Autumn Magic in the Miniature Garden

As I write this post on the first day of autumn, signs of fall are appearing despite the warm weather.  Leaves are swirling down on my deck, my mums are blooming, and spider webs are cropping up all over my yard.  It’s finally time for the fall décor to come out!  Last week I finished transforming my summer fairy gardens into fall themed miniature scenes.  Overall, the plants in my fairy gardens fared very well this year despite our hot, dry summer and I didn’t have a lot of dead growth to remove before decorating.  I had to do a little trimming back of overgrowth, but left them as-is for the most part.  Fall fairy garden transformations are a much quicker process than planting fairy gardens from scratch in the spring!  The layouts can be a little trickier though as you work around the taller, thicker plants.

I created four new outdoor fall-themed fairy gardens this September, including two for Halloween and one for Thanksgiving.

Gnome Prairie Apple Store

With fall, comes apple season.  Crisp, sweet, refreshing apples are one of fall’s best flavors, and this garden of gnomes and hedgehogs celebrating fall’s fruit is the apple of my eye!  This gnome garden was inspired by our local Conner Prairie Apple Store, open during September and October, which sells apples, caramel apples, cider and slushies, and other fall apple treats like donuts and pies.  The apple shaped store in the garden is solar powered and lights up at night.  Mrs. Gnome sells pies at the store while Mr. Gnome harvests more apples from the orchard.  The little roly-poly hedgehog customers are so cute with their shiny red apples!

Madame Fate’s Fortunes

The gypsy wagon rolled in to town in time for Halloween, and Madame Fate has set up shop in the fairy garden to tell your fortune.  I saw these themed accessories in Michael’s Halloween miniatures section and thought they would be fun for a magical, mystical fairy garden.  The barrel table and stool set I placed near the caravan is actually designed for a pirate theme, but it was the perfect size for me to create a display of potions, magic books, and a spooky skull cloche.  I used a hot glue gun to arrange and secure the items on the table and stools.  The gypsy wagon lights up at night and flickers with spooky lights.

Halloween Party

Trick or Treat!  It’s time for all the fairies to put on their best Halloween costumes and come together for a Halloween party featuring fun, games, and lots of candy!  I paired some of my favorite Halloween accessories from past fairy gardens, like the pumpkin gate, banner and table and chairs set, with some new fairies and a candy pail.  My favorite figure is this little boy wearing a vintage Halloween costume.

Woodland Harvest

Welcome to a friendly Forestgiving.  Last year as the warm weather stretched on, I decided to make a Thanksgiving fairy garden in late autumn, and it was so much fun I decided to do another one this year – but earlier in case the weather gets cold sooner this season.  I used several of last year’s accents – the turkey, cornucopia, gate and wheelbarrow – in this year’s design, and I featured a set of four fall woodland critters instead of the fairy.  Two Pilgrim raccoons bring pumpkins and grapes to Thanksgiving dinner while two Native American squirrels haul acorns and apples to the feast.  The cornucopia on the table also awaits the hungry critter crowd.  A cute little metal Happy Harvest sign dangles from a sign post to welcome woodland friends and three acorn picks accent the garden.  I also added a feathered friend and her birdhouse back by the gate. 

Thanks for joining me for fall fairy garden inspiration.  Which theme is your favorite?  Let me know in the comments.  Do you decorate outdoors for fall?