Today we’re going to talk about a hobby craft that you have possibly already seen, but have never understood what you were looking at: the fairy garden. Walking your dog in the evening, there’s a big probability that you’ve seen a tiny door sitting at the base of a tree trunk with tiny garden gnomes sitting in lawn chairs beside it.
A fairy garden is a fun way to extend your gardening into the play zone. Incorporating old toys, found treasures, and around the house knick-knacks is a great way to bring charm to your garden, to think outside the box, and to spend some more time outside!
Building your own fairy garden requires nothing but a little creativity and resourcefulness. As you’ll see in our collection of fun fairy garden photos below, the sky is the limit when it comes to fairy garden design.
What follows is a loose run through of some easy fairy garden ideas to help get you started. Once you do start, you will quickly realize that the creation of a great fairy garden idea requires no guidance, simply imagination.
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What is Fairy Gardening? 
To begin explaining fairy gardening, one must first understand the incorporation of the mythical creature. Originally spelled “faerie”, fairies, both in mythology and in children’s tales, are portrayed as rather whimsical, sometimes mischievous creatures.
The original focal point of a fairy garden was to re-create the worlds in which fairies exist, though themes and characters have become elaborate over time. This is a hobby that incorporates crafting, gardening, and complete freedom of creativity.
A fairy garden is a story telling scene that includes small plants, trinkets, figurines, stones, dwellings, and all other kinds of objects. The only limit to this wonderful hobby is truly your own imagination!
How do you Start a DIY Fairy Garden?
Location
The easiest way to get your fairy garden idea rolling is by choosing the perfect location. Location is dependent on how big you’d like your garden to be. Do you want a miniature fairy garden? Or do you want it to be enormous?
Do you want an indoor fairy garden? Will it exist inside a terrarium or a planter? Is it a container fairy garden? Or does it span over your entire garden? Deciding on the perfect spot will be the easiest step to starting your very own garden.
Theme & Story
Before you go off buying a cart load of various fairy garden supplies, do yourself a favor and pick a theme, first. Otherwise, you may come home from the garden center with a wild mish mash of fairy garden accessories.
Ask yourself, what story do you want to tell with your fairy garden? What type of mood would you like it to evoke? Is it spooky and mysterious? Or is it more enchanting and whimsical? Is this a world where fairies reign, or where gnomes hold all the cards?
Choosing an overall theme will help you keep your idea tailored and organized. Though your fairy garden doesn’t need to be organized by any means, the excitement of a project can sometimes lead to a bunch of different directions!
Focal Point
If you’re struggling with your own DIY fairy garden idea, start with a single focal point. Pick one larger item that you have laying around the house or that you saw in a garden centre. This item can be the focal point of your fairy garden world, and you can build around it from there.
This can be anything from a broken pot recreated into a gnome-home, an old dollhouse from your youth, a collection of retired Barbies, an old bird bath turned into the imp public pool, a wheelbarrow, a rusted claw-foot tub… The options are limitless! And the best part is, that your focal point can be something that you just picked up off the side of the road.
Accessories
Now that we’ve chosen a them and a focal point, now you can come home with a cart load of fun accessories. The perfect fairy garden accessory can be found truly anywhere: old knick-knacks left on beaches, in the clearance section at the garden centre, garage sales, thrift stores..
Usually, the best way to find the quirkiest and most unique items is through thrifting. There you will find some truly strange and wonderful items that are too hard to pass up. When it comes to fairy decor, there is no thing that is too outrageous.
Choosing fairy friends and fairy furniture can be very fun. Maybe there are some old toy soldiers that help guard the queen-fairy’s moat, or perhaps Mr. Potato Head runs the show. Imagine a cottage made from popsicle sticks, or a tiny fairy door that came from a broken bird house.
Once you’ve got your characters and structure down, get crafty with the accessories for your accessories! Check out your grandma’s sewing box, there are sure to be some thimbles and spools in there that can serve a purpose.
Plants
A garden wouldn’t be a garden without plants, and a fairy garden wouldn’t be a fairy garden without miniature plants. One of the most important factors to make an effective mini garden is to have small plants.
You can’t really go wrong with a succulent plant species. They are very easy to maintain, don’t require much water, and most of them don’t grow to be too large. Some of them even carry the shape of miniature trees, to help emphasize the tiny-town essence.
You can also get creative with edible plants! Why not plant a magic onion that brings all of your fairy friends to life after midnight? Thyme brings about a beautiful shape and smell, or a low-growing strawberry bush will bring both beautiful white flowers, followed by delicious and adorable red fruits.
Bonsai trees, though they require much more maintenance, will take your fairy garden one step further. Ornamental grasses can help protect your fairy garden, and will achieve a kind of secret garden effect.
Just remember to choose plants that don’t require much water, for risk of damaging the foundation of your fairy garden.
Extra Features
Now that you have a story, characters, structures, accessories, and plants, time to tie your fairy garden in a nice little bow with some extra features. This can be anything from a series of stepping stones leading from your porch to the fairy garden…
Or you can get really elaborate and introduce a water feature! Though it may sound complicated, a miniature fountain won’t cost all that much, and will have an absolutely charming effect.
Help bring your fairy garden to life even further by adding a little movement. Maybe this will be in the form of a tiny windmill. Maybe it will occur through suspending little figurines at the end of fishing wire and letting them blow in the breeze.
There’s only enchantment to come if you add a wind chime to your customized fairy garden, or you can incorporate a hummingbird feeder or a bowl of nuts to help attract real animals!
Longevity
And last but not least, it is important to ensure that the members of your fairy garden stay put. Larger items will probably do just fine on their own, but smaller items can easily be blown or washed away. Simply glue some metal wire to the bottom of the more fragile items to help keep them in their rightful place.
Fairy Garden Photos
This next section we’ve dedicated to some amazing DIY fairy garden sets. Simply scroll through and find some inspiration, or just appreciate the creativity of other folks’ projects!
We go through elaborate scenes with large pieces, to more modest scenes with a more natural feel. Some of them are complex and detailed, and others just rely on the natural beauty of the garden to help elevate the scene.
Incredible fairy garden in a series of three large flower pots all connected with miniature log bridges set in garden.
Flower pot with detailed fairy garden that includes a small fairy house, walkway decorated with flowers.
Fabulous stump fairy house with windows, shutters, front door and porch, flowers, creek with bridge and colorful walkway.
Two decorative miniature figures in small garden made from painted plastic bottles.
Fairy house made from an old bird house complete with a bridge and furniture built into stump.
A fairy garden in the woods with playground, houses, ladders – an entire fairy village built in the trees. It’s almost camouflaged it’s so modest!
Miniature container garden pot with small conifer trees, succulent ground cover, a gnome and miniature deer.
A fairy house made out of a broken flower pot with seashells and perennial plants.
Closeup photo of a tiny decorative blue house built into a tree trunk with a pair of toy shoes on the stoop.
Gnome door in tree with front porch and stairs in the forest. Incredibly adorable.
Lovely miniature house scene complete with flower pots, a bicycle, and a picket fence in garden.
Large fairy houses in the woods built into the old root system of a tree.
A spacious fairy house built with sticks and logs and includes pine cones, wild flowers, and ground cover for decoration.
An open concept fairy house built with pebbles and shells. This person chose a beach theme!
Elaborate vertical fairy garden in pottery mug placed on stump, decorated with figurines, shells, and flowers.
A fairy house in a tree stump with a wood cut walkway, berries, little flowers and other decorative elements. This is a real beauty.
Tiny, purple fairy house in the woods. This structure is more human sized, but has the fairy garden essence to it.
Close up photo of a fairy village with little windmill, house, pumpkin surrounded by plants and flowers.
Incredibly detailed fairy garden complete with wicker home, twig ladder, a wooden swing, and painted pine cones for fairy decor.
Yellow Fairy house along the path on the coast of Ireland. House is yellow with blue door, in a green lush forest.
Blue Fairy house along the path on the coast of Ireland. House is blue with yellow door, in a green lush forest.
Large fairy garden in and around a large log. Includes several houses, pumpkins, mushrooms and many miniature garden gnomes.
Spectacular miniature log fairy houses built up on small stumps.
Fairy house built into stump with front stoop, small birdhouse and miniature dog and snail. Very nice decorative garden scene.
Old stump converted into fairy house with front steps, door and wood shingle roof along with wood shingles on gabled roof.
Log fairy tree house on small stump with an artificial light inside to bring life to the scene.
Small gnome garden with house in stump and garden gnomes placed around the base of the stump.
Fairy house made from an old water jug surrounded by lovely succulent plants.
Close up of an entire fairy garden scene with thatched roof house built log-style with sticks, pebble walkway, miniature raised garden beds and small trees.
Small fair chairs with fairies in small pebble garden surrounding an artificial camp fire.
Small decorative garden scene built in plate and includes white pot with miniature lambs, chicks, welcome sign and small flowers.
Pieces for Purchase
Below we’ve listed some image examples that link to the company that actually sells these wonderful houses, accessories, and figurines! The perfect items to complete your very own fairy garden ideas.
Houses are the most popular items other than figurines.
Fairy Garden Houses
Fairy Garden Figurines
Here are some fairy garden figurine examples:
