I have a sweet friend who celebrated a birthday last month. I wanted to do something special for her this year. She, unlike me, has a green thumb and she LOVES gnomes.
I’ve seen on Pinterest broken planter fairy gardens. They are so pretty!
Why can’t I do it with gnomes?
I ordered a bunch of cute miniature gnome figurines and other decorative pieces from Amazon.
I ran to Lowe’s Home Improvement and bought this beautiful planter.
I also picked up some greenery and succulents. I think I got a little carried away ;).
I wanted to break the front piece of the planter off and use part of it as a retaining wall for the dirt. I got to get out some frustration as I banged away.
But I think I got a little carried away!! OOPS!
The LOML ran back to Lowes to get a duplicate planter for attempt #2. Well, I didn’t learn my lesson and broke that one wrong too. So for try #3, we tried with a smaller planter that we had in our garage. It almost worked!
This was basically the idea I was going for but the pot had a crack that went almost all the way around. I was afraid it was going to travel and the bottom would fall right out.
Attempt #4 ~ We had a fiberglass planter that I really liked the look of but because it’s fiberglass, it was not going to break with some banging so the LOML got the 3-in-1 oscillating saw out and he cut the front off.
TADA!! Finally it worked!!
Then we could proceed to the fun part…making the gnome world! I placed some rocks over the hole so the dirt wouldn’t fall out. I also sanded the rough edges.
I then filled the planter with Miracle-Gro dirt.
The retaining wall was pushed into the dirt. Along with the plants, the dirt hopefully will hold the wall in place.
The LOML cut some smaller pieces from the large piece he cut off, and I made stairs. Daughter #2 helped put the gnomes, mushrooms, small animals and other tiny accessories around. I planted the small plant to give some height, green moss to fill in around the stairs and retaining wall and succulents scattered around.
Here are close-ups of the sweet gnome garden. I love the acorn lights.
I think my favorite piece is the birdhouse. There’s a gnome sleeping at the foot of it. He fell asleep while reading his book.
This little gnome is walking his pet hedgehog.
This little gnome greets you as you start to climb the stairs.
At the foot of the stairs I placed a little sign with “(my friend’s name) GARDEN” to make it a little bit more personal. I didn’t take a picture of the little lady bugs I glued all around the planter. (DARN!)
Daughter #2 and I had so much fun making the cute gift for my beautiful friend.
I think she really loved it!
And her smile (and some tears) made every broken planter that I screwed up on worth it!!
I’m going to try to use the other broken planters for my own garden.
Linking up to: Skip to My Lou
Love y’all,
Linda
I love your little gnome garden! Your friend must have really loved this special present. I’m going to show my guy, because I think we can do this with one of our broken pots (before he throws it away)!
Thanks Cynthia! Good luck with your garden. We had a lot of fun making ours! ~Linda
love your little garden gnomes put a smile on my face
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Thanks Angie!