Welcome to Oktoberfest in the Gnome Garden

Hallo Oktober! My gnomes are celebrating Oktoberfest in their little garden this fall! Often my favorite gnome and fairy garden designs turn out to be those with a specific theme, and I’ve wanted to make a German-inspired Oktoberfest themed fall miniature garden for some time now. The inspiration behind this garden stems from one of family’s favorite fall traditions. I grew up going to a lot of Oktoberfest celebrations at German Park in Indianapolis with my family on my dad’s side who has German heritage. I also got to see the fairground in Munich, Germany where the original and largest Oktoberfest is held every year, during my trip to Germany I took several years ago after my senior year of high school. Germany is well known for its folklore and fairy tales, and gnomes are a part of their fantastic forest folk history. Garden gnomes (Gartenzwerge) as we know them today originated in Germany in the early 1800s, coincidentally around the same time as the first Oktoberfest was held in 1810. Legend has it garden gnomes were cheerful, mischievous garden protectors, keeping both garden pests and evil spirits away. The popularity of gnomes spread beyond Germany to the UK when Sir Charles Isham brought 21 of the little bearded statues back to England after a visit to Nuremberg, Germany in 1847. Today they’re more popular than ever, here in the US and everywhere else!

Eins, zwei, drei… let the music begin! Music and dancing are a big part of Oktoberfest, so I’ve included a gnome polka band and a gnome dancing with a rabbit in my garden. The wood dance floor was repurposed using the floor of the garden gazebo I made for my ‘Gnome Décor: A Fairy Garden Store’ fairy house entry for Fairyville in 2019.

Because the plants in my fairy garden were planted a while ago, the soil has become compacted and the garden has ‘sunk’ a bit in its container, so to raise the gnomes back up to surface level – and also so they don’t get tangled up and lost in all the greenery – I used small rocks under many of the figures to elevate them.

In front of the German Tudor style Food & Beer Hall I placed some mushrooms, a log and three little hedgehogs (one of them has gotten into the apples!) as well as some little pumpkins. Hedgehogs are native to Germany and considered a gardener’s best friend since they eat snails, slugs and insects that damage plants. I wish we had the cute little critters here!

Two gnomes are chilling in the Biergarten with beer and pretzels, and another gnome is on his way with more pretzels to sell in his wheelbarrow. Prost!

I made the sign by writing Oktoberfest with a Sharpie marker in Gothic style letters on a piece of bark and hot gluing it to a twig. The pennant was made using toothpick Bavarian flags. I simply cut each flag into a triangular pennant shape and tucked each toothpick into the next flag, then secured each end of the banner with a miniature shepherd’s hook.

I’ll have more of my 2022 miniature gardens to share with you later this week. Until then… Auf Widersehen!