Our fairies have a penchant for gold coins, so we usually add a shiny gold parking token and sometimes a chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil. (Some people say the fairies leave a gold coin every night for their friends and that as long as the secret is kept, the coin will be left forever. Since this has never happened to us, we leave the gold coin for them!) One year we added a path made of tiny seashells collected at the beach and once some pretty marbles in a little heap, another year we strewed beautiful buttons and some fancy jelly beans. Fairies like variety and surprises, so we recently added a tiny bentwood chair.
You might like a chair, too, so you have somewhere to sit while you remember some wonderful Fairy Tales and Stories or some of the amazing long poems about The Fairies, and maybe share them with a friend.
Last year we found a gnarled little "stump" in the woods, and on that we have perched a little bronzed gnome in case the fairies would like some company.
(He's outside waiting for them now.) One year three little resin toads lived there, too.
Plant your miniature garden with plants you think your own resident fairies will like. If you have lots of little primulas or Johnny-Jump-Ups or Chicken Gizzards in your garden, for example, plant one or two in the container. If you have some other favorite tiny plants add them. Sweet alyssum or one of the bejeweled annual lobelias would be fine, perhaps a small caladium for an umbrella, or a bit of fancy coleus or pink polka dot plant for a canopy. Dianthus "Tiny Rubies" would be lovely in a brighter spot, so would any of the miniature plants sold for alpine troughs.
If you have a diminutive elfin creeping thyme or a small sedum with lovely texture, add that for a fairy carpet. If you think you will remember to water it carefully, add something a bit exotic from the houseplant section of the garden center -- Baby's Tears would be perfect - and then a shallow pan of water over which you can build a fabulous little bridge of twigs or perhaps the first Popsicle sticks of the season. Or make a tiny boat from a leftover milkweed pod or a walnut shell or even a bobbing cork!
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