Bee Happy Container Recipe

Try a little color matching when choosing a container for this planter. If you don't have a yellow container try a pink one or use rattan or metal, (which works with everything). There is room for some additional items in this planter. How about some bees hovering over the flowers or a beehive?

• 12" container of your choice
• Good potting soil
• Cupressus macrocarpa, Lemon Cypress Cone or other little tree
• Bird and Butterfly Chair, Style Options
• Bee Happy Sign
• Sedum makinoi, Ogon, Stonecrop
• Leptinella gruveri, Fairy Fern
• Acorus gramineus minimus, Green, Dwarf Sweet Flag
• Erodium x variabile, Flora Plena, Heron's Bill
• Oxalis Plum Crazy, Shamrock or other colorful miniature plant
• Mosaic Stepping Stones, Gray, 18 Pieces
• Brookside Cottage or other favorite fairy garden cottage
• Fairy Door Mats, 3 Piece Set
• Fairy Mulch - 1.5 lbs.

Fill the container with a good potting soil. Make sure you fill it to the brim and compact it a bit to allow it to sink down a little when watered. Lay out the items you have chosen on top of the soil and see how it works. If good to go, you start with the plants.

Plant the tree first then place the cottage and add the other plants. Loosen the roots on all plants if pot bound or simply cut off the bottom 0.5-1 inch. Add the stepping stones leading up to the front door and place the door mat. If you want to save a bit you can break the plants gently apart and make several of both the Leptinella and the Sedum. They grow fast and will fill in. Lastly, you add the mulch so no potting soil is visible.

Now the fun starts. Add the sign and the chair and any other fairies or small critters that would fit the design.

Water the container well and count on checking it every day to see if it is dry. Often the tree is pot bound and will need extra water until it has rooted out. You will need to thin our and trim the plants during the season. Take a picture and refer to it. We sometimes forget how it is supposed to look and then the end of the summer comes around and wow, things have slowly gotten out of control. Do not be afraid of cutting plants back. We can all do with a hair cut once in a while.