Fairy Gardens Revealed

I love gardens and I love fairies so put the two together and whooosh, it’s like a fairytale ending! In this latest blog I have soooo much to tell you including some AMAZING fairy gardens to go and visit. AND (yes, there’s more!) how to make your very own fairy garden. Come on, let’s go see…

This way for the Fairy Trail…

Alnwick Gardens

I am a very lucky girl as Tilda and I have been to visit two fairy gardens recently. Last week, when we were on holiday, we went to Alnwick Gardens which has a fairytale treasure hunt in it. I have already blogged all about that in A Garden of Fairy Tales so click on the link to go read all about there.

Heading to the Fairy Village in Balfron

Fairy Woodland Experience

Last month we also visited the Fairy Woodland Experience in Balfron which I want to tell you all about. When you arrive you get a map to guide you around the woodland and there are cute little log with arrows all around the paths to keep you in the right direction. On the day we arrived there was a bit of a panic as the key which opens all the fairy doors had been lost and it was up to us to find it and make sure the fairies could get back in and out of their doors!

Make a wish, press the button and see what happens next…

When we arrived at the Fairy Village we were met by two real life fairies.We were given our fairy names (my name was Rose River and Tilda’s was Glimmer Thistle, cute huh?) and some quiz sheets. On the treasure trail there was a lot to find such as who lived behind the pink door and who lived at number 72. Thankfully we managed to find the missing key (phew) so that solved that crisis. In the village there was loads to see and do – lots of fairy doors to spot, a wishing chair, a worry tree and loads more.

There are fairy doors hidden in LOTS of places

We carried on round the larger woodland walk and found lots more fairy doors and it was a pretty walk through the woodland. We even stopped for a wee picnic on our way.

Back at the hub there was free tea, coffee, juice and biscuits as well as colouring in to do. There’s also a cute shop selling lots of lovely fairy merchandise. My grandma bought Tilda and I fairy doors which we used to make our fairy garden which I will tell you about in a minute.

The worry tree takes all your worries away

We would HUGELY recommend the Fairy Trail. It is only £4 per person (under 2s are free) and we spent hours and hours there. The Fairy Trail is open Thursdays and weekends through September and open through the October school holidays. It will then become the light experience and then the Santa experience before the fairies allow us back to visit again from next March.

There are even more doors to find on the woodland walk

Inspired by our visit to Balfron, Tilda and I decided to make our own fairy gardens. Here is how we made ours:

Make Your Own Fairy Garden

You will need:

A wooden tray (or an old shoe box)
Some artificial grass (you can get free samples sent out to you!)
A fairy door (get one at the fairy experience when you visit)
Bits & bobs and your imagination to decorate the garden

To make:

1. My clever daddy made me a wooden frame for my garden. You could use a tray or even an old shoe box would work.

Daddy made me a tray to put some artificial grass into

2. We had some off-cuts of artificial grass which we cut to size. You could ask your grown up to send off for a sample of artificial grass which you could use.

We added our fairy door to one end and then decorated it

3. To decorate our fairy doors we added the stickers which came with them and glued them to our frame.

We made some sparkly clothes & a washing line for our fairy

4. We then went wild and designed our garden. Luckily I could get some top tips from M&D who are garden designers. They said we needed to allow a path to the door and somewhere to sit. A hopscotch path was created and we made decks out of lollipop sticks! I made a pond from some mosaics as well as some trees. We found some flowers and used pine cones as shrubs. I also made a wishing seat from a painted stone and made a sign. We even made a washing line and some glittery clothes for my fairy! Tilda made some cool garden furniture using little wood circles and stones. Some toadstools finished off our gardens perfectly.

Tilda made a stripey deck and some furniture for her garden

We left buttons outside our fairy doors so fairies know it is empty and they are welcome to come and live there. I hope some come to visit soon!

Our completed fairy gardens, waiting for some fairies to move in…

Happy creating!

Rose River (aka Lulu) xx

A Garden of Fairy Tales

I recently went on an amazing holiday with my BFF Euan to Northumberland. As well as having fun playing on the beach, I took Mummy & Daddy to Alnwick Gardens as I had heard that they had a fairy tales treasure hunt for us kids to take part in. As an expert on gardens AND fairytales, I knew I I had better go help Beauty escape the Wicked Queen. Read on to find out more…

Don’t worry Beauty, Princess Lulu is coming to the rescue!

Now, if you have ever heard about Alnwick Gardens you may know that it is famous for its Poison Garden. It was my job to stop the Wicked Queen from using this poison on Beauty but it wasn’t going to be straight forward. There were a LOT of clues to solve and magic to be mustered if I was to have any chance of saving Beauty.

I had to stop on my way to saving Beauty to have a sniff of this beautiful rose!

First of all we visited the Fairy Attic to meet the Prince, discuss the problem and potential strategies and get our clues (and costumes if you are not a real princess like me!)

The Prince had this beautiful book in his attic

We found the first clue but how do you make the magic seat work and who is Peter Pan’s best friend?…

Next, we set off to discover a fairy door…

I wonder what happens if you blow a kiss to the Frog Prince?

I have found the glass slipper but will it fit? Cinderlulu is my name after all…

This tree is almost as old as my Daddy. Will I find a clue hidden up here somewhere?

I’m off to survey my kingdom!

It’s not all glamour being a fairy princess you know? We need to know how to drive diggers too!

Come on, the next clue is this way…

Yikes, the Poison Garden! Be careful, the Wicked Queen will be around here somewhere!

This pretty meadow must have clues hidden in it…

Aha! All the kings men. But what couldn’t they fix again?..

I think this poor fella needs some Arnica Cream 🙁

Stopping to admire some primulas on my quest

What a great place to have a treasure trail. It’s gorgeous (a bit like me!)

Putting my magic powers to the test…

Shazam! Look what I managed to do!

I hope you can tell from my pictures what brilliant fun I had helping Beauty escape the evil grip of the Wicked Queen. Alnwick Gardens are one of the prettiest gardens in the country anyway and this new treasure trail makes it super fun for ALL the family. Some of the clues are quite tricky so make sure you brush up on your fairy tales before you go. But don’t worry too much as there are some lovely resident fairy tale characters in the gardens to help out if you get a bit stuck about where to go next. So if you are looking for a brilliant day out this summer make sure you head over to Alnwick Gardens.

Lulu xx