I've tried experimenting with doing a few fairy gardens but the ones indoors don't seem to do well. I think it's because of poor drainage. How do y'all fix these cute indoor pots to ensure good drainage.?

My granddaughter had the same problem. Her moss died right away.

I kept them alive by sticking the whole thing in the sink and giving em a 'shower' with the sink hose. Had no problem with the moss...but now that it's over a year later some of the plants had died off and others had gotten too big, so I just re-planted both gardens. I like to change things up every once in a while anyway...keeps me from getting bored!
I also 'learned' (from somewhere--not sure where) that if you keep the little plants IN their little plastic pots, it keeps them from growing too large, so that's what I did this year. We'll see how that works out...




btw---even though I kept the plants in thier little plastic pots they are surrounded by potting soil---so it's ok to water the whole thing and keep everything from drying out. The pots I used were actual garden pots that I already had (and were broken) so they have drainage holes in the bottom. In the taller terra cotta one, I used some styrofoam peanuts in the back of the bottom part just so I didn't have to use as much dirt...but everything is held in place (the 'steps' and the other broken pieces) with dirt and then it's filled with dirt.

Adorable, Patty!

Moss has always been difficult for me to keep alive in a pot without bringing along a significant amount of the soil in which it was originally growing, and then with my work schedule, I have trouble watering often enough.

I gave up on using it as a top-dressing and use aquarium gravel &/or other plants, like Peperomia prostrata & making a whole bunch of cute little leaf babies.

If soil is staying moist for too long, try adding a lot of perlite in the future, and avoiding peat moss if possible. "Potting soil" that I've seen has always been almost all peat, so bags that say "cactus" or "palm" can be a lot easier to keep plants alive because the roots are able to access so much more oxygen. Roots need oxygen & moisture at the same time to function. With just moisture, they suffocate & rot.

Thanks Sarasota Patty and Purple inopportune. My soil is definitely staying too moist and I'll have to rethink using my pot with the solid bottom. I'm determinedto keep trying.

Make sure if you use styrofoam peanuts they aren't biodegradable. My daughter used them in a flower pot and the ground sunk and when we took it apart it was mush and really stunk. Just a little FYI there I of course was laughing

Great attitude! I don't let a few fails stop me either. There are a million & 6 ways to do anything related to gardening. If only 1% of those are the really good ones, that's still a *bunch* of great possibilities!

Status of my mini camper garden.


The firesticks (Euphoria tirucalli) stems won't make it through a hard frost, but have been worth the couple minutes it took to trim them, wait a couple days, stick into garden for "instant trees," even if they aren't very leafy.

Cute Tiffany!

I've kind of leaned towards
"wild Hobbit look/Shire fairies".
Too middle of the road??

I thought I'd said thanks to you, Ginny, in Nov. but something clearly went wrong. So sorry for the inexcusable delay in saying thank you!

Adorable, Otter!!! I don't think it's "too" anything, just the cutest thing!

purpleinopp said:I thought I'd said thanks to you, Ginny, in Nov. but something clearly went wrong. So sorry for the inexcusable delay in saying thank you!

Adorable, Otter!!! I don't think it's "too" anything, just the cutest thing!

I agree Otter, I think it's adorable!

Otter, my pleasure. ;) How long have you been involved in mini cultivation? I discovered it in 2013 & have been fascinated ever since.

This is my latest not-too-little, little creation. You can read about how I made it on my blog page if you like. Otherwise I hope you just enjoy the finished product...

How cute Wilma

Wilma, my knees hurt from falling in love with your project! It's so great, so cute! And 2 thumbs for the re-use & saved-from-the-landfill aspect.
To click to Wilma's blog about this: https://garden.org/blogs/entry...

Thanks so much Tiffany. And thanks for the acorns! In a few days I'll have some more pics when I get this outside into it's "village" setting.

My pleasure! I look forward to your updates.

So this is the fairy garden village...

Also shown in landscape photos with most of the plants ID'd.