Fairy gardens enchanting gardeners
Betty Robison of Robison Acres has a 500-foot-long fairy garden running through her farm. This is her depiction of an RV park.
In addition to completed fairy gardens, Bedner’s sells separate pieces so one can make his or her own. Fairy abodes come in all different types, including a barn, cowboy boot and a camper.
Bedner’s Farm and Greenhouse sells already-completed fairy gardens or a variety of pieces and plants to create your own garden.
Part of Betty Robison’s 500-foot-long fairy garden
A fairy garden is a small garden with a variety of plants in a container with figurines.
Fairy gardens can be created in a multitude of ways, like this one with a small fairy home nestled in a variety of plants. Fairy gardens can be a fun project for kids and adults to customize to the maker’s preferences.
Christine Porter of McDonald attended a class at Bedner’s on fairy gardening with a friend and now enjoys fairy gardening as a hobby. Porter’s garden has a fairy bed, swing and a pair of fairy figurines.
Some home gardeners are thinking small these days.
Fairy gardens – featuring whimsical miniature items and plants placed in a container pot or outside garden – are a hot trend in gardening, said Laura Delach, a master gardener at Penn State Extension in Washington County.
The only limitation is your imagination, Delach said.
“Fairy gardens can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be. It’s a very artistic, creative outlet, and it doesn’t take a long time to produce one,” said Delach, noting that the pint-sized gardens appeal to people of all ages and genders. “I see a lot of grandparents creating fairy gardens with their grandchildren. It’s a great way to introduce them to gardening and spend time together.”
A variety of Lilliputian-sized plants, cottages, figurines and accessories are available at local garden centers.
Bedner’s Farm and Greenhouse in McDonald hosts workshops on how to build the mini-gardens, including a ladies’ BYOB night and children’s classes.
“The classes have been tremendously popular,” said Nicole Vogt, retail manager at Bedner’s, who has fashioned many of the diminutive gardens on display at the greenhouse and enjoys creating fairy gardens with her two children. “I love (fairy gardens). It’s my favorite part of the job. People come in and they’re always so drawn to it. People have fun with it.”
The greenhouse sells a variety of miniature plants and fairy accessories, and a majority of Bedner’s fairy garden supplies have already been sold this summer. Popular plants Vogt uses in fairy gardens include Irish, oak and reindeer moss (some collected at Mingo Creek County Park), succulents, mini evergreens, silver carpet and woody ficus.
Christine Porter of McDonald showed up at a Bedner’s fairy garden class in the spring with a friend, a bottle of wine and an open mind.
She left with an attractive fairy garden, complete with a fairy bed and a swing, and an appreciation for the art of miniature gardening.
“I’d honestly never heard of fairy gardens, but I said I’d go and give it a try. We had a really fun time. It was so relaxing,” said Porter, a real estate agent. “It’s about creating something, and then seeing what you’ve made is rewarding. I put it right by my front door and everybody comments on it, about how cool it is.”
John and Betty Robison, owners of Robison Acres in Scenery Hill, have taken fairy gardening to another level.
Winding through their 33-acre farm is a 500-foot-long fairy trail, which is open to visitors from April through June.
The Robisons’ fairy garden includes several whimsical scenes; among them are a fairy campground, an Old Mother Hubbard scene and a fairy schoolhouse.
Each year, Betty Robison, a nurse and educator at the UPMC Aging Institute and master gardener, adds items that she collects or receives as gifts, and in 2017 she plans to extend the trail.
Robison, who has gardened since she was a little girl, started an intergenerational container gardening program with her elderly clients and schoolchildren. She came up with the idea for the trail after watching her niece’s children build fairy houses in the woods of the Robisons’ nursery and wildflower sanctuary.
Since the trail opened in 2011, it has become a happy place for children.
One parent told Robison that she couldn’t recall her son, who has autism, talking more that he did while he was walking through the trail.
They have returned a few times since their first trip.
“We love every minute of it,” said Robison. “I think it’s certainly very good to give children more opportunities to be outside. Seeing the joy (the trail) brings and hearing the giggle from kids is enriching. Little children will come over, wide-eyed, and say, ‘I saw a fairy!’ and it’s so sweet. I see the fairy garden through their eyes.”