A guest post from the garden fairies at May Dreams Gardens.
We don’t have much time so we’ll have to make this quick.
Carol sat too close to the warm fireplace and now she’s fast asleep with a seed catalog or two on her lap. We’re taking this opportunity to take control of her blog so she won’t put out another post about seeds and seed catalogs. Geez, is that all she thinks about in the winter-time?
“We”, by the way, are the garden fairies who live around May Dreams Gardens. We have a secret little door to get in and out of the house, which helps when it gets as cold as it got around here last week.
Tonight we want to offer five pieces of advice for how to make your own gardens “garden fairy friendly”.
1. Don’t keep the garden too neat and tidy. If you try to keep things too tidy in the garden, you’ll drive yourself nuts with all the weeding and deadheading and you won’t enjoy the garden as much as you should. And you’ll remove a lot of good plant debris that we garden fairies use to make our houses and clothes, that birds use for their nests, and that microorganisms break down to enrich the soil. When you do clean up the garden a little bit, put the plant debris in a compost bin, please, and we’ll make sure you get good compost from it.
2. Get out and observe your garden year around and around the clock. The more time you spend in your garden, the more you learn about it. We think the more you learn about your own garden, the better you make it for us garden fairies. You observe where the sun shines at different times, what areas are wetter than others, where you need more plants and more. We promise to leave you alone, most of the time, as you wander about in your pj’s in the early morning. That is, we promise to leave you alone as long as you give us some space, too. As we make our way home after a night of partying about in your garden, we aren’t always as sharp and on the look out as we should be. And perhaps we might have a tiny bit of a hangover, too, if you know what I mean, so we can be grouchy in the morning. So just leave us alone if you see one of us.
3. Try to have flowers blooming as much as you can throughout the year. We garden fairies love flowers and generally settle in gardens where we know they’ll be a good, steady parade of blooms through spring, summer, and fall. Then in the winter, if we happen to live in a midwestern garden like Carol’s, we’ll sneak inside and play amongst the blooming houseplants or write an occasional guest post. Yes, we do sometimes envy our southern cousins who get to play in gardens outside all year long but it does get quite hot for them in the summer. Anyway, try to grow as many flowers as you can.
4. Lay off the pesticides. Those chemicals don’t just kill off the pests, they can take out the bees and garden fairies, too. Have you ever seen a garden fairy who didn’t run away fast enough when someone started spraying that stuff and got soaked with it? It’s just an awful sight! If you saw it once, you’d figure out other ways to get rid of those pests in your garden.
5. Mix it up in the garden with lots of variety. We like trees and shrubs for shade, along with flowers and foliage plants, maybe even some tall grasses and a bit of lawn. Oh, and we like lots of ground cover to nap under in the afternoon. And don’t forget to find a spot for a vegetable garden. We garden fairies don’t just sip flower nectar all night long, you know, we get hungry for real food, too. And we promise we’ll only eat a tiny bit, never as much as the rabbits eat. Aren’t those rabbits just like pigs in the garden? And it is so funny to watch Carol try to chase them out of the garden!
We have more advice to write about, but it looks like Carol is starting to wake up, so we better hurry and close this post. We still want to get into that seed catalog before she is fully awake and mark a few seeds that we want and maybe trick her into getting them.
Quickly, then, we’ll post this bud picture.
We hope Carol doesn’t get upset that we showed you this Stenosarcos ‘Vanguard’ orchid bud. She’s secretly hoping it will be blooming in time for January’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th, so act surprised if you see it on her bloom day post.
Bye for now,
The Garden Fairies at May Dreams Gardens
I can just hear their tiny little voices behind this post!
What wonderful fairies you have! That is a very unusual orchid, cant’ wait to see it on the fifteenth. Faire Garden needs a fairy door and maybe some outdoor furniture for them. Do you think they will sneak in and write a post for me?
Lovely post. Reminded me of:
http://www.urban-fairies.com/
and the fairy doors in Ann Arbour. Your fairies seem very sensible and offer good advice.
How nice to hear from your resident garden fairies! They offer some great advice. Time to get them a show on HGTV, I think 🙂
I wish we could teach garden fairies to clean out cat boxes. Wouldn’t that be heaven?
Hey, garden fairies, you’ll be welcome in my garden if you need a break 🙂
Don’t forget to tell the little ones there are fairies in the garden.
The Fairy Door is too cute. I need to get one for my daughter and grandkids to go along with the “catch and release” fairy kit they got for Christmass.
OOOh. My orchids won’t be ready for Bloom Day! But then, I never get my photos together in time for Bloom Day anyway. Bad Robin.
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Well done Garden Fairies for typing so quickly. We won’t tell Carol you were there 🙂
Carol, you’re the only one I know who has garden fairies. Can I have a couple?
All garden faires are welcome in my Garden. Lord know I can use the help with keeping the weeds away and bring in some lady fairy bugs.
I guess I can safely say I am not a fairy rule breaker. Ok, except for #3 unless you count indoor plants too.
As my garden abides by the Midwest garden fairies’ rules, I must have some fairies in my own garden, not that I’ve seen any. They are so right about the piggy eating of rabbits. If I left out tiny dart guns, do you think the fairies would take care of my rabbit problems?
Dear Garden Fairies, I promise not to tell Carol that you were tap dancing away on her computer. She is a lucky lady to have such talented faries in her garden with such a generous spirit that you share some great garden tips with us humans. I hope she gets the seeds that you choose becasue I know you will tend them and make them grow better than any others.
What happened? Those garden fairies!
Seeded, I can hear those garden fairies, too, laughing at me.
Frances, if you leave a door open too long, garden fairies just might come in to your house and write a post for you. Leave your PC on for them.
Hermes, Thanks, their advice does seem ‘pretty good’, if I do say so myself.
Colleen, That would be a good show, hosted by garden fairies!
Sherry, Oh, Sherry, garden fairies won’t do any work. They are really kind of lazy.
Verobirdie, I’ll pass the word along to the garden fairies.
Wiseacre, “A catch and release” fairy kit? I’d like to see that!
Robin(Bumblebee), Bad Robin, indeed. You ought to join us for garden bloggers’ bloom day. Start now and you’ll be ready by the 15th because there are so many blooms right now…
Chris, I found out about the garden fairies!
Eleanor, I wish I could give you a few garden fairies, but they are hard to catch!
Curtis, Garden fairies rarely actually ‘help’ in the garden, more often they are the cause of mischief and the unexplainable in the garden.
Mr. McGregor’s Daughter, It’s worth a try, though won’t we try just about anything to get rid of the rabbits?
Lisa at Greenbow, You are right, the garden fairies will take care of the seeds they picked out!
Thanks all for the comments and for letting the garden fairies have a bit of fun today.
“We still want to get into that seed catalog before she is fully awake and mark a few seeds that we want and maybe trick her into getting them.”
Uh-huh. Blame it on the fairies then. So typical. Tsk, tsk.
Chuck B., Well who else would I blame a few odd seed purchases on?
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Dear Indiana Garden Fairies,
Where are your Southern Cousins? I’ve done a pretty good job of following the rules, but have never caught a glimpse of them… are they afraid of those darned squirrels? Would they like an ice cube sprinkled with Southern Comfort for their parties?
Please advise,
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
This was a wonderful post. Your garden faeries gave us good advice, Carol. I hope that your secret orchid blooms in time for the 15th!
Can you cajole your garden fairies into doing house and yardwork for you, Carol, or do they just sneak onto your blog with sage advice now and again?
This was fun! Just what I needed on a dreary, melty Monday morning.
In our very hot summers, I leave saucers of water out for the garden fairies…although I have to empty them out and put fresh water in every day so that the mosquitoes don’t take over instead.
Annie in Austin, the garden fairies here advise that there ARE garden fairies in your garden and yes, anything you’d like to put out for them would be much appreciated!
Kate, I hope it blooms, too. It’s all I’ve got that has any hope of blooming by the 15th.
Jodi, you know that garden fairies won’t do any work or be cajoled! They do their own thing. Who knows when they’ll be back, but with all these comments, I’m sure it won’t be long. I’ll have to watch for them!
MSS@Zathan Gardens, How kind of you and I bet the butterflies and birds like the water, too.
The garden fairies thank you for all the comments and kinds words!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Ah, Carol. Thank you. Feeling blah with this darn winter cold, I needed this silly post to cheer me up – or perhaps the fairies got to me? I think your orchid will bloom before the 15th. The fairy force is very strong here…
Mary, Thank you, and may the garden fairy force be with you, too. Maybe they have a secret elixir you can drink to get rid of your cold!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Utterly adorable posting. I just loved it.
Nan, thanks I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ll let the garden fairies know!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
The wee folk have given lots of good advice. I’m sure they have been mixing the seed plantings up around my garden…it’s not my fault that radishes turned into zinnias and vice versa I’m sure. They may have decided to help me out with rule number one and five.
Sleeping while the faeries are out and about is a sure way to get tangles in your hair BTW.
Blueblue, your fairies sound quite mischievious. I didn’t know that about tangles in your hair. I’ll have to be careful.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Would love to do this with my daughter. I have a garden bed that would be perfect, we actually picked out some flowers and planted them the other day. Any ideas were we can buy garden fairies that don’t cost that much to add to our space, Thank You