Today’s photos are from Lori Capener in Layton, Utah. We visited Lori’s garden for two days back in April of 2013 (refresh your memory HERE & HERE).
Today she says, “And now for something completely different! About 5 years ago we moved to a new house with no garden to speak of. The house was new construction and it was surrounded by hard packed heavy equipment crunched clay, rocks, and scrub oaks which are ever present in the foot hills of the Wasatch mountains. We were lucky enough to have a lone maple tree up fairly close to the house.
“I browsed magazines and books to get inspiration on how to proceed with the landscape design. We knew we wanted some sort of water feature, but did not necessarily want a pond. We settled on a small river which makes a lovely sound and tends to cool you off (if only mentally) when you near it. When turned off, the river water completely disappears into an underground tank. While this does not allow for beautiful water plants, it saves lots of time on maintenance, cleaning, and the worry of standing water around the many small children in the neighborhood.
“After the river was built, I was browsing a gardening catalog and came across a “fairy castle.” This sparked the seed of an idea which quickly grew into an entire community of “homes” situated around the new river. My eight year old son wanted to help me with the construction, but he was not about to help with a fairy garden, so we made the switch to gnomes. Children and adults alike enjoy seeing what’s new in the gnome garden!”
Sooooooo cute, Lori! The kids in the neighborhood must LOVE this.
—–Winter is the perfect time to take a photographic stroll through the photos you took in your garden this year……and then send some in to me at [email protected]!
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Comments
So creative and artistic! A great way to teach children about gardening!
Loved your gnome village! And your fairy fountains are wonderful!
Absolutely adorable!,,,, so creative,,,, great use of dwarf and miniature conifers,,,love, love, love the river and all the ' children ',,,, gnomes and mushrooms! I also am in awe of the rocky hill to the side of you!,, looks fabulous!!!
Lovely job,,, and I am sure loved and visited by many!,, should be in a magazine!!!
I love the river, the gnome village and especially the fairies! Very well done! You inspired me!
WOW! Didn't you have fun in the realm of wonderment creating
these fab magical/whimsical little gnome communities.
Are you a believer?
Totally enchanted by it ALL!! Thanks for the smiles this morning. :)
Oh, my! What a destination for the neighborhood children!
The fountains are great and fit in so well with what you have created. LOVE the archway... creative and unique. The rocks are beautiful. A lot of work in the last 5 years... but a lot of fun, too, I am sure!
Yay for you, Lori...nothing is more fun than the release and celebration of your inner child. Yours along with your son looks to be having fabulous time. I love the unleashing of all this creativity. All your little details are totally beguiling. The little heart shaped stepping stones around one of the gazing balls are adorable. I am assuming that you made them yourself? Are they concrete or hypertufa?
Everything is just wonderful...thanks for the inspiration!
This sure beats building with legos and paint by numbers for expressing creativity... Disney has nothing on you, Lori.
Sorry Lorie, I got caught up in your pics from April of last year and saw these as I was leaving the site... very nicely done with the fairy gardens. I really like the rusty arbor! I have been seeing the fairy gardens a lot these days in magazines, pintrest, and instore items for them. You did a great job! Thanks for sharing with all of us!
Oh did this make me smile! I love your joie de vivre...your sense of playfulness. I pray you never lose this. This just might be my favrite of all time.
You know I kinda like these little gnome fellas and don't believe their treatment of snails is totally out of line. You've done a wonderfully believable job of creating a gnome habitat. Kudos to you for your originality and belief! I wonder just how many toad/gnome/fairy houses will now be ordered to emulate your magic? You'll find some in my garden :-)
Great piece of whimsy to end the week! It reminds me of the Putz villages displayed during the Christmas season. What leaf did you use as a mold for the stepping stones?
Such fun! Lori I smiled throughout the tour of your wonderfully creative garden. Love the rusty archway and fairy fountains, the rocks, the river, the creativity and the enchantment of it all! Good for you! Your son is very lucky!
Very creative! What fun to do with your son. Love the gnomes too, they seem to be coming back into vogue. Looked back at your other photos. You seem to have good access to large rocks which really adds a lot to the scene.
Lori, this is so much fun. I think my little one and I may need some of these gnomes to guard our garden from snails and other enemies. We will be very careful not to cross them!
Love your toad houses. Did you make them or purchase them? If you made them, please share your process that you used. I would really like to make a couple for my garden. If you purchased them, please share the address or website with us. Thank you so very much.
Shirley
Your garden is wonderful, imaginative, and so full of details that I spent an hour visiting! I loved that your son involved himself, and that many memories were made. There's just so many great components that fit together that I can't begin to say which part I liked best; except thank-you for doing this!
Your garden is wonderful, imaginative, and so full of details that I spent an hour visiting! I loved that your son involved himself, and that many memories were made. There's just so many great components that fit together that I can't begin to say which part I liked best; except thank-you for doing this!
Magical, beguiling, enchanting, and very much your own special creation. My two kids, 30 and 25 now, would have LOVED this when they were small. I love it NOW! I'm thinking grandkids... Thanks for the inspiration and ideas! The river is natural-looking and soothing and beautiful, and your archway is super cool.
This is great! Thank you for the inspiration - I would like to do something like this in a shady part of my garden, I think my grandson would love it and having a little river of blue rocks would light it up! Really creative and blends beautifully with your plants. Wish I could have a real rive like that too!
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