Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden

by Julie Bawden-Davis, Beverly Turner

Overview

Design, plant, accessorize, and care for your very own fairy garden by choosing the perfect container, planting luxurious pint-sized plants, decorating with properly scaled accessories, and telling a story through the delicate fairies you choose.

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!

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616088330
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	03/06/2013
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	396,558
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Julie Bawden-Davis developed her green thumb at the same time she started writing. Since graduating from California State University, Long Beach, in 1985 with a BA in journalism, she has authored several gardening books and written over 1,500 articles for a wide variety of publications, including Better Homes & Gardens, Organic Gardening, and the Los Angeles Times. She is a member of the Garden Writer’s Association of America and a University of California Certified Master Gardener.

Beverly Turner is one of the leading authorities on miniature fairy gardening. Her creations have inspired a devotion to the tiny landscapes among the thousands who have attended her sold-out seminars at M&M Nursery in Orange, California. In addition to twenty years in the nursery industry, Turner is an accomplished actress, director, and set designer.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Chapter 1 Developing a Theme 1

Chapter 2 Designing with a Captivating Focal Point 19

Chapter 3 Accessorizing Your Miniature Landscapes 35

Chapter 4 Creating Action 53

Chapter 5 Telling a Story 67

Chapter 6 Planting and Care Practicalities 81

Chapter 7 The Perfect Home: Container Choices 95

Chapter 8 Miniature Plants for Fairyland 111

Chapter 9 Decorate for the Holidays! 133

Resources 147

Acknowledgments 157

About the Authors 159

Index 163

Editorial Reviews

For those who have always enjoyed the imaginative world of dollhouses, writer Bawden-Davis and garden designer Turner offer inspiration and instruction for creating miniature gardens. By combining bonsai trees, tiny plants, and dollhouse size props, readers can create an entire playful landscape within a single planter. Photographs, inspiration, and instruction are included for gardens that range from formal parterres and rustic retreats to fantastical fairylands and storybook dioramas. Because these are living gardens, not floral arrangements, cultivation guidance for readers who have never gardened on such a small scale is included. A chapter on miniature plants lists more than 100 ground covers, perennials, and bonsai-sized plants. Another chapter features ideas for holiday and seasonal tabletop gardens. Finally, the authors include a retail resource section with dozens of online sources for accessories and plants. With lots of simple projects and cheerful inspiration, this is a fun addition to the hobbyist world for the young and the young-at-heart. 75 color photographs. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

“With lots of simple projects and cheerful inspiration, this is a fun addition to the hobbyist world for the young and the young-at-heart.” —Publishers Weekly

“Beautiful photographs of miniature gardens that will bring big joy to your life.” —Library Journal

“This book is sure to become the go-to manual for miniature gardening. Practical actions and whimsical thought are woven together in a delightful juxtaposition that will have readers reaching for their drawing pads.” —Inside Belleville

"Fairy Gardening…shows how to plant and accessorize gardens that, like bonsai, create miniature worlds, but require a fraction of the time and care.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“Whether you have children or just a fanciful inner child, consider checking out this book for inspiration to create your own tiny, beautiful, inspiring fairy gardens.” —About.com, Small Farm

“Turner and Bawden-Davis do not disappoint. Fairy Gardening truly is filled with heart and it will warm yours to find, and enjoy reading, this delightful book.”—Kitsap Sun

“Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner make fairy gardening a fun project where even a newbie can create magic.”&mdash:The Country Registe

“Crammed full of ideas, the photos alone are worth the price of the book.” —Newstimes

“…this book is not just about placing fairies around a tiny garden; it is about thinking inwardly, reflecting on what you love in a garden, thinking about movement and action and telling a story with a past, present and future, all depicted with plants and stationary objects in a miniature garden.” —Dig It! Magazine

“With lots of simple projects and cheerful inspiration, this is a fun addition to the hobbyist world for the young and the young-at-heart.” —Publishers Weekly

“Beautiful photographs of miniature gardens that will bring big joy to your life.” —Library Journal

“This book is sure to become the go-to manual for miniature gardening. Practical actions and whimsical thought are woven together in a delightful juxtaposition that will have readers reaching for their drawing pads.” —Inside Belleville

"Fairy Gardening…shows how to plant and accessorize gardens that, like bonsai, create miniature worlds, but require a fraction of the time and care.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“Whether you have children or just a fanciful inner child, consider checking out this book for inspiration to create your own tiny, beautiful, inspiring fairy gardens.” —About.com, Small Farm

“Turner and Bawden-Davis do not disappoint. Fairy Gardening truly is filled with heart and it will warm yours to find, and enjoy reading, this delightful book.”—Kitsap Sun

“Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner make fairy gardening a fun project where even a newbie can create magic.”&mdash:The Country Registe

“Crammed full of ideas, the photos alone are worth the price of the book.” —Newstimes

“…this book is not just about placing fairies around a tiny garden; it is about thinking inwardly, reflecting on what you love in a garden, thinking about movement and action and telling a story with a past, present and future, all depicted with plants and stationary objects in a miniature garden.” —Dig It! Magazine

From the Publisher