It’s more like a petting zoo than a farm!
Welcome to Part 8 of our Blog Series on how we created our outdoor fairy garden at Ferny Hill Retreat. In the previous post we featured our Fairy Tree. This time we’re moo-ving on to the Farm.
Not all Fairy Villages have farms but luckily ours does. The wee folk love farm animals, but unlike many humans they don’t eat them. Fairy folk like to play with animals, cuddle, pat and ride them. They also have green thumbs and enjoy growing a wide range of tiny fruit and vegetables. These they do eat.
We helped the fairy folk get their farm started by giving them a barn and adding a few animals like chickens, sheep, cows, a pig and a horse.
Drunk farm animals?
The farm looked great at first but the animals only stood for a short while. With even the slightest breeze they fell onto their sides and laid there looking miserable. We wondered if they might have had a secret stash of alcohol somewhere but that was a bit far fetched. Everyone knows that animals drink water, not liquor.
It was then we realised that these critters were missing a very important feature that much of our other fairy garden decor had – stakes! When staked into the ground, fairy garden items don’t move or tip over.
Hmm, we needed to fix this …
Making stakes
We had to pin these wonky animals in place so we gathered all that was needed.
Snip and twist
To make the stakes:
- Snip 2 lengths of wire per animal.
- Twist one end around a front foot, leaving a long piece to stake into the ground.
- Do the same to the rear foot on the opposite side.
TIPS
- The stakes tend to bend, especially if you are trying to poke them into hard earth or through synthetic ground cover. We used a metal peg to make a hole in the ground first and the stakes slid straight into them.
- Not all fairy garden accessories come with stakes but that’s not a problem. You can stabilise just about anything with DIY stakes, including farm critters.
What’s next?
We hope our Farm post was of interest and helpful.
Now that the animals are stable we’re moving on to the next section of our Fairy Garden – the Gypsy Camp. It should be fun to make and we’ll share it with you as soon as it’s complete.
Until then, happy Fairy Gardening one and all!
