Fairies love trees!
Welcome to Part 7 of our Blog Series on how we created our large fairy garden at Ferny Hill Retreat. In our last post we featured the Carnival. In this post we’re zooming in on our Fairy Tree.
According to those who know all about enchanted stuff, there’s a very special bond between fairies and trees. In fact Woodland Fairies often sit on a branch of a tree late at night and stay there, silent and unmoving, until morning. When a fairy does this, he or she is actually having a deep conversation with the tree. They don’t use words as we know them – they communicate in a mysterious, magical way.
It is said that talking with trees gives fairies a lovely feeling, something like being wrapped in a cosy blanket. That’s why fairies love trees so much and, not only do they chat with them, fairies live in them.
This magical fairy-to-tree affinity is why a fairy tree was a must-have in our fairy garden. The fact that we had a huge gum tree in the corner of our chosen plot certainly made the job easier.
Our Fairy Tree
The photo above is of our fairy tree. It’s not quite finished in this shot, but we’ll show it off with all its bells and whistles in an upcoming post. Given the progress so far, there’s still plenty to discuss.
The plants, ivy and butterflies
- The plants at the base of the tree, where nothing ‘real’ grows, are artificial. (See Part 5: Choosing Plants).
- The butterflies are vibrant in colour and come in packs online. They’re plastic and sit on top of thin metal stakes. We simply pushed the stakes into the ground.
- The ivy, too, is artificial. After the the fairy doors and windows had been hung we draped ivy around them.
The fairy doors and windows
A few of our fairy doors and windows are made of resin and were purchased pre-made.
Those that are turquoise and green in the photo above are made of wood. We decorated these ourselves. Prefabricated doors and windows in unfinished wood are readily available online.
The photo below reveals what a messy worker I can be (sorry about that) but it also shows you what we used to decorate the wooden fairy doors and windows.
TIPS
- Use outdoor quality paint and weather-proof glue. Paint the front and back of the doors and windows (2 coats each side).
- The black wood grain was drawn using a permanent marker and was covered in glue to reduce fading.
- Synthetic moss, rather than dried moss, retains its colour.
What’s next?
We hope our Fairy Tree post inspired you. There are so many ways this could have been created and you may come up with something completely different.
Now that our Fairy Tree is done it’s time to build the Farm. You can read all about it in Part 8.
Happy Fairy Gardening one and all!
