Happily ever after

from the Orlando Sentinel (USA)

Folklore says if you give fairies a place to live, they'll stay out of trouble. The Schulzes of Woodstock, Ga., take the myth one step further: Invite fairies into your garden, and a fascination with nature will follow.

"When we told the children we were going to move, one of the kids' first questions was whether we were taking the fairy garden to Georgia too," says Katie Schulz, 33.

Carefully packed in Greg Schulz's car were boxes containing tiny houses, miniature bridges, gravel, twigs, seashells, 2-inch-long wheelbarrows and little figurines of fairies with impish grins, rosy cheeks and sparkly eyes. His plan was to arrive at their new home before his wife and children so he could set up the fairy garden that had become such a big part of their life.

The Schulz family's fascination with fairies -- known also as elves, leprechauns, pixies, dwarves, goblins, gnomes, brownies, nymphs, sirens and sprites -- began three years ago. Katie Schulz read a magazine article about Gnomenculture, a company in Wayzata, Minn., that sells handcrafted, scaled-down houses and accessories for miniature gardens.

"Miniature gardening can be as simple as adding miniature accessories to a container on a balcony, or as complex as changing a whole portion of the backyard into a miniature fanciful world," says Gnomenculture founder Kathryn Swenson.

In the mid-1990s, Swenson created The Fairy's Garden line of limited-edition miniature houses and accessories. Her weather-resistant cottages, stairways, gates, benches and other accessories are sold online and in specialty stores such as Shannon's Garden & Gifts in New Smyrna Beach.

"I'm very intrigued with miniatures. I always have been," says shop owner Shannon Corsi.

Corsi has an indoor fairy garden "planted" with silk moss and silk flowers on display in her New Smyrna Beach store, which opened in April.

"One nice thing about creating a fairy garden is how you can start with just a few features, then add to it as time goes by."

That's what the Schulzes did.

"We were lucky enough to receive Gnomenculture's big kit as a gift from a relative," says Katie Schultz. "Inside were a whole bunch of buildings and little walls. My children and I set it up outside in a 10-foot by 10-foot area, and before long, they began adding to it things they made out of twigs, berries and objects they found around the house and yard. It became the focal point of our yard."

None of the Schulzes were gardeners until they encountered the whimsical world of wee people.

"It has been a huge learning experience for us," says Katie Schulz, an artist.

"The children had never been interested in anything in the yard before. Setting up the fairy garden has really changed their relationship with nature."

Now when they pass a garden center, the Schulz family pops in to search for fairy-friendly plants to add to their landscape. Recent additions include apple mint, chosen for its fragrance and strawberry plants for their sweet flavor. The Schulz children -- Christopher, 8, Claire, 6, Carrington, 4, and Carter, 2 -- also selected moss, lichen and lamb's ear because they believe their fairies are especially fond of soft, fuzzy plants.

"The children were even thinking about the fairies when we took a recent trip to the beach," Schulz reports. "They brought home a conch shell and turned it into a new fairy home."

Finding fairy homes in unexpected places is the theme of the book Fairy Island, an Enchanting Tour of the Homes of the Little Folk (Black Dog & Leventhal, $15.95, hardcover). Written by Laura C. Martin with illustrations by her daughter, Cameron Martin, Fairy Island allows the reader to follow fictional botanist Christine Newkirk as she discovers five tiny, perfect fairy homes on a mysterious far-off island where she has gone to collect orchid specimens.

Delightfully illustrated with hand-drawn sketches and color photographs of Newkirk's "finds," Fairy Island provides an imaginative peek into pixie-sized homes and the everyday life of nature's blithe spirits.

Though author Martin spent hours carefully crafting the homes and accessories in her book, she says that simple fairy environs can be built out of natural materials readily available in backyards and parks.

"You don't have to be as detailed or obsessive as I was with the book," she says from her home in Atlanta.

"Even soft moss on a piece of bark can serve as a fairy bed. The important thing is to begin to look at objects in nature differently. Once you begin thinking like a fairy, you'll have all kinds of ideas."

Martin's suggestions for homemade fairy homes include gluing bark to a rock to create an instant table or attaching moss to bark to make a bed. Eggshells can be turned into lampshades, seashells into sinks and bathtubs, empty peanut shells and acorns into bowls and planters.

"It's hard to stop making these little things," the author says.

"When I'm out walking in the woods, I'll see a small piece of curly grapevine and know that it would make the perfect lamp base. Or, I'll see a fabulous piece of moss and I just can't stop myself from taking it home to make something for the fairies."

The three oldest Schulz children share Martin's creative excitement. They have built pixie playgrounds out of small branches and twigs. And, using bits of string and wheels from broken toy cars, they have crafted tire swings for their resident sprites to enjoy.

"One winter when we were still living in Kentucky, it snowed, and Christopher, who was about 6 then, had a wonderful time making fairy footprints with a small action figure to surprise the others," recalls Katie Schulz.

"He held it on the end of a stick with a heavy rubber band and carefully made trails all around the buildings. When the others woke up and saw the footprints, they were amazed."