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Beautiful succulent plants, little figurines, and miniature landscape pieces all combined together create an indoor succulent fairy garden that will delight you for months to come. These fairy gardens will also make wonderful gifts for your family and friends.
Fairy gardens have a special charm about them, and there’s something even more unique and endearing about succulent fairy gardens in particular.
So how do you, as a beginner, make one of these gardens?
To make a succulent fairy garden, you will need a few supplies, such as a selection of small or slow-growing succulents, succulent soil mix, a container such as a shallow bowl, and some fairy garden accessories such as miniature figures, miniature landscaping decor, and pebbles.
We will go through the process of making a succulent fairy garden with you step-by-step, starting with the supplies needed and then the designing and planting.
How to Make a Succulent Fairy Garden
We’ve all seen pictures of lovely fairy gardens with tiny figurines, ladders, and pathways mixed in with moss and small plants. Most of those fairy gardens are made with small herbs, flowers, moss, groundcover plants, and sometimes succulents.
What I want to make and show you how to make is a simple succulent fairy garden containing only succulents. That can include any succulent or even any cactus plants since they are succulents too! They come in many different colors, shapes, and heights, which will add interest to your garden. If you are interested in a similar project, see my article on making a teacup garden.
The nice thing about succulents is that they are low-maintenance plants. Most of them thrive on neglect, and that is a good thing for those of us who have busy lives! So even if they are slightly neglected, they will still brighten up a corner of your house.
Step 1: Gather Supplies For a Simple Succulent Fairy Garden:
The first thing we need to do is gather some materials for our project.
- You Will Need a Container as a Base for Your Garden.
Bowls, dishes, and pots all make perfect Fairy Garden containers, but there isn’t any one container that is best for your fairy garden; the options are almost endless. You can get creative, and as long as the container can hold sufficient soil, you can use it.
Since we are making an indoor succulent fairy garden, we should also consider where we want to place our garden. If we want it on a windowsill, then a smaller container is best. If we decide to put it on a coffee table or in a corner of your living room, then we should make sure it would fit in well with that location and that there is plenty of light.
It’s good if your container has drainage holes, but that isn’t always necessary.
To learn how to use a container with no holes, see my article on dish gardens where I discuss drainage considerations and what you can do if you don’t have drainage holes in your container.
- Succulent Soil Mix
Succulents need a quick-draining potting soil mix, one that doesn’t hold onto moisture too long. This is best for their health since they can quickly develop root rot when the roots are wet for too long.
You can easily find this soil at garden centers, or you can make it yourself; see our article where we tell you how to do it. If you want to use cactus plants instead, then see this article on how to make your own cactus soil mix.
Amazon is another source where you can find either succulent soil or cactus soil potting mix.
- Pebbles and Charcoal.
If you choose to use a container without drainage holes, then you should use pebbles or gravel and activated charcoal in the bottom. Please read our article that tells you how to use them. (In this article, the information in Step 2 explains “Why it’s needed” and Step 6 tells you “How to use it”).
Small decorative pebbles or stones are often used to create miniature paths in fairy gardens. They can also be used as borders and as a decorative touch in the landscape you are making. Amazon has a good selection of these pebbles, and they come in many different colors and interesting shapes.
Whatever pebbles or rocks you choose to use, make sure they won’t disintegrate or change the pH of the soil when you water your garden since this isn’t good for your plants.
Another source of pebbles is in the aquarium section of a pet store. Since these pebbles/gravel are sold to be used in fish tanks, you can be sure that they won’t affect the pH in your garden.
- Succulents
What plants go in a succulent fairy garden? How do you choose which ones to use?
The answer to that is: You can use almost any succulent you wish; just remember that you want them to be small. You could get by with planting varieties that will eventually grow large, as long as they are currently small and are slow-growing. When they start to get too large, you can just replace them with new plants.
Note: Don’t discard those plants when they get too large; repot them into larger pots, and you will have a few extra plants to enjoy in your indoor garden. They may even eventually grow offshoots or “offsets” that you can use in a future fairy garden.
You can choose succulents based on their appearance.
For example:
~ Certain plants, including small jade plants, can have a tree-like appearance.
~ Chicks and hens look like little bushes, as do Echeverias.
~ Haworthia plants, such as zebra cactus, have a “spikey” bush-like appearance.
~ Lithops resemble the living stones after which they were named.
~ Consider utilizing sedums or donkey’s tail plants if you require plants that crawl or cascade downward.
- Gardening Trowel
You will need a garden trowel or something more delicate, like a chopstick, to help you dig tiny holes when planting your small succulents.
- Spray Bottle with Water
- Fairy Garden Accessories
You can make your own little houses, figures, ladders, or other decorations to put in your garden, or you can buy them already made.
I chose to do the latter but will consider making some accessories if I can find the materials to do so.
There are a lot of places you can find these accessories. Amazon has some you can check out here.
Step 2: Plan your Landscaping and Design
~ Draw your plant on paper
You can draw how you want to place your plants and accessories on paper to help you visualize where you want to put them. If you’re not happy with the results, just erase it and make a few changes.
~ Physically arrange the accessories and plants
You may also arrange the accessories and plants in different positions. Switch them around until you’re satisfied that it looks good.
Once you have decided where you want your accessories and plants to be placed in the garden, it is time to plant.
Step 3: Plant Your Succulents and Assemble Your Succulent Fairy Garden
If you have any plants or accessories that are larger than the others, they should be planted first. Once they are in place, you can plant the smaller ones around them. Doing it this way will prevent you from damaging the smaller plants.
- Make a Hole in the Soil
With the trowel or chopstick, prepare a hole for the roots to fit in. Wear gloves, especially if you will be handling cactus plants.
- Remove the Succulents From Their Old Pots
Carefully take your succulents out of their old pots and loosen the soil around their roots.
- Plant Your Succulents
Plant them so that the crown of the plant is even with the soil level. Add more soil as needed and gently press around them to settle the plant.
- Add Accessories
Add your accessories as you have planned in step 2. It is easier to add them to the garden as you are working instead of waiting until the end.
- Add Finishing Touches
You might find that you need to add a few extra plants, accessories, or pebbles to fill in some gaps that you have in the garden.
- Spray Plants and Accessories With Water
This isn’t necessary, but you can spray off any soil clinging to the plants and accessories with the spray bottle. This will make the garden look nice and water your plants at the same time.
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