Outdoor fairy gardens have to withstand all types of weather, as well as weeds, and wear and tear from animals passing through and children playing in them. As fairy gardens are very small, they’re easy to maintain with a few expert tips and tricks.
How to maintain a fairy garden
As a general rule, the best way to maintain a fairy garden is to water, weed and feed your garden regularly and protect garden accessories. Seal any accessories with polyurethane sealant and bring them inside in extreme weather, especially wood or metal accessories. Apply a clear UV protectant to accessories and keep any colourful ornaments out of direct sunlight.
Below I’ll share what worked for us for maintaining and protecting fairy gardens through all conditions.
Regularly water, weed and feed your fairy garden
How to water your fairy garden
If your fairy garden is in a container, then it’s going to need watering more regularly than if it’s planted directly into the ground. This is because soil in containers can hold less moisture than soil in the ground. Whether your fairy garden is in a container or in the ground, you’ll need to water it when the top layer of earth feels dry to the touch. When you’re watering, use a watering can with a shower nozzle on so you don’t flood the fairy garden or damage the plants and accessories.
Water slowly but thoroughly, filling the container to the rim and allowing it to drain into the compost, then filling it a second time to ensure that the whole of the compost is adequately moistened
RHS.org guide to container maintenance
How to weed your fairy garden
Container fairy garden’s won’t require much weeding as they’re so small, so just check for any weeds breaking through the top layer of earth before you water it. Again, as fairy garden’s tend to be small, you should easily be able to recognise a weed, especially if you’ve planted more mature plants and flowers, rather than growing plants from seed.
You’ll need to keep an eye out for creeping plants such as ivy which can easily take over a fairy garden. We have ivy near our fairy garden that grows from our neighbour’s garden and needs cutting back regularly.
A couple of ways to minimise weeds in fairy gardens are to apply an organic or non-organic mulch on top of the soil:
- Non-organic – Add a layer of gravel or stones to cover any surface areas where there are no plants. This is a great opportunity to introduce a stream or river into your fairy garden – they look great and will help prevent weeds. I’ve written a complete guide to creating fairy garden rivers, streams and ponds here.
- Organic – If you prefer a natural way of covering up the soil, then you can use bark, grass clippings or pine needles.
If children are going to be playing in the fairy garden then I’d recommend using a non-organic mulch, just because it’s easier to keep neat and contained and organic mulch such as grass clippings end up everywhere!
How to feed your fairy garden
Keep your fairy garden plants in top condition by adding a high quality plant feed such as Origins Organic Plant Food, you can do this any time of the year, just dilute 10 ml of the product to 1 litre of water and pour over the base of the plant until the soil is soaked.
If you do this every few weeks you’ll have a super healthy, well maintained fairy garden. But remember to read the instructions fully before apply it!
Protect your fairy garden in winter
Protect your fairy garden from frost by moving all the accessories indoors, a garage or shed is perfect. Even tough materials such as resin and stone statues can be damaged by frost. If your fairy garden is in a container, then move the whole container into a sheltered area (if it’s not too heavy!).
If you can’t move the container, or if your fairy garden is in the ground, remove any dead leaves, flowers or stems and add a layer of organic mulch to the top layer of soil – this will feed the plants during winter.
During very cold periods, you could consider covering the plants with a layer of frost protection fleece, cut down to size to cover your fairy garden. Make sure you remove the fleece as soon as the cold spell ends as they don’t allow air to circulate, so moss and damp can build up on the soil’s surface.
How do you clean a fairy garden?
Regularly remove dead leaves from your garden, particularly during fall/autumn and cut back any creeping plants that might take over the garden.
Tidy up fairy garden paths and rivers and add any new gravel or stones if needed. If any of your plants have dead flowers, leaves or stems then clip these out with some pruning clippers, you’ll be able to do this with scissors for very small plants.
Clean your resin, stone or wood accessories with warm water with a little bit of washing up liquid in it and use a soft brush to remove the dirt. Keep an eye on any wooden accessories, or those with embellishments, as they may need repainting or reapplying from time to time.
How do you protect a fairy garden from the rain?
To protect for fairy garden accessories from the rain, seal them with polyurethane sealant, such as this one from Amazon, this is especially important for wooden and metal accessories. Accessories made from ceramic, polymer clay, stone or resin should be able to withstand rainy weather but will need to be brought indoors in winter.
If your fairy garden is in a container, then bring it into a sheltered spot during stormy weather, or better still, find a permanent sheltered spot for it, such as by a hedge or wall to help protect it from the worst of the rain.
Before you plant your fairy garden check that the container you’re using has sufficient drainage holes, if not, your fairy garden will be a damp muddy mess and be more like a fairy pond than a garden!
If you’ve used a weed barrier in your fairy garden to help reduce the amount of weeds coming through, then this should let water through, provided it’s a material designed to be used in a garden. If you’ve used a bin bag or carrier bag as a weed barrier then water could pool on top of this, so make some holes in it before laying it, or use a proper weed barrier.
