Posts Tagged With: Nature and Children

Landscaping A Fairy Land With Edible And Medicinal Plants

Welcome to Fairy Ville!

My children and I had so much fun planting this lovely artful play land together and filling it with edible and medicinal herbs.

It all started with the wasted space underneath our swing set.  It was a place that begged for fun but was let alone to become over grown with grass and weeds.

We planned to build our fairy land in the Spring but I couldn’t figure out away to eliminate the weeds and grass without herbicides and I just couldn’t bear to spray poison on the Earth.  Finally I found about using vinegar to get rid of weeds.  That is right ~ straight vinegar does the trick!  We bought a couple of gallons of plain white vinegar at the store and used a watering can to sprinkle in on during a hot, dry day.


With in 24 hours the grass and weeds were brown.  I wish I had pictures to share but I seem to have misplaced them.

Next we covered the area in weed cloth, added some dirt and the fun began!

Our happy garden is planted with beautiful helpful plants.  We chose some of our favorites especially those plants that we could get close to fairy size.  Here is what we planted:

For munching on ~

  • A Peppermint Forest
  • Thyme patches both lemon and the common creeping varieties
  • Lemon Balm Hedges
  • Borage and Marigold Trees
  • Snapdragon Bushes, not the tastiest but so fun to play with!
  • Nasturtium Seeds for vining up our Fairy Star

For harvesting to make into medicines ~

  • A Chamomile patch
  • Scullcap Trees
  • Seeds of California Poppy
  • A patch of Self Heal

And our garden ally ~

  • Santolina next to the pond to reply insects.

We have plans to add to our garden over time and through the seasons.  We would love to plant a miniature rose, bulbs for the Spring and maybe some wee baby pumpkins for a Fall harvest.  Plus our dream is to one day have royalty move in when we get our very own castle.

Below is a collection of photos of our garden.  

Enjoy!

 Here is the first stage of construction.  Our little houses have been placed; the garden bed for our California Poppy seeds is set, a pond is ready for playing in; and the Fairy Star has found a home at the back of Fairy Vill.  We planted nasturtium seeds around the star which we look forward to providing us with beautiful, peppery flowers to snack on!

 My eldest daughter had a blast added paths and fences.  Here you can see the seeds we planted in our garden bed and around the star are already sprouting.

 A Mermaid is resting in the fairy pond.  We added  a jumping log for lots of great fun playing in the water.

 Here is a fairy resting in a patch of chamomile which smells delightfully of apples.  This is my favorite place in the garden.   Just wish I was small enough to hang out there with her!

♥  We added a bistro set for tea parties.

♥  Somebody has been gardening and collecting grapes from our nearby vine in the garden.

 Hammocks for tired fairies.  We made these out of felt scrapes and chenille stems.  The hammocks are suspended between tall marigolds.

♥  We added a basket up high on one of swing set supports and new fairy family moved in right away!

 Baby fairy learning how to ride a bike.

 Our neighborhood dragon is taking his morning bath.

♥  Cooking for the fairies with tasty pansy flowers.

♥  Serving the delicious, beautiful food.

 Remi the horse is feasting on a patch of thyme, yummy!

We had a lot of the things we used to decorate/make our Fairy Land hanging around the house.  I also found some things in the garden display at Hobby Lobby.  We purchase the fairies at Michaels.  And found the little tiny fairy things like the bistro set at  Miniature Garden Shoppe because, well, I couldn’t help myself!  Or you can MYO Flower Fairy friends!

Thanks for visiting our garden!

Please note many plants are toxic and can cause harm if ingested.  It is important for children to know that they should never, ever eat a plant unless they have permission from an adult.  

More Fairy Fun ~

Shared On: Home Link Up

Participating in The Fairy Garden Contest 2013!

Categories: Gardening, Herbs For Kids and Mamas | Tags: , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tree Gazing

Trees speak to me.  A soothing rustle of leaves creates calming dappled sunshine.  Simply laying beneath a tree listening and feeling always centers and soothes me.

Listening to the peaceful sound of leaves whispering in the wind.

Feeling profound strong comfort of the Earth.

All is well here.  All is how it should be.

What a gift to simply take a moment and breathe while watching patterns of the sky and sun shifting between the leaves.  Feeling the steady love of Mother Earth cradling and nourishing every cell while letting go into the ground.

Our baby in the Fall one year enjoying beautiful golden aspens. (She is now 10 years old, sigh…)

My family is truly blessed to live in Colorado where we have easy access to rich beautiful forests.  On a recent hike we found a lovely aspen grove.  Into it we climbed to find a forest floor strewn with soft plants and leaves.  Here we nestled down together for a bit of tree gazing and centering.  The wind blowing high above in the tree tops provided a lovely show as we watched the trees dancing and swaying.  We let go of the craziness of the school year.  We let go of schedules and stress.  We let go of concerns.

Pretty soon we found ourselves taking about the beauty of nature and how we can help to preserve it.  My six-year-old decided that we should have a “nature day” at least once a week.

“What would you do?” I asked.

“Give nature love and water!” came a vigorous happy reply.

Wonderful…

At the edge of the aspen grove was a very amazing tree growing in an interesting shape.  What does it look like to you?

We thought maybe a headless warrior…

As summer moves along and eventually transforms into autumn, I hope we have many more family moments, many more simple pleasantly easy afternoons tree gazing.

Fun Fact ~ Aspens are one of the (if not the) largest organism living on Earth.  They grow connected under the Earth.  So when you see a grove of many aspens, you may only be seeing one living organism!

Golden aspens amid the pines…

Categories: Adventures And Stories, Natural Family Care, Nature Exploration, Trees | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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