. . . diy hanging fairy houses

Fairy.orb.1

Every year around this time. . .

Comp

. . . we make. . .

Fairy.3

. . . a little something. . .

Fairy.4

. . . special. . .

Fairy.5.1

. . . for the fairies. . .

Fairy.5.welcome

. . . to welcome them to the garden. This year, we decided to give them a new home in the trees!

DIY Hanging Fairy Houses

Materials:

Easily bendable metal wire
Garden Twine
Sphagnum Moss
Small succulents or air plants
Scissors or shears capable of cutting the metal wire

Decide what diameter you would like your hanging fairy houses to be and use the wire to make individual circles of that size (twist the wire around itself to secure).

Make 4-5 circles for each hanging house.

When you have your circles complete, place each group of 4 or 5 together and tie a bit of string around the top and the bottom of the circles, binding them together.

Hold the top tie, and begin fanning the circles out. Don't worry if they are not exactly the same distance apart. Just try to make them come into a general globe shape.

In order to keep them separated, weave a bit of garden twine in and out of the wires around the top and the bottom of the circle until you have about a 3/4" diameter section of twine on both ends. Tie off with a knot to secure (see images above).

To make the cage that supports the moss, decide where you would like your opening to be and tie a piece of garden twine to the one of the bars that delineates the opening. Go to the next bar around the globe and tie a knot, making sure to leave enough twine in between the bars to allow the globe shape to remain in tact. Continue doing this with every other bar until you get to the last one (just before the place where you started). Tie off your twine and move down the globe a bit and repeat the process. Do this as many times as is needed to make a "cage". Since my globes were around 5" in diameter, I only needed three of these lines (see images above).

Soak the moss in a large bowl of water. Squeeze each handful out before pressing into your globe from inside the "cage". Pull the moss out a bit from the outside so that it obscures the twine and bars as much as possible. Continue doing this until you have a sphere of moss with an opening on one side. Don't worry about making it perfect. Nature is full of beautiful imperfections.

Take a long piece of string and thread it under the top weaving on the globe. This is what you will use to hang it up.

Insert small succulents into the moss or attach air plants where desired (the succulents don't need soil, they can grow directly in the sphagnum moss).

Hang your fairy houses in the trees or bushes of your garden and wait for your new friends to move in!

With the Kids:

Go to your favorite garden store together and pick out the succulents and air plants you'd like to use. The smaller the better for this project.
Work on making the globe shapes together. If the sphere is too difficult for your youngest, have them practice tying simple knots.
Press the moss into the forms (kids love to squeeze out the moss... watch out for sticks that can poke small hands)
Take a walk through the garden and decide where you'd like to make your hanging fair village.
Wait for the fairies to show up.
Looking for more garden marker options? Try out our, Fairy Tents, our Garden Hobbit House, the Moss House, and our Mudbrick Garden Home