Autumn’s Arrival in the Fairy Garden: Three Themes to Celebrate Fall and Halloween

The first official week of fall turned out to be a good time to revamp my fairy gardens to match the season, after planning out the themes in early August and choosing any accessories I needed to order by early September. I spent the first day of fall adorning Acorn Hollow, conjured up Witch’s Brew the next evening and threw a Black Cat Halloween Party the day after that.

Acorn Hollow

Lately I’ve been going nuts for acorns as an autumn motif! I’ve been seeing them everywhere: in fall decor, outside on the ground where I’ve been collecting them on my walks for the gnome box gnomescapes, and featured in some really cute stamp and die sets that came out this year from some of my favorite companies.

I turned my two-level butterfly fairy garden into Acorn Hollow. I hardly recognize it now because it went from such bright colors to lots of fall hues and neutral browns. It’s still filled with all the pink flowers that were such summer stunners though. They’re still going strong until we have our first frost. The upper level features a fairy with an acorn hat perched on a bench with an acorn cutout carved into the back of it. Pumpkins and acorns are scattered next to her. A squirrel atop a little log is looking to steal some acorns from her! Nearby is her acorn house, along with a pretty turquoise lantern to light the way. The door to her home opens but I did not decorate the interior of the house. Also on the upper level are some acorn stakes, a blue acorn birdhouse and a jolly large squirrel carrying an acorn. The bottom level features another seated acorn fairy and my two favorite acorn houses – a large one with mushroom window awnings, and a smaller one with a stem. Both of these houses have so much detail – and squirrels who have taken up residence inside them. Look closely at the side of the larger house and you will see a squirrel hidden on the side of it too. I thought it would be a clever idea to include real acorns in the wheelbarrow. A few days later, I realized they had all been snacked on by real squirrels!

Now I want to make some cards with an acorn house to match my fairy garden!

Witch’s Brew Coffeehouse & Tea

This is a small fairy garden but it’s my favorite one, probably because I love coffee! The planter started out as an assortment of spring flowers I got from Allisonville Nursery in March, then when some of the spring bloomers died out in the heat of summer, I replaced those with fairy garden plants and turned it into a gnome garden. So now it’s on its third look of 2020 as Witch’s Brew Coffeehouse & Tea. I’ve enjoyed having this planter on my front porch the past seven months and watching it change with the seasons.

The coffee stand sparked my idea for this witchy fairy garden. I saw it online at Michael’s and had to have it! I realized when I got the coffee stand in the mail that it had a door on the back. Since there was some room behind the coffee stand in the back of my fairy garden, I decided to decorate the backside a little bit after I finished the front. When I walk out my front door, I see the back first. So here is a look at the “employee entrance” side complete with stepping stones, rocks to cover the soil, and some witchy Halloween accessories I pulled out of my existing collection of Halloween fairy garden decor.

The coffee stand is my favorite part of this fairy garden, but I also love the little Halloween donuts one of the witches is serving up on a black tray, and the tiny coffee mugs on the tables. Look closely, and you’ll see a cauldron where coffee is brewing, and space to park your hat and broom. On the menu: Dark Roast, Toad Tea, Espresso Elixir and Lizard Latte. I have to say, I wish this was a real place I could visit.

Black Cat Halloween Party

The idea for this garden came from my black cat Halloween mantel I displayed in 2018 and 2019. This year I have a real life intrepid gray kitten that keeps getting on my mantel, so I am moving the decor outdoors! All black cats are welcome at this Halloween festival and eleven have shown up to party! For some reason, I am especially excited about the Black Cat Crossing sign and spooky spiderweb lanterns and pathway. This container is filled with assorted perennial plants from fairy gardens in past years that came back in the spring. I replanted them into this container, but didn’t decorate it as a fairy garden until fall. A lot of the plants were overgrown by September so I ended up trimming and pulling a lot of them out before adding the figures. The hens and chicks succulents in the front left corner were looking a little sparse so I added tiny pebbles to create a rock garden section. There is a little section of rock on the right side of the garden too, where a litter of four tiny black kittens is playing while mama stands guard in a spooky tree! They remind me of my little grey Ellery kitten, whose mother and some of her siblings were black cats. One curious kitty is checking out the treat bags on the table. Cats love bags, tissue papers, and Halloween surprises!

Hope you have a good October and enjoy this last blast of nice weather and outdoor color!