After a little bit of rearranging of some of the plants and some shifting of the clay pieces here and there, I have a finished my first fairy garden.
Wizard Tower Garden
A view from the top
Click on this photo be able to see the list of plants:
), and props are added, but I am pleased with it. 
This project has been so much fun!! It has been in the back of my mind for about 6 months, and finally came to life this week after a surprising trip to Hobby Lobby. It was the sort of shopping trip where you go just to take a look around to see what you might find because they are having a summer clearance sale. What I found finally got this started.
Here is how the project unfolded. I already had an old 14" diameter cracked clay pot that was going to be the base.
The trip to Hobby Lobby supplied me with the rest of these goodies: 2) 8" saucers(chipped), 2) 6" pots(cracked) 6) 2-1/2"pots(3 broken, 3 perfect) Total cost of $2.90. Of course when I took the photo I only put a few pieces out thinking that would be all that I would use. But I did need to use more than what's shown here.
Now to get down to business. I just had to break the big pot apart first, right? That was a little scary. I didn't want to totally destroy it. I had read about others doing this with a piece of wood inside, so with a piece of 2 x 4 in one hand and hammer in the other - whack. Okay, not too bad. A little further down on the pot than I was hoping for, but I could make it work. At least I had a solid bottom and half the side.
With the saucers I just bought, I could layer them up and create a lip on the bottom. Since they had an ugly chip out of them I put that to the back, which actually helped them fit better. But they didn't have a drainage hole because they weren't meant to drain. No problem, I have a diamond cutting 1/2" hole cutter. In no time holes were cut into them. Each one was filled with dirt and laid one top of another with second one brought forward giving it the lip I was looking for.
The next piece I wanted was a little trickier for me to figure out how to get the right size. But luckily I had BF checking in on the progress of things and at this point, he came up with a very helpful hint. I was needed to "trim" off a bit from a piece of the rim that I was going to use and he suggested using tile nippers (which I had in my tool chest!). Perfect! In fact, after I cleaned up the edge on this piece I decided to try to nippers to break it also. I was going to use the hammer and wood otherwise, but hey, this seemed a little more "controlled". Again, perfect!!
With a little playing around for placement and deciding what chunk I needed from the little pots, I got to this point.
Now I was ready to break another pot. This was the 6" one that was cracked from Hobby Lobby. It had 3 cracks going down it and I didn't want to loose too much pot, so I very gingerly tapped it. Luckily it didn't break on all three cracks. It did go further down so I knew I would have to build a sort of corral for the dirt.
I found out that it can get a little trickier as you go up getting things to hold together. There was a lot more trial and error in dirt placement. I also learned that sometimes putting the plants in as you go can help hold it together, or at least not knock it back apart. I also found some leftover mosaic tiles that I used for the stepping stones.
This is when I took a break to make a ladder for the side of the pot. I used the dead fronds from my pygmy palms with the leaves stripped off for the rungs. I used florist stem wire to wire them together.
Part II will show the finished project...
This might all seem a little silly to document a story of a Little Gem Magnolia blossoming, but we had some fun following the event. You see it all started last December when a package arrived in the mail. I didn't recognize the return address but since it was December, I assumed it was gift from my daughter, Amanda. YAY, I was right! It was two Little Gem Magnolia trees. Totally unexpected, but very happily received.
Since I live in Florida and Amanda lives in Seattle, we communicate with pictures a lot. So I have been keeping her updated on the status of said trees. At first it was where they were planted, and that they were doing okay. Then that they seemed to be growing a little, of which we were pleased. Into June it was looking good that they had taken hold and would be able to make it through the hot summer. All was well.
But I couldn't believe it when I noticed a bud forming on one of them. The little thing was only 14 inches tall! To tell the truth I watched it for a few weeks to be sure it really was a bud. I thought that little tree wouldn't be strong enough to support one of those flowers, for how big they get. So when I was sure it was a bud I started to send photos to Amanda, as if it was a newborn baby, or a puppy. But we were both excited. From the time I first noticed the bud on June 23 until today, when it fully opened it was only 23 days. And here is my photo journal of our baby, Maggie...
…....June 23, 2018...…………...July 10, 2018...……………...July 11, 2018...…………….…..July 12, 2018...…….
…....July 13, 2018...…...…..……July 15, 2018...…..….July 16, 2018 - 8AM...…..…..July 16, 2018 - 6PM..
Special Note: At the time of this blog, the second Magnolia named Mildred, is growing but not blossoming yet. She will have her own story with photos when that time comes.
A simple little theme garden...
using 4 succulents, my seashells hand-picked from the beach, and a little mermaid figurine.
It's a start, practicing for a larger fairy garden.
Yesterday I didn't really work outside as there were other things that needed doing, among them going to Lowe's for some misc. supplies. Of course that always includes going through the garden area to see what is interesting that I can't live without! Actually I had to go to that area anyway to get some mulch, and it's just not right to only look at your feet while walking. Thus I found my newest Bromeliad addition...
Neoregelia Michi. So this morning I got that set up in the shade area of my yard.
My next project was to transplant one of the geraniums into a pot. I got some of these a couple of months ago off the discount rack for $1 each. They were doing okay but never really thriving, so I will see what happens when I give one it's own pot. If it does better than the ones in the ground, I will transplant the others too.
By this time it was too hot to play in the dirt, so BF and I went Hobby Lobby where I found a couple of GREAT bargains that will show up in future blogs. I do need to mention the reason for going to Hobby Lobby was because I started reading the miniature garden forums which takes me back to the heading of this blog. Between miniature gardens, cacti and succulents, container gardening in general - yes, my mind is whirling with so many fun things to do! (and I thought I would get bored when it got too hot and humid to be outside) So it is time to quit typing and time to go back and research and plan out a mini-garden.
