The big redo (aka fixing our mistakes)
Welcome to Part 4b of our Blog Series on how we created our large, outdoor fairy garden. This is a warts and all series and in Part 4a we shared a significant oversight – the need to incorporate ground cover before, or at the same time, as laying out the houses.
In this post we show you how we got it right. Yay us! It involved a 2-step process.
Step 1: wash & level everything
As detailed in Part 4a, our carefully laid out buildings became caked in grime because we’d positioned them without considering what would be beneath them. Down pelted the rain and our cute fairy buildings ended up looking more like mud huts than enchanted dwellings!
In retrospect it seems obvious that we should have installed ground cover to protect the buildings, but we were new to all this and didn’t realise what the consequences would be.
Note to self: Weather can negatively impact fairy gardens from above and below!
To fix things, my trusty helper, Nathan, worked on leveling the soil that was pitted with rivulets. While he was doing that, I rinsed the mud off every building. It wasn’t fun for either of us, but had to be done.
Step 2: cover dat ground
Our fairy village has 3 tiers and is divided into different areas as per the plan we came up with in Part 2. Given we had to start over, this time we made the installation of ground cover a priority. We used all the types listed in Part 4a, both synthetic and real.
Here’s a photo of Nathan laying stone paving in what will be our fairy village’s shopping precinct.
And here’s Nathan installing artificial moss. He’s kneeling where the farm will be located. The farm is in a slightly different position than sketched on our plan. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the plan is a guide and it can (probably will) change a bit as construction takes place.
Where are we at?
If you want to estimate how long it will take you to create a large fairy garden here’s my latest formula: estimate the time required for each step, then multiply by 2, or maybe even 3! LOL
Yep, it’s taken longer than expected with our fairy garden, mostly due to the fact that we started building it in winter. Not the best timing! But it’s also been great fun and well worth the effort.
We’ve put most of the buildings back now that they are clean again. As you can see there’s ground cover everywhere! Everything is a lot cleaner than it was after our ‘tsunami‘ and, better still, it has rained since laying the new ground cover and the buildings are fine. Whew!
What’s left to do?
There’s still a long way to go:
- paths
- more vegetation
- the Dark Mountain
- smaller decor pieces
- critters
- wee folk
- a pond (maybe)
- trellis for the Banksia roses that will cover the fence, and
- fairy lights.
But hey, we’re getting there!
What’s next?
All enchanted folk love flowers and plants.
In Part 5, Choosing Plants, we zero in on the types of real and artificial plants we used to bring our mini garden to life.
Until then, happy Fairy Gardening one and all!
