Fairy Garden Terrarium

My little fairy garden is complete!

It was simple, really...

A large fish bowl ($10 at Goodwill years ago), pea gravel in the bottom, a layer of potting soil, terrarium plants ($10), some sand, a picket fence made out of wooden stir sticks and hot glue, a bit of moss, a few accessories like a small broken terra cotta pot and..

...a tiny little fairy found at an estate sale last week ($2).

Our little mystical, make-believe world.

If you had a fairy garden of your own what would you want in it?

I think mine still needs a little chair or bench or maybe even a tiny little rope swing in the front, what do you think?

I created an entire clipboard of fairy garden ideas found on Hometalk if you are interested go check it out HERE:

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DIY Chair Planter ~ In the Flower Garden

I have had a thing for chairs for awhile.  I don't know exactly what it is.  Maybe it's because there are endless varieties of chairs.  Maybe it's because when you have lots of chairs everyone has a place to sit and make themselves at home.  That's always nice.  I just find chairs so charming.

But lately I'd noticed a couple of chairs that didn't have a place around here anymore.  They were looking tired and worn out and they had cracks going through the seats.  Not so charming.  Not the kind of chairs you want to offer to your guests, for sure!

They were destined for the next donation drop off...

But then all this Creative Planter talk going on got me to thinking....

About what I could add to these chippy "old" chairs to turn them into some fun garden planters.

I removed the cracked and broken seats and screwed the chains of wire hanging baskets right to the seat frames.  These hanging baskets have had a good life too...just like the chairs.  Notice all the cracked and faded charm they have?

I started out trying to cut a circle into the seat, BUT the seat was so badly cracked that it just came apart while I was sawing through it...so this ended up being the best solution.  Work with what you've got, right?

I quickly popped off the seat of the 2nd chair by turning it upside down and hammering it fiercly.  We call this therapy around here.  :)

I lined the wire baskets with some of this green moss. 

(It's grown right here in The Pacific NW ~ how's that for local!).

Many stores also sell the liners for these wire baskets, BUT they were out at the store I went to today.  I was so determined that nothing would thwart my chair planting project that I just grabbed the moss and moved on.

I also grabbed these shade happy geraniums, some quick growing vines and those adorable little "mega-white" Bacopa flowers that are great filler in hanging pots.  Just enough to fill my baskets with a little growing room left over.  I know these plants will need room to grow and mature so I didn't want to over do it.

My first chair planter finished!

Here are both chairs in the garden with a cute little girl playing peek-a-boo behind the tree.  :)

I'm so excited to watch them mature and fill in.  The vines I bought said on their insert that they are good with part shade and are FAST growing.  Just what these planters need.

I'm hoping they will become big bushy mounds of flowers growing over the seat area and vines cascading down the sides just like the big beautiful hanging baskets.

I can already picture it!

I'm loving this sweet little vignette in the corner of our yard.  

We are completely surrounded by fences, sheds and other people's houses, so it's nice to have something pretty to distract from all of that "fenced-in" feeling.  

For more fun Creative Planter Ideas check out this Google Hangout hosted by Kelly Elko of Eclectically Vintage and some other talented bloggers.

Enjoy your Spring Gardens!

Sherry

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http://www.everydayhomeblog.com

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Summer's Bounty

I love summer and all that it brings.  Sunshine and BBQ's.  Water fights.  Laying in the pool on floaties.  Fresh produce and so much green!

Remember our little raised garden bed?  You can read about it's origins HERE.

Just a tiny little piece of real estate to contain a few vegetable plants and satisfy that need I felt to grow a garden.  I've been watering it faithfully and watching expectantly...

 
It has been fun watching it grow and expand.  We got a nice little crop of radishes early on and now we are waiting for some string beans, tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), zuchini, onions and carrots to mature!  I  could not keep my little lemon cucumber going unfortunately.  :(

It's really taken off lately...

The string beans could probably use another 4 or 5 feet of climbing net!  The tomatoes have filled in their little quarter section nicely, and the zuchini is ready to branch out and explore the surrounding areas...lol.  The kiddos and I munched on a couple of "baby" carrots today.  Yum.  :)

 And finally, I have caught glimpses of tiny little green tomatoes!  And I look forward to the day when I will be able to pull a big, sweet and juicy tomato from the vine and slice it for fresh-from-the-garden tomato sandwiches with fresh ground pepper.  I might even have to try some of the olive oil mayo on my fresh tomato sammy! 

I have a columnal apple flanking the door on the back deck...along with a fig on the opposite side.

Say HI to Sadie!!!

After years of babying this little lady, she has finally offered up her first apple.  Seriously.  It took years.  I was starting to worry that I would never see an apple from this sweet little tree.  Perhaps she doesn't like being confined to a pot so much...but here is my little prized beauty:

Do you think it will be sweet?

And, of course, we have plenty of baby figs!!!  What on earth will we do with figs???  Any great recipes or ideas for fresh figs that you want to share?  I would love to try them.  :)

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