Planting A Fairy Garden

One of the things to keep in mind when creating a fairy garden is that you are creating a total environment. Variety is important. You want plants that provide fragrance, that offer food sources such as fruits and berries, and you want a wide range of blossoms across as many seasons as is possible for your climate. You also want some sort of water source or water feature, both to balance the elements and to provide water for birds and other creatures.

The garden should be as organic as you can make it so that the space is as healthy as possible for plants, animals and humans. Critters and insects are a natural and important part of gardens, even if their actions sometimes seem to run counter to the gardener’s efforts. A woman I heard lecture on fairy gardens at Westercon 56 said that messiness is important to provide private spaces for faery folk in your garden. She said you can even put little houses or boxes in your yard as fairy homes. Be sure not to add too many, as you don’t want it to be too crowded. How you garden can also affect what sort of a fairies you attract. Formal gardens with manicured paths and beds will attract more formal and noble fey folk than slightly-overgrown patches and funky step-stones.

All faeries love thick growths of flowering plants. Flowers that have bell-shaped blossoms are often ones associated with faeries. Bluebells, foxglove, snapdragons, roses, holly and ivy are all plants favored by fairies. Planting beds of herbs can also suit fairies. Lavender is a good choice, as it has a lovely fragrance and flowers purple. Mallow has a tendency to attract birds and butterflies. Often flowering vines and plants that trail can be grown well in pots.

Various insects are viewed as totems in various cultures, and you might wish to plant to attract bugs or butterflies that are significant in your spiritual practice. Mexican beliefs see monarch butterflies as the souls of the dead. Celtic spirituality assigns the same significance to white moths. The Aztecs saw the hummingbird as souls of warriors. Ladybugs, praying mantids, spiders, dragonflies, ants and bees are all part of healthy garden systems.

Having trees, fruiting or greenery, are also an important part of a faery garden. Driads, also spelled dryads, are spirits believed to reside in trees. To encourage wilder fairy folk to come live in your garden you will want to plant some willows. Fairy circles is the name traditionally given to plantings of trees, natural or gardened, that form a circle. Many Wiccans and Pagans view these tree circles as potent spaces of fairy energy. Oaks, cedars and pines are popular choices when gardeners are purposely planting to form a fairy circle. Try to never carry iron, especially iron knives, into spaces that are inhabited with faery folk. Some fairies are negatively effected by iron and many people have reported suddenly losing iron blades in the vicinity of fairy tree circles.