Now that it's too cold for outdoor gardening, Judith creates a fairy garden for indoor enjoyment.
Greetings fellow gardeners,
This week I gave my final gardening talk of 2021. Although I enjoy talking to groups, it does make me nervous, and I am going to enjoy having some time off. Perhaps this means I will have lots of time to get working on categorizing seeds and planning next year’s garden. Or perhaps it is time to have a little bit of fun.
In August, I built myself a little indoor fairy garden. I found a great planter pot and started to play.
Harley is finding this interesting
I put in potting soil that had lots of vermiculite, so it was quite light. The pot is very wide so there is lots of room for things like plants and fairy houses and accessories. I also put the planter on a plate with stones so that the pot would not be sitting in water. Being so light, I can move it about if I need more room on my dining room table.
Maggie is supervising
Finished Garden
There are many plants that you can use for an indoor fairy garden; almost any houseplant like violets or cacti or even orchids. I decided it would be safest if I used scented geraniums; specifically citrus-scented geraniums. The citrus-scented geraniums are largely avoided by the too-many cats, so they featured in my indoor fairy garden.
I painted a small house to put in the garden along with stones, a glass chicken and little Lego figures. While you can easily find painted fairies and gnomes, it is kind of fun to build accessories out of Lego. This is where your imagination can take over. If you have children or grandchildren, they would love to keep the planter updated.
So here it is, almost December. Outside the plants I left in the garden are freezing and those icicle pansies are finally feeling the cold. With the brisk weather and the approach of the season I thought that it would be fun to decorate my indoor fairy garden for Christmas. At present, my Christmas cactus is blooming, big blousy pink blossoms, and it would look lovely in the fairy garden, but the too-many cats would chew it so I shall stick to the scented geraniums.
In preparation for the festive look, I took a tour through buckets of old art supplies and gathered interesting tidbits. Next I visited the local dollar store and picked up some interesting things. I found a little Christmas gate and some battery-operated Christmas lights. One strand of lights had a fascinating feature. You turn them on and they stay on for about six hours, then turn off. The following day they turn on again at the same time and stay on for six hours. A fun way to surprise the cats. I can change the decorations to suit my whim and that is really fun.
Christmas fairy garden
According to the latest news on social media, the seed catalogues are going to start being mailed out next week. Soon I will be studying all sorts of catalogues and planning my garden while my fairy garden twinkles on the table.
Enjoy your week.
Judith. (Email: sghorticultural@gmail.com)
Veggie Bites are available at https://sghorticultural.wixsite.com/website or https://gardeningcalendar.ca/articles/veggie-bites/
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