Gnomaste: A Miniature Yoga Garden

Today we are celebrating six years of Gnome Decor with a relaxing yoga session in the gnome garden!

An adorable set of six gnome figures from Grasslands Road made for a quick and easy gnome garden I planted in May and have been enjoying ever since. The little gnomes have a glittery finish to them and sparkle magically in the sunlight. They’re each doing a different yoga pose like lotus, tree, downward dog, boat, and side twist. For landscaping I added a pathway, mushrooms, little log with a hedgehog and his stockpile of apples atop it, and a bench. Here is a look at the garden on the day of planting:

In June I decided to fill in the gaps between the plants where the soil was still showing with small rocks:

By the beginning of September, the plants had filled in and covered most of the rock too:

The plants I chose for my miniature garden are all easy to grow ground cover perennials that didn’t require any trimming or other maintenance after I planted them, other than the occasional drink of water during the June drought we experienced this year. Pink Chintz Thyme thrives in full sun. In late spring to early summer, small pink flowers bloom amongst the small green leaves. It is hardy to zone 5 and has come back in the spring every year in other containers I’ve left outside over the winter. It will spread into a nice mat and may crowd out other plants in a container after a couple of years. Below is a photo of the thyme in early August after it was done blooming:

Elfin Thyme is another full-sun, zone 5 herb I love to use in miniature gardens, with an adorable name to match. The leaves form a nice ground cushion and pink flowers bloom all summer long. It is a more compact plant than the pink chintz thyme but otherwise looks very similar. I like to use both pink chintz and elfin thyme in my fairy gardens because they are short (less than 1-2 inches tall), so miniature garden figures won’t get lost in the plants. Here is the elfin thyme:

The final plant in my garden is a bit taller (3-5 inches) so I put it in the back: Sunsparkler Blue Elf Stonecrop. Again with the adorable name! This is a new hardy succulent hybrid (Sedum x Orostachys) introduced in 2015 that thrives in either sun or part shade. (My gnome garden is in full sun.) Blue-green rosettes bloom with tight colors of dark pink flowers mid to late summer. It’s a dapper little fella of a plant! I’d never seen it before and picked it up on a whim at the nursery and have been so pleased with it:

Here’s wishing you a beautiful and relaxing fall season. Gnomaste!