My miniature gardens are always a work in progress... I've had this one for quite some time now, today I added more isotoma and a little chair.  For most of them I've got down to a point where I only need to replace the ground cover every once in a while. Struggling to find good sunlight is always a problem for me!

One of my neighbor heard that I make fairy gardens for hobby, so he gave me several wine boxes, I've been able to make a couple more fairy gardens out of these boxes using trees that were stashed away for a while. The first tree from the left is a cork elm. The nursery owner told me that the trunk will crack as it ages, and while it seemed to be going that direction, I almost killed it once and all the leaves fell off at the wrong time.  I almost threw it away but decided to keep it for a while, the dry branches sprout out tiny new leaves after a while, and now it's thriving again. It's one of the happy ending trees that I have. The little tree in the middle is a hokkaido elm tree, I still have the big one here, it's loosing leaves right about now. This type of elm tree have the smallest leaves ever, I think they are just incredibly funny! The plant on the right corner with pink leaves is a dwarf bougainvillea. It has such a wonderful unusual light pink color! I'm hoping this one will grow into a handsome little tree! 

I've got more pictures of fairy gardens to come, but first, here's a little tip,

A little secret I use to keep fairy garden pots in place, glue nails to the bottom and stick them into soil!

I have been working very hard to revitalize my fairy gardens lately. They have grown in number by so much that, after giving away several of them, my backyard is still filled with them. 

I found these gorgeous antique cast iron urns over the weekend. They look so pretty in person! Next step is to spray paint them!

Birdcage converted into a mini plant holder. In a few weeks I will be able to tell you if this method works for the plants, in the mean time, this is how I did it. Line the bottom of birdcage with peat moss, then a layer of potting soil mix, select your favorite succulents and carefully plant them inside. Top the soil with another layer of peat moss, then water. I had to tilt the bird cage to let the water drain, my main concern with a bird cage is water not able to drain well, but we'll see about that.

Speaking of bird cage, I found this black one at the flea market. I spent a couple of evening painting it blue.

Hmmm, not a major improvement! I always have some decorating ideas but when it comes to fruition it never seem to make a huge difference. Oh well! No bird should be locked in cages, so this is going to be another plant holder:)

Alfie follows me around everywhere.