Inspiring ideas on how to create a fairy garden

Welcome to the realm of the fairies, pixies and elves. If you're close enough you may even spot a mischievous tree troll! Below we explore creativity, imagination and share ideas on how to create a fairy garden.

This is the beauty of imaginative play like that of a fairy garden - it allows children to explore their own imaginations. It’s full of magic and wonder, enough to tempt anyone who believes. We hope you enjoy our blog and it must mean that you’re a fellow believer too.

‘If you want them to be more intelligent, read them a fairytale’
Albert Einstein.

We always use fairy play at home, we have little tooth fairy doors in bedrooms. By bringing those magical doorways inside it ignites curiosity into little ones. They want to see who lives there, they love the magic the doorways bring and most of all it’s exciting for them as you’re playing into their imaginations. Little knocks on his fairy door everyday to check if anyone is home and when he’s older he’ll receive little letters as he leaves his tooth for the fairy.

We also have fairy areas outdoors, this is our favourite place to explore and play so having fairy areas provides little spots of curiosity. I’d like to show you a few areas we have before we divulge into the benefits of fairy play outdoors.

How to create a fairy garden

Here is our plant pot fairy house, this has mini pansies growing around the fairy furniture and looks extremely pretty in summer.

Flower pot decorated with shells and pebbles

It’s full of tiny furniture, a mini garden to explore and decorated with natural resources which are great for little ones to explore. We sometimes add things into this garden like an acorn or mini pinecone to show that someone has been there which just adds to the excitement and imagination of Little.

Here is our fairy log house. This is a newer addition to our front garden. It’s a little door on an old tree stump, with a cobbled path, mini plant pots which will be homes to some succulents. Both of these areas provide a curiosity approach to exploring the unknown and stimulates imaginative play.

Benefits of fairy play:

Fairy play helps reinforce social development, it helps children to explore and ignites their imaginations which helps with intellectual development as children are independently thinking about what is happening or what they think is happening behind those secret doors. Fairy play outdoors also improves physical development getting children to move around, explore, see and feel the magic you’ve provided. Being outdoors also improves emotional development as it is scientifically proven that being in nature, outside in the fresh air helps mental health and well-being. The weather doesn't matter either, you can always create a magical experience for them to explore.

The benefits of outdoor fairy play allows children to connect with nature. You can add flowers, plants and succulents that need caring for to teach children about the garden and how to care for plants. There’s an endless opportunity for exploration, creativity and finding something small that you didn’t notice before.

Children are invited outdoors and their confidence grows along with their self esteem. Children in nature are exhilarated with a thirst for discovery, exploration and adventure.

We love using natural resources in our fairy areas, they offer so many benefits. Natural resources offer a huge sensory experience, children explore the textures and smells of nature and they are aesthetically pleasing to see too.

Natural resources stimulate curiosity and help develop problem-solving skills. Children who spend time in nature surrounded by natural resources have an increased level of concentration and cognitive development.

Natural resources are more accessible, they’re sustainable and more often than not they’re free and all around us. Have you gone on a walk with a child and they notice a hole in a tree? Ask questions like “who do you think lives there?” Or ask “what does the bark of the tree feel like?”. This reinforces the child’s need for exploring to broaden their minds and these natural resources are all around us, free to explore. It’ll help open up conversations and helps children become more connected and observant of the world around them.

We love to explore at home, out and about and wherever we go, it allows us to see the beauty of the world, like that old saying ‘stop and smell the roses’.

Finally, we wanted to show you our fairy village we created using natural resources, some Cosy products and loose parts.

In the corner of our garden, we used old tree branches to create a small world mud pit. Then we added fairy houses which are Cosy wicker shapes houses. Lots of miniature loose parts for Little to play with and move around as he pleases.

We have a fairy dining area where we can leave delicious meals for our fairy folk to enjoy. The table, chairs and 16pc dinner set are from
Cosy too. You’ll notice each house had its own footpath, this is to prove an aesthetically pleasing environment as well as a sensory experience to touch and feel.

We love playing here, just sitting, playing fairies and checking back every day to see if anyone has visited. Fairy play outdoors is such a great experience for children. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our fairy areas and maybe we've inspired you to create your own little fairy area.