Fairy gardens with miniature fairy houses can be a lot of fun to look at, but have you ever wanted to just crawl inside? I know I always do, which is why I had to build a fairy dwelling that I could actually fit into!

The idea for my human-sized fairy houses came from an over-grown grape plant that had outlived the original trellis it had grown on. The grape was about 4 years old, and I had been trying to keep the vines off the ground after the wood trellis deteriorated. Winters here in the mountains are tough, and snow collapses everything that isn’t built to last.

The “nest” (as I like to call them) on the right is my original structure. I supported the initial structure with 6 long pieces of hazelnut, which I chose because it is flexible enough to be forced into a circular shape. I tied them together, and began the tenuous job of interweaving a mixture of grapevines and apple branches to form the round shape. When my husband saw it, he was impressed that you could actually stand up inside. But then he suggested “Wouldn’t it be great if it was even BIGGER?” which was all the encouragement I needed. So I began construction on the second nest, which is made mostly of apple branches (I ran out of grapevine after doing the first structure, and we had cut a large amount of apple trees from our property, so it was a convenient way to use them up!)

I don’t know if I can ever say that I am finished with either of them, because like a real birds nest, they constantly need to be added to and tended… I lose track of time standing out in the nests, primping and preening each branch like a proud momma bird…

The first nest, completely covered by the grapevine (It is an Interlaken, a wonderfully sweet table grape, eaten right from the vine).

 

Icicle Ridge from the second nest.

A great place to eat ice cream on a hot summer evening…

 

The second door in the smaller house

The door for the dogs

As summer ended and autumn approached, I was worried about how the nests would fare during our long, snowy winters. I hoped the “arch” design would provide the support to keep each structure from falling under the weight of heavy snow…

Little people still like to explore during the cold months…

There is a fairy-sized nest built into the inside of the larger nest. Fairies moved into that house almost the next day, and seem to love it.

Winter is far from over, but so far the nests have warded off the snow excellently. The melting and freezing each day has turned each branch into a sort of “rebar”, keeping the nests safe! I hope we can have another year of exploring the magic in our own backyard ♥

~ Jessi

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