree and on some mulch so there’s no grass to kill.
Fill the barrel with soil and plant your plants. I have a fern, a columbine for flowers and a hosta. I planted them all on one side to give room to play and to add more plants later if we want to.
Add your fairies and accessories. Mine all came from Jo-Ann, where they tend to have a good selection in the spring and early summer. (The butterfly was a long-ago purchase from Target.) There’s a gnome and a fairy, as well as a log house, a table and chair, a snail, a tiny tree and a bird with a nest.
I also added a little length of wooden border material that we had left over from another project. I really want to hang some bunting from it.
Playing with Fairies
I put the fairy garden together for her as a surprise, and she was so excited about it. The first night she asked to go out after her shower to say goodnight to the fairies, then she went out and woke them up before school the next morning. It was so cute.
She also added some of the fairies and things from her indoor fairy garden to the outside one.
Every day that we’re in the yard she goes and checks on them and plays around with them. She likes to pretend that she is a fairy, too.
This little space is a great way to fuel imagination, as well as giving her a place to play in some dirt and some plants she can care for if she wants to.
I plan to keep adding little decorations from time to time to see if she notices, too, which should be fun for both of us.
Do your kids have a fairy garden or a special place to play and dig in the yard? I’d love to hear about it.
6 Comments
So cute! Since I’m all about repurposing, I would add that thrift stores are great places to find little statues and figurines to add to the habitat. Little ceramic bunnies and lambs, collectible cottages, and even fish tank “ruins” would be great to place among the leaves – and save $$ as well! 🙂
So cute! My daughter would have loved this when she was a kid. Maybe I’ll make one for me:)
What a beautiful idea! Our garden will be perfect for this when DH and I have children. In the meantime we have an equally awesome reserve not far from our house that I’d love to glamourbomb (fairies, yarn bombing, suspension of disbelief, etc.). This has given me some great ideas! Thanks very much for posting.
-Ang (angel1985 on SwapBot)
Thanks, everyone! It’s so fun.
Oh my goodness this is one of the cutest do-it-yourself projects I have seen in awhile. I can only imagine the fun that my kids would have with this little fairy garden. I would also like to put bigger garden statues around the yard, too.
Aww, thanks! We need to clean it up for the new season.