CREATE A FAIRY GARDEN

CREATE A FAIRY GARDEN!

Fairy gardens are all the rage this summer.  They are fun, magical and easy to create.  Follow these easy guidelines to make one for your own home or patio.  The only limitation is your imagination!

To design and plant a garden for fairies, begin by thinking small.  You’ll need a small container like a terrarium, box or basket; a selection of small plants that fairies like; and small ornaments and treasures to tempt and please the fairies.

Arrange your plants and ornaments like a natural landscape keeping the tiny fairies in mind.  Create pathways and beaches; even a water feature in your miniature garden.  Fairies love places to hide so be sure to include fairy houses and other hide-a-ways to entice fairies to settle in your enchanted garden.  Fairies will want a place to hide and will tend to make their homes in gardens that provide outlets to quickly disappear from the prying attention of human eyes.

The gardens can be kept inside near a window or outside in a protected area, preferably in partial shade with dancing rays of sun and moonlight.  Water as needed remembering that often the container has no drainage. Fertilizers make plants grow bigger and faster and since we won’t want to over-crowd our fairy friends, we don’t recommend it.  Trim your plants as needed unless the fairies do it first.  

Each fairy garden is unique depending on the person who creates it and the fairies who move into it.

Outdoor Fairy Gardens

Fairies love fragrant flowers like Honeysuckle, Roses, Sweet Peas and Lavender.

Appropriately name ‘Elfin’ Thyme and ‘Baby Tears’ are two fairy favorites and make a great ground cover for your garden.

Foxgloves make nice fairy dresses; Columbine used for bonnets; Lady Slippers for shoes; Lamb’s Ear for soft beds; Milkweed pods for baby fairy cradles, walnut shells make nice little boats for sailing and acorn shells for bowls.  

Fairies love taking rides on butterflies and hummingbirds, so plants that attract these beauties are fairy friendly too!

After you create your magical miniature fairy garden, enjoy taking time to relax in your gardens trying to catch a glimpse of the magical fairies as they pass through your enchanted garden.

SPRUCE UP YOUR PATIO

Your deck or patio can look great with a giant Elephant Ear Plant or a Baby King Tut Pot of grasses. We have at least two months of frost free weather to enjoy them. They are now 50% off regular price. Be different and tropical plants will do it for you.

Keeping Those Plants Beautiful In Summer Heat

Hello fellow gardeners,

Summer can be a challenging time for growing plants. Whether you have a large garden plot or containers on your porch or patio, they need a little TLC this time of the season.  Although we have been getting a good bit of rain in most local areas this summer, plants grown in containers will still dry out very quickly.  Be sure to check them every day for moisture.  Water when the soil is dry one inch below the surface.  When watering, water the soil, not the leaves as this may cause the plant 

to be susceptible to disease.

Mulch is a great way to keep moisture around plants longer.  Try adding mulch to your containers.  A neat trick is to mass your containers and cover the bottom of the pots with mulch.  This will help to keep them cool and moist.

Hold off on over-fertilizing during the hot summer months.  Many plants will slow their growth during the hot days to fight off heat and shouldn't be encouraged to grow.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ashcombe would like to invite you to join us for Dog Days, scheduled for Saturday, August 22nd.  Grab your dog and come enjoy a morning of fun!  We will have visiting rescue organizations, adoption opportunities, hot dog and soda special, flyball relay races for dogs, dress your dog contest and pagent, prizes and more!