Good morning from the garden!

Today I thought I’d share how my new fairy garden held up over the summer.

You may remember that earlier in the season I moved my fairy garden from a cracked cement birdbath into an old wheelbarrow.  I needed more space to expand!

Here’s how it looked when it was newly planted in May.

And here is how it looks now!

Um, yeah.  It definitely filled in a bit.

The creeping thyme really went to town, filling in that entire front corner …

and nearly smothering the buddha.

The Golddust Mecardonia from Proven Winners also grew like crazy.

I’ve cut that one back several times as it wanted to take over the entire space.

I knew that the wire vine that I trained on the arbor would need some regular maintenance.

I grew this one in my old fairy garden too.  It has to be woven in and out of the arbor, and then cut back when it starts getting shaggy.

The various sedum that I planted were a little less rambunctious.  They filled in, but they didn’t need cutting back at all.

The dark green plant on the upper right side of that photo above is a dwarf betony, or stachys minima.  Unfortunately, it never bloomed for me.  But it is a perennial and I’m hoping that if I protect it over the winter it will come back next year and bloom.

In addition to the Feather Boa hosta that I saved from my previous fairy garden, I also planted a new miniature hosta after I’d already shared the fairy garden back in May.

That is a Mighty Mouse hosta and I tucked it in just next to the fairy’s mailbox.

So far both of the mini hostas look great!

In the past I have had mixed results overwintering these mini’s in my fairy gardens.  Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don’t.  I used to take the top of my cement bird bath fairy garden and place it on the ground up against the house where I would bury it in leaves for the winter.  This year I plan to move the entire wheelbarrow into the carriage house for the winter.  I’ll likely also cover it with leaves and maybe wrap it somehow.

I’m hoping to keep the Alberta spruce and the Golden Ruby barberry alive over winter as well.

So I’ll just cross my fingers on that.

Overall, I’d say the fairy garden was a huge success this year.

So the next time you see a crumbling old metal wheelbarrow in the free pile at a garage sale (I did see one this summer!), be sure to snatch it up and plant your own fairy garden!