Miniature & Fairy Gardens

This post is for my friend Sarah who asked for photos about 2 weeks ago of some of my mini gardens. Well, they had to be trimmed and spruced up before I could share photos. Even mini gardens get overgrown if you don't watch them all the time!


This is the first one I made because I bought that tiny picket fence.  The large plants are Coprosma and Serissa.  There is a mini variegated Jade plant and some Dymondia groundcover in the back. On the left is some Muehlenbeckia axilaris nana.  When I bought the little table and chairs Kailay Yu from smallweeds.com(looks like her website just has links now).   added 2 little teacups stuck to it. SO CUTE!  There is also a mini birdbath.  I try to put water in but it evaporates from it so quickly!

This is my second mini garden. It has a different Coprosma, a mini variegated Gardenia, a mini Cuphea on the left and a dwarf variegated Liriope. Today I added the little Ajuga called Chocolate Chip.  There is a little bench and a bridge.   These 2 pots are on the north side and get part shade. 

 Last year I got this 20 year old(or longer) Boxwood plant from a friend of a friend.  I pruned it up to look like an old tree. There I also planted Hen & Chicks, Thyme, a variegated Armeria on the left and an Artemesia on the right.  This pot stays mostly well-behaved. I got that little umbrella table at Michaels!  They sometimes have mini garden accessories!  This post is so full with plants that there isn't a lot of space for accessories.  

I adore Ginko trees and was able to mail order about 8 years ago several dwarf varieties.  The leaves might be too big for a mini garden. But I don't care. That is one problem with mini gardens; scale. Sometimes the accessories aren't with the scale of the others. In this case it's the leaves that aren't in scale. Whatever!   I still like it. Planted with the Gingko is more Hen & Chicks, Thyme and 2 new gray plants I got today: Antennaria "McCintock's Variety" on the right and Raoulia australis with the tiniest almost succulent gray leaves in the front.  My Rick helped me make a little rope swing. But it needs to be replaced(wood falls apart).    

Here is a miniature Gingko tree that HAS mini leaves.   I finally got a mini house. It took me forever because I didn't want to pay $30, $40 or more for one!  I think I paid $16(on eBay) for this one. It is resin, hollow and can take weather! And the door opens!  The plant on the right is Parahebe linifilia.  It gets little white flowers.  Today I planted a tiny Erodium on the left and some more of that gray Raoulis in front and I stuff a tiny but into that little pot. It is difficult to keep watered.  But I try :-)   Rock, small pieces of flagstone or slate or brick make good additions.   

 This is another mini Gingko tree.  I am still working on it.  But I've got a little pagoda, some metal Chinese lanterns and a tiki(from a fish store).  I planted the other half of the Antennaria with them.

Arlena Scott from gardenwiseliving.com is big into fairy gardens and just created some impressive gardens at the Chicago Garden show.     

Here is a place to get miniature garden plants and the most adorable tiny furniture and accessories you could imagine!  twogreenthumbs.com  And Janit Calvo wrote a fab book on Mini gardening which you can get at amazon.

Happy Gardening!