6 January 2015 - Page 6 - Fairy Gardens

I discovered fairy gardens two years ago and have been having tremendous fun putting these little miniature gardens together.  This one guards my front walk and actually looks fairly dismal in winter; however, it will re-bloom and regenerate once Spring comes again.  I left the little fairy and horse out - partly to test their resilience in our winter weather.

The little bench, chair and mushroom were made by Jillian, a fantastic clay artist.  I have ideas for more fairy gardens I will put together this Spring.  Right now, I'm working on propagating special miniature plants for the gardens.

We have several Contorted Willows in our yard.  I currently have a number of cuttings I am growing out and love to use some of the branches in the fairy gardens for portals and arbors.  There are several varieties of willows which have twisted trunks and branches - Contorted Willows (salix tortuoso), Twisted Willows, and Golden Curls are three of the varieties I grow.

This shows how the trunks and branches grow.  They are a lot of fun.

Today was very warm for January.  The high was nearly 70 degrees.  It has already dropped to the low 30's this evening and is supposed to drop to the mid 20's.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cold - barely above freezing if that, but Friday will gift us with another warm day.  January's roller coaster.