BIRDSBORO >> Lynn Bialek has built a garden for fairies in her backyard. It’s something she looks forward to seeing every morning and especially at night when the lights within the little houses shine bright – welcoming fairies to visit.
It only took a few weeks for her to get everything set up, with the help of her husband Lee. Now there’s a whole village to enjoy, full of warming detailed settings.
Designed to attract fairies, the garden is complete with rivers, a waterfall (or two), roads, houses small and large, plants, plus a fishing hole complete with a fishing pole, a bobber and a hook. A piece of mirror serves as the water.
Bialek started to make regular trips to the local recycle area to find tree stumps and give them new life as homes for fairies.
“I started collecting more and more stumps.” She’d coat the stumps in polyurethane to kick off the construction process, picturing what parts would serve best as a doorway or window. “Then I decided I wanted steps going up, so we sliced little wood pieces,” said Bialek “The detail is what makes it.”
Founder of the Birdsboro Garden Club, Bialek refers to herself as a snowbird, traveling towards warmth and where gardens are greenest during the winter months. As soon as she realized her hometown didn’t have a garden club – she decided to start one last year. The fairy garden became a large project of hers in late August.
Many items placed throughout the garden carry personal significance. As a four-year cancer survivor, Bialek was sure to include a ribbon. She has also included a golf club, a bicycle, and a playground featuring a tire swing.
“We always had a tire swing growing up so I had to put a tire swing in there,” said Bialek. “I think miniatures are really neat. A couple years ago, a friend of mine made me a concrete planter which is a big shell. One thing led to another, I needed a mermaid and little toys. That kind of started it.”
While putting it all together, she noted the importance of keeping similarly-sized items grouped together.
“I find interesting branches in the woods and bring them out as trees.” She recently planted a few succulents in since they don’t need sunshine right now like everything else. “That’s the whole idea of the fairy garden – you put it inside your garden where things are growing.”
In addition to the homes, she’s made a thatched roof and a gazing ball. Her husband helped to make small, fairy-size Adirondack chairs. There’s also a handmade street sign representing all the areas they regularly visit, arrows pointing in different directions.
She recently invited friends and family over to see the fairy garden during it’s evening prime time.
“Fairies are supposed to like bling and music,” she said, winding up a small music box. “It’s a lot more fun if you make the stuff, but then there’s stuff that you just can’t make.”
