Introducing Peter Rabbit and Friends

After my daughter was born, I started collecting books from my childhood that I wanted to share with her. It began with Where the Wild Things Are and other classic fairy tale books. I thought that these stories would provide ideas for future fairy gardens. Gathering books from my childhood quickly became a walk down memory lane where I found stories I had not thought about in years, but still managed to define my love of reading as an adult. When I was a child, my oldest sister used to read stories to me in the unique voices of each character. Upon finding The Tale of Peter Rabbit at a local bookstore, I felt overcome with the need to create a miniature garden around this beloved story. It was good timing too since the movie was coming out, and a new collection of miniature accessories had been created to showcase the film.

The story of Peter Rabbit is ideal for a miniature garden since it focuses upon the tale of a bunny invading a garden, against of the advice of his mother. She had warned her son about the gardener named, Mr. McGregor, but Peter did not listen because he wanted to snack on some of the vegetables.

When I began my design about this tale, I knew I wanted a fairy house with a miniature garden enclosed in a picket fence. Then I made sure there were miniature accessories, such as vegetables and mischievous rabbits. For some whimsy, I added other wildlife that were hiding in the nearby miniature plants in hopes of stealing food from the gardener. I fell in love with Peter and the Watering Can, where a brown rabbit, with a glint in his eye, hides inside a spouted can. I also wanted to make sure I included Mrs. Rabbit wearing her blue dress and white apron, since she was always such an essential part of the story. Within the garden space, I placed visible vegetable to eat such as the Harvest and Heirloom Vegetables, which are veggies on picks. Positioned in rows, the aboveground vegetables were position in rows to reveal the miniature garden that the little animals were trying to plunder. I also could not resist Jemima Puddle Duck, which shows a white mother goose and her ducklings; they are such cute additions to my fairy garden.

When you are putting together a miniature garden, it does not have to capture a particular scene or moment from the book. You simply want it to portray the feeling the story brought to you as a child – so you can share Peter Rabbit and Friends with your little ones.