A Fairyland

Fairy gardens have taken the gardening world by storm. Barb McCoy and her granddaughter Gracie have caught the fever and created their own vision of this ethereal world at the UK Demo & Trial Garden on Coleman Road. They began by measuring the space and creating stepping stones to form a ring. Then they planted annuals on each end for color. Next, they located, painted and embellished the houses. Design to installation took about a month. Now, back to those stepping stones. They include two warnings – one welcoming and one dire. “Always leave room in the garden for the fairies to dance” and “never ever step inside a fairy circle.”

HERE’S THE REST OF THE STORY. Old legends say fairies dance with abandon and perform magic rituals inside the circle. They also warn that those who choose to join the fairy dance may lose all track of time and place, and once under the circle’s spell, may disappear forever! What seems like a few minutes of dancing inside the circle may actually span SEVEN YEARS OR MORE. A human caught up in the wild dancing can only be rescued by someone outside the ring strong enough, quick enough and brave enough to grab his or her coattails and pull the human from the spinning vortex.

Many tales of fairy history and superstition focus on the awful consequences that may befall those who interfere with fairies by revealing their location, stepping inside their ring, or trying to capture them. Who can blame unsuspecting humans for being entranced by this garden in miniature! It’s still a work in progress, but we’ll unveil it at Twilight on July 25. Come visit and put your own spin on the tale! It’s already a hit with youngsters!

 

 

 

In addition to the human-sized version of a fairy garden, Tara Montgomery of Montgomery Gardens will give pointers on creating a tabletop version like the one pictured above in her talk, “Small Spaces Gardening.”