Our Fairy Garden: A Tour

Hello! And welcome to our faerie garden. Kaia and I have had so much fun working on it together these last couple Summers, it has been such a pleasure to bring to life what her imagination sees. Our little garden has gotten bigger and bigger, and developed far in excess of what I expected when we began. Next year, she will be 4, and I am sure she will have plans that put our faerie garden out of a pot and into a big garden patch. She's certainly had enough so far! I love the way she announces to me what she feels the faeries need now, and the challenge of working together to create them. We've made almost every single item in our garden together, and most of the plants we collected on hikes and walks, or transplanted from the gardens around our home.

In yesterdays post I talked about making our garden together, and Kaia's large part in it. There are many pictures of the process, and Kaia working on it, and the individual posts linked at the bottom of this one show you what things specifically Kaia made and / or contributed to, and may give you some ideas on how to deeply involve a very young child on a project such as this. I have tutorials up for a number of the items in our garden.

Today, though, I simply want to present you with the photos. Come have a look around! Our garden has been a labour of love, becoming a living, ever growing, and changing project for us.

Walk the path up to the little house...

Approach the doorway, and take a look inside...

You will find a mossy bed to rest your head...

Come have a seat under the sassafras tree and have a bite to eat...

Or sit on the bench to gaze at the pond...

Or perhaps you would like to pull up a log and enjoy the cozy campfire?

Have a look around the gardens. The British Soldiers lichen make perfect faerie sized flowers. Three little blue eggs wait to hatch in the tree...

Take a walk to the stream...

And swing out above the waters...

Or cross the little bark bridge to visit the well. Do you have a wish?

What are the faeries growing in their garden? Lettuce, cabbages, carrots, and radish.

Come watch the birds play in their bath, the lantern will light your path when light begins to fail...

Here comes a faerie! Up the rope ladder...

Mama sweeps while baby sleeps, shhh...

Papa hoes the garden, and harvests the crops...

Chores done, it is time for a relaxing break. Kaia serves them cookies and pours the tea...

And watches them enjoy their snack.

Mama goes for a ride on the swing. There are two sets of little hands eager to push her...

The family of faeries cuddle on the bench by the pond...

Mama is tired, and takes a nap.

Papa takes baby to sit on the bridge and watch the stream pass by.

Then baby goes for a ride in the wagon.

Baby snug in her comfy bassinet, Mama and Papa enjoy the fire...

When play is done, Kaia carefully replants all the veggies.

I hope you enjoyed our garden tour! This garden sees so much play, a magical world of Kaia's very own. Thank you so much to The Magic Onions for inspiring us to create a faerie garden, and for hosting such an awesome competition. It has been such a lovely journey for my daughter and I, and a wonderful time creating together.

You can see where our faerie garden started here.

You can find a (possibly slightly overwhelming) tutorial on our faerie house here.

You will find the tutorial for our broom here.

You can see close-ups of, and the pieces used to create, all the furniture here.

The tutorial for our tiny faerie well is here.

The tutorial for making the bendy doll faeries we made is here.

There are close-ups of all the little clay things I made for it, (including a number not in this post,) here.

And finally, pictures and processes of our faerie garden, the rope ladder, a brief tutorial on the making of the baby bassinet, a semi-tutorial on the making of the swing, and the addition of a few other structures can all be found here.  

Also, do not forget to visit The Magic Onions and check out all the wonderful faerie gardens entered in the contest!