Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden

by Julie Bawden-Davis, Beverly Turner

Fairy gardens are enjoying an astonishing surge in popularity and now you can begin making your own enchanting miniature landscapes, complete with pint-sized accessories, diminutive plants, and quaint fairy figures. Gardeners Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner provide you with step-by-step instructions for creating a magical garden that will attract Thumbelina herself! Learn how to design, plant, accessorize, and care for your very own small corner of the world by following seven simple steps, including choosing the perfect container, planting luxurious pint-sized plants, decorating with properly scaled accessories, and telling a story through the delicate fairies you choose to inhabit your magical wonderland. Included are full-color photographs showcasing various types of fairy gardens and accessories, which are sure to inspire the designer in you! And best of all, these perennial gardens are perfect for the busy gardener, as they require less than ten minutes per week to maintain—this could be your new favorite hobby! For the inner child in us all, Fairy Gardening is sure to enchant both the novice and the experienced gardener who wishes to stir up Lilliputian flights of fancy.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Crafts, Reference

192 pages, Spiral-bound

First published February 19, 2013

About the author

Bestselling author Julie Bawden-Davis loves writing page-turning suspenseful books often spiced with romance, garden books that turn any brown thumb green, and spiritual books meant to enlighten and inspire.

Julie began penning stories at the age of 5, when she wrote sweet, little romance books for her grandma. From there, she graduated to sneaking to a neighbor’s house to watch “Dark Shadows” (because her parents thought it was too scary for her). Then, in her teens, she raced home from school, dragging her younger sister behind her, to become immersed in the world of “General Hospital.”

Julie lives in Southern California, where she enjoys sunny, blue skies most days and year-round gardening. She gains inspiration by being surrounded by plants when she writes.

Sign up to join her Romance/Suspense Email Mailing List at http://eepurl.com/cw31x5 to get sneak peeks of upcoming books and participate in contests and giveaways.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the fairy gardening books out right now focus on pretty photographs without much useful content. Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner's book is a refreshing change from that trend. The book is still loaded with gorgeous pictures, but it also comes with practical advice for fairy gardeners. In addition to great design tips, there is also plenty of information on how to properly plant a miniature garden and a decent list of plants best suited for fairy gardening. If you are looking for a true fairy gardening manual instead of a picture book, this is the book for you.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great primer on creating fairy gardens. Provides information on containers, plants, design, and storytelling. Lots of professionally photographed examples. Plenty of resources listed with online links.

[Sheryl Normandeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner’s beautiful book Fairy Gardening doesn’t delve into specific fairy garden designs such as the ones you’ll find in Fiona McDonald’s Fairy Gardening 101, but it is more detailed in all of the crafting aspects needed to make your own amazing fairy gardens. One of the most charming reasons to create a fairy garden is the way you can tell a story with your living work, and Bawden-Davis and Turner cover everything from developing a theme to establishing a focal point, developing your story, and creating a sense of movement is discussed in accessible, practical terms, with tips and suggestions to apply these ideas to your own gardens. Additional chapters include comprehensive information about choosing containers for your garden, and selecting the perfect plants to grow. Delightful photographs and a friendly, approachable writing style make this book a joy to read – and a wealth of inspiration for creating your very own fairy garden!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: This review is for the kindle version.

This is the right author to write a book on fairy gardening. The author has an excellent voice. It feels as if you are at a workshop or her nursery where she’s carefully chosen a number of fairy gardens for you to be inspired by and to make.

She brings up things that maybe the average person wouldn’t think about, such as actually working at a dollhouse scale of 1:12 and placing simple figurines in a way that connotes action.

She also explains why some materials work better than others, as well as recommendations for composition of a scene.

The final chapters of the book have recommended plants with common and Latin names, sorted by size/function and a few websites for tchotchkes.

This book has it all to get you started, answer questions and successfully create your first garden, however, it would be great to have a few updates: it would be nice to have the zones for each plant listed so you knew what to lo9 for at the nursery, and, for a kindle, the pictures just didn’t cut it for me. There weren’t very many, you had to enlarge each one to see anything, and i could not get the pictures in the colored sidebars open. I’m guessing that the pictures themselves and the ratio of text to pictures all lines up nicely in the paper book, but it would be nice if the kindle folks also thought about how the book would look for their readers.

Thank you!

[Sabrina Wildermuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My family absolutely loved this book! A great read for making fairy gardens for all ages. We had a "fairy garden" event and made gardens together - me and my girlfriends, and our young kiddos too! The book is organized and well written. Covers all aspects of what you need to know, and lots of inspiration and ideas too! Gives you pointers on themes, so that you can decide what accessories to get, the types of plants, etc. and focus around a main "piece" or focal point. The kids got to pick their themes too - one did a dinosaur, another a farm with small animals, mine had little creatures like a bunny and mice. It was so fun! I liked seeing the different types of plants you can get, and helped me think out everything I need to get ahead of time before "creating" our mini fairy gardens!

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenge: Curious Read Non-fiction 2020 - Read about craft/activity, then try it (5), and, read a fiction with the theme, then a non-fiction about that topic (8). Having just read 'A Sprinkling of Murder' the debut book in the 'Fairy Garden' mysteries by Daryl Wood Gerber, I was enchanted with the idea of renovating the overgrown and empty pots on my front porch as fairy gardens. So I wanted to read up on it first. This volume on fairy gardening has first rate designs and tips on how to enjoy this past time. A nice starter book.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and Fun

I liked how this book explained all the aspects of fairy gardening. The tools, materials, plants, workspace setup, and practical guidance for creating a garden scene which tells a story. I have zero spatial reasoning and always become frustrated with my artistic attempts. After reading this book, I feel like I might have a chance of creating a fairy garden that doesn’t look like a fairy stuck in a pot. The photos of example gardens are inspiring and delightful.

[Mary Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I want to make my own kind of fairy garden and I wanted to get some ideas. I liked how they also talk about what are fairy gardens and had some great ideas on what a person can do.

[Stacy Wendt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small/Mini Gardens only

Great ideas for small potted gardens. Only plant list and a few other things were beneficial to someone like me looking for something a lot larger.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ideas in this book have really inspired me to make my own miniature gardens, with or without fairies.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a cute little how-to, sufficient instruction to get started and pretty photos for inspiration.

[CathyMW · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim and now I'm ready to make a garden! Very practical. Great pictures.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed as a resource.

[Juli Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty juvenile and heavily reliant on premade fairy accessories.

[Darlene Granberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overall book with specific points to consider in design which were helpful. Decent list of plants given, but would have been helpful to list what plants were used in the pictured designs.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great pictures and information.

[Shyla Colt]

A fun informative look at creating fairy gardens. It's a great starting point that will open up your mind to different themes, concepts.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming with useful tips. I wish that the second on dwarf plants had picture of those plants, not just written discriptions.

[Kayla Zabcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

good for tips and ideas for making refined potted fairy garden scenes using premade props. a lot about achieving desired aesthetics, as well as information on appropriate plants.

[Lydia Kass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intro to creating fairy gardens using plants and themes.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book in the winter gave me some ideas on things to do next spring. I would say this would be a good book for a beginner fairy gardener, but most of the ideas are common sense.

[Renea Landreth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to start a Fairy Garden, and this book had a lot of helpful ideas and hints, with great photos. There was even a section on how to decorate your garden for holidays. But what I found most helpful was the list of miniature plants and their description, which helps in planning a garden. Also, there was a great Resource section in the back for purchasing supplies. This section listed the vendors, web addresses if they have one, and other important contact information. Even the type of items you could get from them (plants, furniture, etc.). It's a great resource book for a beginner like myself to get ideas and helpful hints.

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and design-focused, though twasn't quite what I was looking for. This works better for potted, indoors mini-gardens, fairies mandatory.

I'm looking for planter, outdoors mini-gardens, figurines optional.

[Davienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fascinating, Fairy Gardens are wonderful. They are beautiful and lovely and tell a story and seem so easy to do for those who don't normally garden. I could see this being a very addictive hobby if or when I decided to try it.

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too structured and organized. I think I'd rather do it on my own. This-for me-seemed to take all the fun out of just making something.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was not impressed. It seemed more like a sales catalog and used a bit of plastic junk.

[Ariadna73 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful gardens with all those fantasy characters inside. Beautiful book.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best one I have read thus far! I can't wait to try some of these suggestions.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun ideas, but more focused on containers rather than larger areas. Kids loved the pictures!

[Tricia (McAllister) Houseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

great ideas for creating fairy gardens, along with directions for some of the funiture