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Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden
Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden
Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden
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Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden

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Fairy gardens are enjoying an astonishing surge in popularity and now you can begin making your own enchanting miniature landscapes, complete with pint-sized accessories, diminutive plants, and quaint fairy figures. Gardeners Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner provide you with step-by-step instructions for creating a magical garden that will attract Thumbelina herself!

Learn how to design, plant, accessorize, and care for your very own small corner of the world by following seven simple steps, including choosing the perfect container, planting luxurious pint-sized plants, decorating with properly scaled accessories, and telling a story through the delicate fairies you choose to inhabit your magical wonderland. Included are full-color photographs showcasing various types of fairy gardens and accessories, which are sure to inspire the designer in you! And best of all, these perennial gardens are perfect for the busy gardener, as they require less than ten minutes per week to maintain—this could be your new favorite hobby! For the inner child in us all, Fairy Gardening is sure to enchant both the novice and the experienced gardener who wishes to stir up Lilliputian flights of fancy.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSkyhorse
Release dateFeb 22, 2013
ISBN9781626361867
Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Every example of the craft is so well done. There is thoughtfullness, method and art evident in each project and descriptor. This is an excellent book on the subject, possibly the best of the genre.
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    It's a cute little how-to, sufficient instruction to get started and pretty photos for inspiration.

Book preview

Fairy Gardening - Julie Bawden-Davis

Fairy Gardening

Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden

Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner

Photography by Xuong Do, Happy Photos

Copyright © 2013 by Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

Skyhorse® and Skyhorse Publishing® are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61608-833-0

Bawden-Davis, Julie.

Fairy gardening : creating your own magical miniature garden / Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner;

photography by Xuong Do.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61608-833-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Gardens, Miniature. 2. Miniature plants. 3. Gardens, Miniature—Pictorial works. 4. Miniature plants—

Pictorial works. I. Turner, Beverly. II. Title.

SB433.5.B375 2013

635—dc23

2012038234

For Allan, whose love and support are everything. For sister Sue, brother Bruce, and Mom, who taught us how to be happy.

—B. T.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

CHAPTER 1 DEVELOPING A THEME

CHAPTER 2 DESIGNING WITH A CAPTIVATING FOCAL POINT

CHAPTER 3 ACCESSORIZING YOUR MINIATURE LANDSCAPES

CHAPTER 4 CREATING ACTION

CHAPTER 5 TELLING A STORY

CHAPTER 6 PLANTING AND CARE PRACTICALITIES

CHAPTER 7 THE PERFECT HOME: CONTAINER CHOICES

CHAPTER 8 MINIATURE PLANTS FOR FAIRYLAND

CHAPTER 9 DECORATE FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

RESOURCES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Foreword

Maybe I never outgrew my Barbies. Or maybe, as my mom laughingly once said, You’ve always just loved miniatures! Remember the fort you made out of sugar cubes for extra credit in third grade? I do. The project was inspired by a yellow plastic cannon I found in a box of Cracker Jacks.

I still love miniatures. So much so that some years ago I decided that even though I was an adult, I wanted to build the dollhouse of my dreams. At the hobby store, I found a basic model and proceeded to do a little kit-bashing. In other words, I took that classic Edwardian-style dollhouse included in the kit and added on to it. And added. And added. And added. By the time I finished, my diminutive home had a garden rivaling Central Park! It was huge! The dollhouse and its sprawling garden became the center of attention when company came to visit.

After several years of friends asking, Don’t you wish you could have a real garden that’s as tiny as this? I thought, why not? As head designer at M & M Nursery in Orange, California, I started experimenting with different plants to see how easily they adapted to a small-scale look. In the beginning, herbs and a few bonsai-type trees were the only plants available. Fast forward twelve years and there are several hundred dwarf plant varieties suitable to different climates and zones. Some major garden suppliers now manufacture accessories specifically for fairy landscaping, and the staggering number of people discovering this delightful hobby climbs daily!

Watching people’s faces when they first encounter fairy gardens is a little like seeing kids finding everything they want under the tree on Christmas morning. Astonishment gives way to pure pleasure as people inspect every inch of these enchanting mini landscapes. Somehow, fairy gardens transport us to a place far from the mundane tasks of everyday life and into a realm of wonder and imagination. Fairy gardens remind us that we are never too old to play Let’s pretend.

One of the best aspects of fairy gardening for me is watching people share their enthusiasm with each other. Mothers and daughters come to the nursery to work on their creations, as do couples, siblings, and even entire families, who plan a fairy project with everyone having a hand in it. Obviously, I’m not the only one with a fondness for miniatures!

Since that first fairy garden, my designs have become more sophisticated over the years. At fairy gardening how-to seminars, I answered questions and mentally tucked them away to share at the next lecture. I thought I had just about every detail covered until I had an aha moment at the Southern California Spring Garden Show in 2009. Every year at this popular event, local nurseries and landscapers showcase their best plants, garden supplies, and horticultural ideas. For many seasons, we brought examples of my fairy gardens, but this time another nursery had them as well. Curious, I enlisted my sister’s help to indulge in a little friendly fairy espionage.

Sue is the best big sister anyone could ask for and a great first grade teacher. In fact, from what I can see, her only flaw is that she didn’t inherit the family love of gardening! But this comes in handy when I drag her to events like the garden show, because I get to see things through her fresh eyes. So I pulled a hat low on my brow and wore my biggest Jackie O sunglasses to snoop my way over to the display. After a quick peek, I scuttled off in the opposite direction. A few minutes later, Sue joined me.

So? I asked.

Of course I’m prejudiced because you’re my sister, she said. But those other fairy gardens just didn’t work for me. They looked like a pot full of plants with a fairy stuck in it. Yours look like real, live, mini gardens. Why is that?

I replied that I simply take the time to choose just the right plants and accessories.

But the main thing is, with every fairy garden I make, I try to tell a little story, I said. That’s what makes the difference. I want it to seem as if a teeny somebody actually lives there.

This book is the culmination of more than a decade of designing fairy gardens with those tiny inhabitants in mind. In here you’ll find my tips, tricks, and secrets, and, most importantly, you’ll encounter the very best ways to create a garden filled with heart. Your heart. As you take the fairy gardening journey, let your imagination soar and have fun!

Beverly Turner

Head Designer

M & M Nursery, Orange, California

www.fairygardenexpert.net

Chapter 1

Developing a Theme

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