Over the past few years I’ve started building a fairy garden in my yard each Spring. I live in NE Ohio so the garden doesn’t stay out all year long. The winters are too harsh.

But I love my little fairy gardens. I have a whole set on flickr with photos of my original fairy garden and I plan to start a second one in Spring 2012 – right outside a bedroom window so I can look at it while I’m on the treadmill. So what’s a girl to do in the winter to get her green plant and little fairy fix?

Make a terrarium from a thrifted cookie jar, that’s what!

First, I inverted a plastic cup in down in the center of the jar and filled around it with little river rocks from Darice. I put the cup in because I wanted the rock higher around the perimeter and not many in the center. I carefully removed the cup and placed in half of a small fern plant I’ve had. I then filled in around it with soil.

By the way, the fern is meant for small gardens like fairy gardens and I bought it at my local nursery.

I added a couple of small marbles for a touch a color and a small plastic fairy. This little fern grows pretty fast and sitting in the windowsill in a small pot it dries out quickly. I’m hoping by putting it in a terrarium I’ll not have to water it daily.

The bonus here is that I split the fern in half so now I have two. I’ll let them grow bigger and beautiful and then when I put my fairy gardens in this Spring I’ll have a couple of ferns to add.

Even with the fern the whole project cost around $7 and I have half a fern for another location.

Have you ever made a terrarium? Do you have a fairy garden?