Fairy Garden

This is the perfect garden to have children help in planning and building. They enjoy watching for the fairies to appear.

Fairy gardens are enchanted places, filled with wonder and excitement. These magical gardens can be created in our backyards with careful care and respect for nature.

Attracting Fairies to the Garden

Do you want fairies in your garden? Simply ask them to come! Yes, that's all it takes to draw fairies into your garden. But first you must create a garden that they will feel welcome in.

If you have an oak tree, you probably already have fairies around. The oak tree is the king of the forest. They provide fairies with homes.

Acorn crowns from the mighty oak are used by fairies to make hats, and oak leaves are used in fairy celebrations of the seasons.

Blackthorn trees provide the wood needed to make powerful fairy wands and divining rods. Ash and fruit trees are more fairy favorites.

An elder tree is said to protect fairies from negative spirits. (There's a rumor that drinking elderberry wine allows humans to see fairies! What a magical tree.)

Grow wildflowers that are native to the area to show respect for the local environment. With so many wildflowers becoming endangered, fairies appreciate anyone who adds them to a garden.

Fairies love colorful, fragrant flowers. Add peonies, roses, and daisies along with lavender, sage and geraniums.

A cottage style fairy garden allows for a wonderful mix of flowers for color, size and scent. Foxglove is so often used by fairies that you should include more than a few plants.

Use organic gardening methods, avoiding any and all chemicals in your fairy garden.

Add mulch to control weeds in your flower beds, but don't be surprised if some pieces get misplaced. Fairies use wood chips to make trays and other useful things.

Leave a small area open -- fairies like an open space to dance. And do leave that old tree stump that you thought had no purpose in the garden.

The fairies will use it to create gathering places and homes. Plant some flowers to surround and cover it and add a shallow dish of fresh water on top for drinking and bathing.

Fairies are very much a part of nature. Create welcoming places for other creatures of nature and fairies will be sure to stay.

Add birdhouses, birdbaths and feeders as places for them to visit. Plant herbs and flowers to provide food for butterflies and birds.

Sunflowers, yarrow, pansies, snapdragons, herbs, nasturtiums are a few to include. Tulips are used to make beds for baby fairies. Flowers are used to make dresses, shirts and hats. Create a meandering path through the flowers with small stones.

And finally, in case you hadn't heard, fairies just love shiny things. Hang colorful, reflective wind chimes. Place a gazing ball or two amidst the flowers for your own and the fairies enjoyment. And if you add a few statues of fairies, they will consider it an invitation to visit ... and stay!

Fairy gardens are charming places of magic and joy. Planting one and inviting the fairies to stop by may become a favorite pastime.

Just don't be upset if you notice a few leaves and flowers missing from your plantings - it's just the fairies making themselves at home.