Two New Books: Fairy Gardens & Ambitious DIY Garden Projects

Fairy houses for children are pretty popular these days, so how about some fairy gardens to go along with them?

In The Gardening in Miniature Prop Shop: Handmade Accessories for Your Tiny Living World (Timber Press, 2017), author Janet Calvo shows you how to create miniature accessories to go along with the garden. You might also want to order her first book, Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World (Timber Press, 2013), which outlines how to create miniature gardens for those fairy houses.  The new book has enough projects to keep you -- and maybe your children --  busy for months:  benches, garden containers, stone paths, treehouses, bridges, fountains, and much more. 

But for people with large hands and fingers, you'd be better off with Big Impact Landscaping: 28 DIY Projects You Can Do on a Budget to Beautify and Add Value to Your Home (Page Street Publishing, 2017) by landscape designer Sara Bendrick, host of the DIY Network's I Hate My Yard! A lot of Bendrick's project are quite appealing -- such as the raised U-shaped Veg Garden, a Panel Screening Wall, and a Simple Garden Bridge --  they're all projects I would have to hire someone else to build.  But if you're handy, the book has a lot of good ideas, and the "look" is quite professional.  Go to it.