Two years ago I built a fairy garden in a container that came out of my HyperTufa exploration days. It's a very neat medium of concrete and vermiculite and stuff...and it drains water as fast as a broken ten dollar bill disappears. Since I'm not too great at watering, that means that my nice store bought plants died at a faster rate than planned. I'd made a pumpkin carriage and a bird house and stuff, but it looked haunted after a month. Sigh.
This year I'm getting to know the plants in my yard better, trying to see who is drought resistant and who is pretty in summer as part of a low-maintenance yard makeover for next year. Can I live with the dizzy mess of a wildflower yard? Anyhow, I saw my forlorn little garden sitting by a pot and thought I'd take a different approach than last year. I dug up some of these little plants that were living in completely dry soil and put them in some saturated ground in my fairy garden. And amazingly two days later they're still alive! I think it looks fabulous AND love that it's plants from my yard. I even have a couple of bitty strawberry looking fruits.
After things get situated I'll see if they can again thrive in the dry summer soil they were living in before.
The evolution of this garden is the same as the evolution of my building houses for earth spirits. More relaxed. More just using what's available. I'm using a method now where I just use the materials that I find in one trip to the shore or mountain, instead of picking from a store of sticks and stones in my shop. It's more challenging, but in the end has more integrity for the spaces the materials came from.
This house is typical of that. Inspired by my trip to Scotland and the ancient earth spirits I met there.
Except for the few stones that came from a beach on the Isle of Skye, this house is made of things found in the same meadow on Mt. Hood. The materials speak to one another in harmony and create a flow that to me is what Earth Spirits are all about.
Take care!
Carol
