Miniature Gardens

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Creating miniature gardens with children is an opportunity to let the imagination fly. The gardens can either be short-term projects put together in an afternoon with old sticks, flowers and leaves one finds in the garden or on a walk, or longer term real little gardens which are living and grow over time.

Some of the natural live plants one can use in creating miniature gardens include moss used as grass, saplings used as trees, indoor and outdoor small plants such as ferns, spider plants and cacti, and small flowers such as violets used as flowers!

Inanimate objects include sand, bark from trees, sticks and twigs, stones, gravel, autumn leaves and conker shells.

To add to the imaginative play or ‘story’ of the garden, toy plastic figurines in the form of farm or other animals, dinosaurs, and people (eg playmobile figures) can be included.

For short term gardens, buildings and structures can be made out of cardboard or paper, for longer term projects wood or clay can be used.

Size can differ too. A tiny fairy garden could be created in a plant pot, or an entire world in an old sandpit. For most projects, something the size of a Dublin sink or seed tray is perfectly adequate.

Some Ideas for Miniature Gardens

Fairy Garden – moss for grass, small delicate flowers, a paper-mache toadstool, rock plants, maybe a small pool for the fairies to use as a mirror.

Dinosaur Garden – ferns and/or small spider plants, rocks, sand and/or moss base, plastic toy dinosaurs.

Desert Garden – a mixture of sand and potting compost, different types of cacti and succulents and rocks or large stones. You could also add a wigwam and a couple of Indians!

Tropical Garden – lush green plants, including ferns, spider plants, bright flowers, moss as the base, possibly a stream or pool running through it, trees and greenery at different levels, possibly a toy plastic tiger hiding under a bush!

Swamp Garden – lots of muddy compost, with carnivorous plants, a few sticks or pieces of bark half submerged in the mud.

A Walk in the Park – moss for grass and a couple of saplings, a path made of sand or gravel with a bench made of wood (eg ice cream sticks!) by a round pool.

Forest Glen – a circular patch of moss surrounded by young saplings. Add some little teddy bears to turn it into a Teddy Bear’s Picnic.

A Farm – for the pastures, choose moss and make fences out of sticks and place some toy plastic farm animals in them, for other crops different grasses can be used. Shelters for the animals can be made out of flower pots turned on their side.

The Ghostly Cemetry - a mixture of bumby short moss and earth can provide the base, with broken twigs stuck in to act as dead trees. Flat pebbles and bits of rotting wood can be stuck into the soil at obscure angles.

Zen Garden – sand, stones and a fork!

Another great idea is to create a miniature garden based on a book or film. How about creating scenes from favourite fairy tales?

The Secret Garden – a tall wall made of wood and painted surrounding a garden with moss, a couple of saplings, maybe some little flowers (eg violets), a miniature rose as a bush rose, and a swing frame made of wood with a swing made with string.

Little Red Riding Hood – a sandy path leading past a forest of saplings and dead twigs with a couple of figures, one for Little Red Riding Hood and one for the wolf.

Rapunzel – a tower made either of toilet rolls or wood, with a window painted at the top and a piece of plaited string dangling down from it. Moss as grass at the base, with a couple of saplings. Figures for the prince and the wicked witch.

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