Kids need things that are tactile, they love to touchy, feely, so consider plants like above that they can have some fun with, not just watch grow. That love will come later.

I agree that snapdragons are magical to children. My daughters love to make the flowers "talk". I think that mini roses would also be nice. I purchased some foxglove seeds last year but disgarded them after reading the warning label on the packet. Foxglove is a source of digitalis prescribed by doctors to strengthen the heart and regulate its beat. It is very poisonous!

My children love to pick flowers so I plant cosmos in our garden each year. They have fun panting the seeds and watching them grow. We get so many blooms that my daughter's cannot pick them all. They put them in their hair and tie them into bracelets. The seed from the cosmos is also easy to harvest and the girls help collect it. The cosmos we have are pink, purple and white.

what about a couple of strawberry plants? i seem to recall my childhood imagination figuring one berry would feed 10 or so little fairies.

love so see pictures of what you guys come up with.

shelly

And I know it's heresy, but dandelions with their puffballs if you have a small corner where they can be imprisoned.

Write her name by planting lettuce seeds in a bed.

Daisies for daisy chains, cherry tomatoes for small treats

Any plants that will attract butterflies, and a water dish for the butterflies. Don't forget to give the butterflies a place to light while they drink.

Ray

minibot (who only wishes she had kids to share this stuff with!)

I'm making a fairy garden for my girls too. Its going to be in a clearing in the middle of an orchard (many many apple trees!!!). The plan is kidney shaped, and about 10-12 feet long (4-5 feet wide) with a small hill at its center. At one end will be a wishing well with irises in it. The other end will be a small round flat area covered in moss - like a "meeting space" for the tiny people.

These are the other plants I'm planning to have....
Columbine
Freesias
Violets
Lily of the Valley
Blue Bells
Irish moss or Sweet Woodruff
Wild Strawberries
Rosemary - pruned to resemble a bonsai tree
I'm tring to find a way to add minature roses, but they might have to go into the window boxes of the girls playhouse thats nearby...

We're working on finding small birdhouses that can be modified to look like fairy houses (glue on a "door" to hide the bird hole) scattered among the garden, and a doll house sized park bench to place under the rosemary "tree" for the top of the hill.

After much "research" online and in books the girls and I found that the general standards for a magical fairy garden should have the following items...

Water for fairy drinking (preferably moving, like a stream or small pond)
Flat rocks for "sunning" themselves...
Fragrant herbs and flowers (anything preferred by butterflies or hummingbirds will work)
Fairy "Food" - wild strawberries, heather, any small berries...
Apple trees (for some reason this came up a lot in the research, sacred tree to fairies??)

Hope this helped anyone thinking of making one too...

Fairies

THERE are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
It's not so very, very far away;
You pass the gardner's shed and you just keep straight ahead --
I do so hope they've really come to stay.
There's a little wood, with moss in it and beetles,
And a little stream that quietly runs through;
You wouldn't think they'd dare to come merrymaking there--
Well, they do.

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
They often have a dance on summer nights;
The butterflies and bees make a lovely little breeze,
And the rabbits stand about and hold the lights.
Did you know that they could sit upon the moonbeams
And pick a little star to make a fan,
And dance away up there in the middle of the air?
Well, they can.

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
You cannot think how beautiful they are;
They all stand up and sing when the Fairy Queen and King
Come gently floating down upon their car.
The King is very proud and very handsome;
The Queen--now you can quess who that could be
(She's a little girl all day, but at night she steals away)?
Well -- it's Me!

Rose Fyleman

Good luck! Hopefully your daughter will love it half has much as you will!!

H

We tried bergenia and columbines last year, but they didn't come back. We also have enjoyed making stepping stones together for the garden-a fun project, and painting old furniture for the garden. Don't forget pinwheels, spinners, chimes, etc. She loves to spend time in her garden, and I love it also.

I love this ..

Having said that, I recommend miniature roses and rain lillies (because they're magic, the way they appear and disappear!)

And, for the fairy gardeners who are old enough to be out after dark, glow in the dark pebbles. I found mine at hearthsong.com (they also have clear fairies with lights in them and various other little things.)

Anyway - mine has ended up being placed under a 2 year old corkscrew willow tree instead - It's closer to the house and is much much bigger than originally anticipated. For now the sweet woodruff and wild strawberries are filling out the area around the base of the willow, there's a violet and elfin thyme covered hill with a small lake at the bottom of it and a small gravel path leading to the top (a gazebo and miniture roses pruned to look like climbing roses are being added to the top of the hill later this fall) and a flattened out hollow covered in irish moss for a "meeting place." I have variegated forms of thyme and melissa lavender as shrubs around the edge of the garden and a few branches from my over zealous pink and white weigela hangs over the "hollow". The fairy garden is actually an extension of my butterfly garden, just slightly shaded (and will be deeply shaded when the willow fills out over the next couple of years) I just added some rembrandt tulips I hope will give a nice dramatic splash of color next spring before the freesias, columbine, violets and roses bloom. (and after years of plain colored tulips I can tell the girls that the fairies painted these ones!!!)

I will post pics as soon as I can but right now I'm being selfish - want to keep it to myself till I feel it has some semblance of being ready for public viewing... :) Also waiting for the plants to fill out and really look like it does in my head (did that make sense or did I just seem nutty???)

As well as the gazebo I'm working on 4 houses to put nestled in the sweet woodruff and a "bait shop" for beside the lake and looking for some small stumps or seats to put around the thyme hollow, maybe even a little swing for the fairy babes? Next year I'm hoping the willow will be big enough to dangle twinkling lights in and lots of birdhouses of course... Soon as I figure out where to put it I'm adding some white heliotrope that I grew from cuttings and have slightly too much of. Now I'm just hoping that the wild strawberries calm down cause they are going bananas and I fear they will choke out the rest of my plants...

I'm 30 years old, mother of 4, a criminal psychologist in training and I am no afraid to admit that I love my garden. I am envisioning a few years from now laying in soft green grass in the shade of my contorted willow tree staring into the little village and seeing if I can see the sparkling glint of gossamer wings, or hearing the giggling of fairy children in the rustling leaves of the willow tree.....

There are so many wonderful ideas here, for anyone wanting to create a special place for children to enjoy the garden. I hope there are more great ideas out there and anyone who wants to jump in and contribute...it would be greatly appreciated!