Just as many of you have, I have discovered Pinterest this year. I usually get on a couple of times a day, check out what my friends have been pinning and then run through one page of strangers pins. I have to admit I have 100's of things pinned. I had made a couple of comments on my Facebook wall about some things I had tried, when one of my cousins suggested I blog about my Pinterest projects. That was enough to give me some inspiration for my goal of accomplishing something this summer!
(For those of you who aren't familiar with Pinterest, check it out at www.pinterest.com . To put it in old school terms, think of it as going through your magazines, tearing out the articles (recipes, crafts, gardening, etc.) that interest you and pinning them to a cork board. Only now you "pin" a website idea to a virtual board that you created. It keeps your ideas organized without having to print everything off, or even use your favorites to mark web pages.)
One find on Pinterest were pages and pages of Fairie Garden ideas. I found them enchanting. After finding one pin particularly interesting, it inspired me to create a fairy garden using a tree stump in our back yard.
This is the pin that provided the inspiration: http://www.capadiadesign.com/2011/08/little-bit-of-whimsy.html .
Pretty amazing if you ask me. I loved the idea of making something out of an old tree. Several years ago, we had a devistating fire. One of the losses, and constant reminders, was a beuatiful old tree in our back yard. It caught fire as well, and eventualy died. We were forced to cut it down. All that was left was the stump.
I began researching ideas, looking at the canvas I had available to me. I began to envision what it could become. As ideas came to me, I would sketch them in a notebook I keep. When summer vacation began, I began putting everything together. I went to our local nursery (Johnson's), who has a section for mini/fairie gardens. I checked out their plants, specifically marketed for fairie gardens, and then went and searched the rest of the nursery for the same or similiar plants in the "regular" garden areas. I was able to find what I wanted for $1-$2 less than in the fairie garden section. I also found some furniture I liked. If I had been a little more patience, I could have purchased online and saved several dollars. But patience is not one of my virtues. Besides, I believe in supporting local businesses when I can.
I brought everything home and began assembling what I had so far.
First I had to clear away the grass and weeds. Then I began planting the plants I had found. I envision carving steps into the root all the way to the left in the picture, just as the original Pinterest pin showed.
Another tip I found on Pinterest, was to lay newspaper down and cover with soil. It helps keep the weeds at bay. I will take all the help I can get and gave it a shot. I placed the paper where I didn't think I wanted anything to grow. So far, so good. I have not had to do a lot of weeding. I figure I might as well set myself up with as much help as possible. I am not known for having a green thumb and really want this to be nice.
Then I placed the furniture and a few accessories I had picked up, and my fairie garden was beginning to take shape. I had still failed to find a door, however. How can you create a fairie garden, a home for fairies, and not have a door so they can get in their new home!?
I found that this was not such an easy task! I found several doors at the garden store as well as online. But they just weren't quite right and/or were a bit on the expensive side. They were anywhere from $15 on up, mostly on up.
I had to take a few days to regroup, and make some decisions, as well as do some more research. But that is for next week's blog. I hope you will come back to see some of the tips I picked up along the way on using things you may have around the house to embelish your garden, as well as the finished product.
What projects do you have going this summer? I would love to hear about them!
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