(photo credit: qvc on facebook)
It has often been said that you should leave a special part of your garden alone, reserved as a space where fairies may play. Okay, I didn't come up with it....I just thought it was a bunch of lazy people trying to explain why one part of their gardens didn't look tended to. Personally I like that thought of fairies playing among my flowers at night. All I ask is that they clean up after themselves, and stay away from the lawnmower when in use. Cleaning bugs off of a car is hard enough, I don't even want to think about cleaning fairy off of the lawnmower.
Are you smiling yet?
Okay, so.....the picture shows a large clay pot. I thought I had one of those around here somewhere, but on a quick look I don't see it so I grabbed a used smaller size but still perfect enough. And I bet you can use a large plastic flower pot as well.
I don't yet have my hens and chicks or my ferns and moss. I will get to the garden center this week to begin the assembly of it then but I wanted to see if I could get the pot taken care of first. Oh, I did stop at Michaels Craft store and they have cute wooden houses on either jute or cord for a dollar should you want your fairy to have a house.
Now back to the pot.
I grabbed a used clay pot I had already. You can buy new to try this, I just wanted something to play around with first as I figured out how I am going to do my garden. I would hate to spend a lot of money on a new pot and smash it.
In the picture, it looked like someone cut it out with a Dremel hand saw or something. I do have one of those but I wanted something more natural looking so I decided to control break my pot.
Before you start I suggest these few things:
- safety goggles or glasses- no need to risk getting something in your eyes
- a cheap white mask. if your cutting this pot, it gets dusty and who knows what's in the clay so why breathe that in
- duct tape - to control the break
- pliers --don't tell my husband I used his craftsman good pliers ;)
- a solid place to work
- a hammer
I laid the pot on my husbands basement work bench
2.
I took some black duct tape in long strips and tore them in half lengthwise and lined the inside and around to the outside down to the bottom of the pot.
3.
I wasn't sure just how big an opening I wanted as I wanted it to look natural. I began by GENTLY tapping the pot at the top between the tape with a hammer. I know your reading this thinking how can I hit that pot without smashing it? You don't really know...I gently tapped it and you can see I got a nice straight crack down the center. I was tapping it to weaken it...not Smash it. And yes, cutting it with a tool can be done too....but this is how I did it.
4.
I used the pliers to chip small pieces away. The tape really helped it not break past where I wanted it to.
5.
I worked my way down the pot...turning it and looking at it to see how I wanted the opening to look, and then chip a bit more. Remember, you don't want to go too far down to the bottom because you need to add dirt there to start the first layer. And flat clay trays or broken clay pot pieces will be added throughout to give that layered look.
6.
I pulled the tape back when I was done to check if it was enough....and then carefully removed the rest of the duct tape.
7.
And here is how it looks. I love that raw look to the edge making it seem time worn. I will be sure to pick out the plants for the pot in the appropriate size to the pot. This pot measures 8" tall with an 8.5" diameter opening at the top. Depending on the size of the pot, the house also needs to be in proportion and in looking at these Michaels houses I got they may be too big for this sized pot. But I do have Christmas village houses with an English look to them that may work too.
Houses measure 5" tall.
However you lay your pot out, this is meant to be a whimsical, fun project so no way is wrong. As soon as I gather my greens I will update this blog in how I layered everything together step by step. I hope that you try making a fairy garden as well and I look forward to seeing your photos on my Facebook page.