Magical Fairy Gardens

What is a fairy garden?  According to fairygardening.com, "A Fairy Garden is a miniature garden complete with structures and actual living plants.  It is designed to give your green thumb a place to tend year-round and to lure fairies and with them, good luck, to your home.  It’s a tiny space created and tended with love.  The design and components are limited only by your imagination."

Learn more at Fairygardening.com

Want to create your own fairy garden?

You'll need to start with a vessel or planter.  This Fine Gardening article has a good tutorial on creating your own hypertufa pots.  Hypertufa is lightweight and can be created in various sizes and shapes to your specific needs.

Read article HERE

Here are some fairy garden accessories that are available on Etsy:

Adorable fairy doors from  MyFairyTaleDoors 

Miniature wood slices from The Little Hedgerow 

Complete kit from Tiny Gala 

Personalized fairy garden signs from Hello Little Cloud

Wee mushrooms from The Beaded Sock Lady 1

Sedum cuttings for miniature pots from Janit

Miniature gnome from Broken Sparrow Studio

Live moss assortment from Tin Roof Treasure

Solar powered fairy lights on Amazon

May fairies dwell in your garden!

Gardener's Hand Scrub Recipes

Two DIY hand scrub recipes to keep those gardening hands soft and clean.  These make great gifts when added to a gardening basket/terra cotta pot filled with gardening tools and seeds.

This hand scrub recipe is from the Nature Moms blog.  Use a 4 ounce jar with a locking lid and combine all of the ingredients listed below together.

Here is a simple & inexpensive recipe from Green Leaf Tips:

Step 1- Fill a small Mason jar or container 3/4 full of granulated sugar.

Step 2- Fill the remaining 1/4 full with Dawn Hand Renewal Soap.

Step 3- Let mixture soak in for a few minutes.  Using a spoon, scrape the sides and bottom to combine.

Step 4- Top off jar with more sugar and a little more soap and 2 tsp. of light olive oil.

Garden Gate Inspiration

Nothing welcomes visitors to a garden like a whimsical, unique garden gate.  It offers a first glimpse into a world waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.  Here are some examples of inviting gates:

Berkshire Botanical Garden

Cecile's Garden

Akron's own Don Drumm makes fantastical metal gates.  Here is the gate at the entrance of his galleries in Akron.  This is an amazing gallery with lots of art for the garden.  Definitely worth the short drive to Akron.

Don Drumm Studios & Gallery

437 Crouse Street, Akron, 44311

330-253-6268

Don't forget to close the gate!

Three Unique Garden Crafts

How to Age Terra Cotta Pots from Martha Stewart

Read tutorial HERE

DIY Handpainted Wind Chimes from Lifestyle for Real

Read tutorial HERE

Wine Bottle Wind Chimes

This tutorial is self-explanatory and watch the YouTube video below on how to cut wine bottles.  

Materials:

Wine bottle

Wine bottle cutter

Small chain

4 eye hooks

One wooden ball

One wooden heart or other element to hang from bottle

S hook to hang wind chime

*Clear wine bottles can be sprayed with sea glass paint

How to Grow & Enjoy Lavender

Before diving into the care guide, here are some interesting facts about lavender:

• The name "lavender" comes from the latin verb "lavare," which means "to wash."
• Mature lavender plants do not require water.  They can survive a drought.
• Ancient Egyptians used the plant during the mummification process.
• Lavender comes from the same family as mint.
• Lavender plants don't produce seeds.  Propagation is done by cutting or root divisions.

Get Busy Gardening takes you through the steps to insure healthy, thriving lavender plants.  Learn which type is best suited for our zone.  Once you start growing your lavender plants, there's a homemade soap craft to enjoy those flowers.

Read the care guide HERE

The website It All Started with Paint has an easy lavender soap tutorial and has a list with links on where to buy the supplies.  Makes a lovely gift for the gardener.

Read the soap tutorial HERE

Not into soap?  Here's a recipe for lavender & lemon shortbread cookies from The Beach House Kitchen.

Get recipe HERE

Stop and smell(or eat) the flowers!

DIY Concrete Garden Globes + Other Craft Projects

Concrete garden globe tutorial HERE

Once you create a concrete globe, you can embellish it with marbles using E-6000 glue.

Flower pot centerpiece tutorial HERE

Rope wrapped pot tutorial HERE

Happy crafting!

Repurposing Old Garden Hoses

Old garden hoses can be repurposed in many ways that are functional and creative.

Learn some ideas at One Good Thing by Jillee.

Several garden hose wreath tutorials at Lora B.

Smile :)

Happy repurposing!

DIY Farmhouse Style Potting Bench

Ana White will take you through the detailed steps on her website where there is also a video tutorial on constructing this bench.  All materials come in at around $50!  

Visit Ana White's website HERE

Happy construction!

Sowing the Seeds of Love

I created a free seed packet template for personal use to share your flower and vegetable seeds with friends and family.  You can download the template:

I used this card stock, but even regular copy paper will work.  

After you cut out the packet template, use a straight edge to fold in the front of the packet.  I like metal rulers for this task.

Fold over the back of packet and glue tab A first.  Glue tab B and let dry. (If you use card stock, it helps to put something heavy like a book on top of the tabs to keep from folding up.) 

Place seeds in packet and close top tab with either double-sided tape or washi tape. Write your seed information on the packet and share with friends.

Happy crafting!