There's a book by Gene Stratton Porter that talks about building a garden for a life-sized fairy princess... Laddie: A True Blue Story: Laddie hadn't done a thing but make an exact copy of my playhouse under the biggest maiden's-blush in our orchard. He used the immense beech for one corner, where I had the apple tree. His Magic Carpet was woolly-dog moss, and all the magic about it, was that on the damp woods floor, in the deep shade, the moss had taken root and was growing as if it always had been there. He had been able to cut and stick much larger willow sprouts for his walls than I could, and in the wet black mould they didn't look as if they ever had wilted. They were so fresh and green, no doubt they had taken root and were growing. Where I had a low bench under my tree, he had used a log; but he had hewed the top flat, and made a moss cover. In each corner he had set a fern as high as my head. On either side of the entrance he had planted a cluster of cardinal flower that was in full bloom, and around the walls in a few places thrifty bunches of Oswego tea and foxfire, that I would have walked miles to secure for my wild garden under the Bartlett pear tree. It was so beautiful it took my breath away. "If the Queen's daughter doesn't like this," I said softly, "she'll have to go to Heaven before she finds anything better, for there can't be another place on earth so pretty." Perhaps the above will give you some ideas?

Carol! Are you in Ohio? You may have to put a virtual tour of your garden on line so we can all visit! Chaps are those partial pair of pants that cowboys wear over their jeans. They look just like two pants legs, and are very thick. They have belts that hold them on, adjustable fit. I looked on eBay and got an un-used pair of horseriding chaps made for big kids, size 16--but I'm 7 short, so they should work. They make special chaps in big sizes for men, but they are synthetic and bright orange--only a big guy could get away with wearing road hazard orange. Not this short girl! You're really encouraging me about the saw, but I definitely think you should take Pyr's advice and get something like leather chaps or even something like suede jeans. I have a pair of suede jeans somewhere in my closet (hoping to lose enough weight to wear those again--yep, that will happen!) Suede jeans can be found in consignment shops, that kind of place--usually still new. I don't have any sprouts yet, but I am not so depressed about it today. It rained a lot yesterday and the jugs all look cool and moist. 36, as of today--you are way past me now! I am attempting to grow shrubs and vines from seeds: huckleberry mountain laurel pink honeysuckle You can DEFINITELY grow trees from seeds. In the spring, look under red maple trees and you will find baby trees! You can easily bring these babies home too, before they are buried under mulch by a well-meaning landscaper. I now have a red maple tree for free, when they usually cost at least $150. Trees can take much longer to grow from seed, but you will love them all the more because you raised them yourself. My father always planted trees from seeds, and if you saw them now you would be astounded at how magnificent they are. They look like something from an English castle grounds. The key with growing trees from seeds is patience. They can take a while to germinated. That's why it can be helpful to look for baby trees (just a few inches tall) in the spring, under the trees you like. Often nature already has these babies ready to find a permanent home!

mine - or should I say my daughters - Ah! who am I kidding! It may be enjoyable to the girls and any little kids who stop by sit and stare for HOURS, but essentially it was my idea, I designed the whole thing, and have been the driving force behind having it at all... And I continue to think up and create new things for it... Anyway - mine has ended up being placed under a 2 year old corkscrew willow tree instead - It's closer to the house and is much much bigger than originally anticipated. For now the sweet woodruff and wild strawberries are filling out the area around the base of the willow, there's a violet and elfin thyme covered hill with a small lake at the bottom of it and a small gravel path leading to the top (a gazebo and miniture roses pruned to look like climbing roses are being added to the top of the hill later this fall) and a flattened out hollow covered in irish moss for a "meeting place." I have variegated forms of thyme and melissa lavender as shrubs around the edge of the garden and a few branches from my over zealous pink and white weigela hangs over the "hollow". The fairy garden is actually an extension of my butterfly garden, just slightly shaded (and will be deeply shaded when the willow fills out over the next couple of years) I just added some rembrandt tulips I hope will give a nice dramatic splash of color next spring before the freesias, columbine, violets and roses bloom. (and after years of plain colored tulips I can tell the girls that the fairies painted these ones!!!) I will post pics as soon as I can but right now I'm being selfish - want to keep it to myself till I feel it has some semblance of being ready for public viewing... :) Also waiting for the plants to fill out and really look like it does in my head (did that make sense or did I just seem nutty???) As well as the gazebo I'm working on 4 houses to put nestled in the sweet woodruff and a "bait shop" for beside the lake and looking for some small stumps or seats to put around the thyme hollow, maybe even a little swing for the fairy babes? Next year I'm hoping the willow will be big enough to dangle twinkling lights in and lots of birdhouses of course... Soon as I figure out where to put it I'm adding some white heliotrope that I grew from cuttings and have slightly too much of. Now I'm just hoping that the wild strawberries calm down cause they are going bananas and I fear they will choke out the rest of my plants... I'm 30 years old, mother of 4, a criminal psychologist in training and I am no afraid to admit that I love my garden. I am envisioning a few years from now laying in soft green grass in the shade of my contorted willow tree staring into the little village and seeing if I can see the sparkling glint of gossamer wings, or hearing the giggling of fairy children in the rustling leaves of the willow tree.....

Here we've had "golden" dollar coins for over 20 years. When DD was small the tooth fairy brought a shiny $1. Once when we were away on vacation she lost a tooth but none of the local stores had any shiny $1 coins so I had to polish one up with Coca Cola :-) When I was younger I was nanny for three small children. It turned out their family tradition was to put teeth in a glass of water on the bedroom mantel for the Tooth Fairy to collect. The first time it was a major pain trying to fish the tooth out of the glass in the dark quietly so after that I made sure they used a glass that had a matching one and switched the tooth glass with one containing the money :-) Then there was the time I came home to find one child hysterical as a newly-lost tooth had gone down the bathroom sink. So we wrote a nice letter to the Tooth Fairy, telling her where the tooth was so she could use her magical powers to get it out. It worked ;-)