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What is a fairy garden? A fairy garden can be a pollinator garden and a wonderful way to introduce children to gardening. It is also a way to express your creativity and enable pollinators even if you only have a small space. 

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What do we need to do to make a fairy garden planter? In addition to soil, plants, a fairy house and maybe a gnome or fairy figures, I like to include the four elements of Air, Water, Earth and Fire. 

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I find that a wide shallow planter works best for a fairy garden. Be sure that it has drainage holes. A mixture of potting soil with compost and a seed-starting soil will work best. After it is planted, a light organic fertilizer every three or four weeks should be enough.  

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If your planter is in a sunny spot, almost any flowering annual or herb would work well. Small creeping herbs like thyme (Thymus) would be fun along with some strongly scented flowers. The strong, sweet scent of flowers will attract butterflies, moths and fireflies. Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a winner in a sunny fairy garden along with miniature petunias also known as Million Bells (Calibrachoa) and marigolds (Tagetes).  

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In a shady spot, your fairy garden will happily support flowers such as pansies (Viola × wittrockiana) or fuchsia (Fuchsia coccinea) and begonias (Begonia grandis subsp. evansiana). This would also be a lovely opportunity to plant salad greens such as a lettuce (Lactuca sativa) or mesclun mix which loves a shady spot. 

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Fairy houses can be large or small, elaborate or simple. If you are designing your planter with your child, having them paint and decorate a small house would give them more ownership of the design. The fairy house can also be made out of Lego, boxes or sticks which gives it a really interesting twist.   

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You can easily buy little gnomes and fairies all over the place or make your own. They can represent the magical creatures you are trying to attract. While it is fun to have little houses for them to play in, most fairies, I’m told, prefer to sleep on real flowers or amongst scented herbs. 

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Often you will hear that you should add pennies to attract fairies to a fairy garden, but they are much more attracted to scented flowers and herbs. Another idea is to add glitter to your garden, but glitter interferes with the pollinators you are trying to attract, and fairies want pollinators to ride around on as they tour your garden.  

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This fairy garden planter in partial shade consists of plants taken from other planters, including orange dahlias, a yellow snapdragon and some ivy. There is a large ceramic mushroom, a solar light and rocks. Ivy represents the air as it moves a lot. Photo by Judith Cox

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The element of Air can be represented by a flag or pinwheel that moves with the wind. It looks nice placed near a little house. A piece of yarn or string with flags is fun to add as well. 

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The element of Water allows us to introduce a bee waterer to our planter. A bee waterer is a small shallow dish of water filled with stones or shells. This allows pollinators to have much needed water without the fear of drowning. The bee waterer will need to be filled regularly and that would be a great responsibility for a young new gardener. The bee waterer is also a fun way to show off special marbles and sparkly stones. 

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The element of Earth is often represented by stones. You can use stones to make paths or place them in your bee waterer. Arranging your stones in a spiral or another pattern adds visual interest to your fairy garden.