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…
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…
Earlier this month when I was in Des Moines on business, I had a few hours to spare the day I arrived. I drove 35 minutes north of my hotel to Reiman Gardens, located on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames. The gardens are beautiful in their own right, but I went there specifically to see Elwood, the world’s largest concrete garden gnome! He’s tucked away in a quiet back corner of the garden in a serene space surrounded by trees. Elwood has been a resident of Reiman Gardens since the 40th Anniversary of…
October is in full swing and it will be Halloween before we know it! I’m running behind on my Halloween decorating, and I’m determined to get it finished by next week before it’s too late. But today I’m sharing one Halloween décor project I finished early back in August. Last fall I made a Halloween indoor fairy garden which was inspired by a pumpkin shaped base my mom gave me. I enjoyed it so much that I’m displaying it again this year, and adding a Halloween indoor gnome garden to…
Hello fall friends! I hope that your autumn is off to a great start, full of pumpkin spice and everything nice. At my house, September means fall makeover time for my fairy gardens. I’ve enjoyed my summer containers since May, but by now they’re in need of some TLC to tame overgrowth and remove dead plants that didn’t survive our crazy summer weather, which alternated between hot dry spells and heavy rain. Many of my summer garden figures have faded from the sun or become buried in overgrowth over the past four months. And this year the…
Summer is slipping by too quickly! I don’t like reminders of fall’s approach to creep into the summer months of July and August, yet the kids are heading back to school already, and fall decorations are out in craft stores. I like to extend summer – my favorite season – as long as possible, so today I’m sharing my fairy gardens I planted in May and have been enjoying ever since. There is still a lot of summer to look forward to – warm weather, late season garden blooms and the State Fair in…
Here in central Indiana we’ve had such a wintry spring! It’s mid-April. Why are we still getting snow? I didn’t even bother planting pansies this year. I think I can count the warm weather days we’ve had on one hand, plus low temperatures are often still dipping below the freezing mark. At this point I’ll just wait to plant flowers after Mother’s Day, which is usually the all-clear signal to have a go at planting summer annuals. I wonder if it will even be warm enough for that a month from now…
Garden gnomes in search of a tropical Spring Break vacation traveled to Garfield Park Conservatory on the south side of Indianapolis the last two weeks of March for the sixth annual Gnome Away from Home exhibit, featuring more than 200 gnomes. Over half of the gnomes were loaned by local residents for the display, which has a different theme every year. The exhibit has grown to include over 200 gnomes for this year’s event. I’d been to see the gnome show once before, in 2013, which was the first year it was held. The first gnome show had…
Fall always flies by at record speed for me, and this year is no exception. It’s one of the busiest times of the year for me at work and home. I love autumn events, but finding time to check off my fall bucket list can be a challenge. I decided to take a day off work so Mom and I could attend the covered bridge festival since we hadn’t been in several years. The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival is a ten day event which begins on the second Friday in October each year. It is…
In September I shared my farmers market fall fairy garden. This week I finished transforming the rest of my fairy gardens for fall. Fall fairy gardening is especially fun because there’s no planting required! I get to focus on decorating, my favorite part. You can pull out any dead growth caused by summer heat spells or early fall chill, and fill in those areas with figures. Likewise you can trim back and pull out overgrown plants to make room for your decorations. My main problem is overgrowth, so the layout of my fall gardens is determined by the choice…