A coworker - one of the sweetest people you will ever meet - has taken such a liking to my fairy garden at work that she decided to plant one herself!
So she bought a giant jar of pickles, saved the jar after it was empty and planted a couple little plants. I donated two different types of clippings from mine and away it went!
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She was leaving for a 2 week vacation and sent a plea my way: "Dear Garden Fairy". Aw!
I said of course I would look after the garden while she was gone and so I proudly marched it upstairs to take its place beside mine; basking in sunlight!
I swapped out a couple struggling plants with new, bought little fake mushrooms and a mini fence, added some sand and just made it all cute like she's talked about wanting to do.
She was so delighted when she got back! And was amazed at how well the plants were doing having had sunlight!
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A couple weeks later and she's concerned the plants aren't doing well again; problem is that she's on the lower level and on the north side, so not much sunlight in her little area.
I offered a Fairy Garden Daycare service and she eagerly accepted.
She brought it up to my desk to enjoy sunlight again.
I soon noticed that the soil was very wet; hmmm, she must have watered it pretty heavily.
So I left the lid off, kept it in the sun and watched for it to dry out.
Multiple days in and the soil is still wet. Hmmm.
And then I discover she has a little worm in there! Wow!! I want one!
I show another coworker and upon slightly tilting the jar, she saw bubbles moving through the worm tunnels pretty close to the top of the dirt...which means only one thing:
There was at least 5" of water in the 12" jar! The soil was saturated!
Welp; only thing to do is let it dry out.
A few more days go by. Not only is it moist, it's still puddling (this has been nearly a week since she watered it!) I actually start sponging the dirt with paper towels to help! It's SO wet!
Most of the plants are quickly browning and wilting. :-(
We decide that putting it outside in the sun will help it dry out some more, so she takes it away.
Days later: still wet :-/
We're going to need all the little fairies working their magic to bring this one back!
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The next week, I go down to see how it's doing.
She's devastated: even the beautiful plant that had done well when all others started wilting was looking real sad.
Really?
I'm kind of surprised; I mean, I know the soil is so wet, but plants are pretty hardy...is it browning or yellowing or just bending?
She says the tip is getting brown and drooping.
Interesting. Not sure what to do.
"It was fine yesterday and then today..." [imitates a drooping]
So odd; I guess it could have been rotting in the wet soil and just taken this whole time to finally wilt away...?
"I did try to move them around a little bit to save them, so I hope I didn't damage them!"
Oh my!
"Oh and I added some fertilizer to the dirt to help"
You what?
How much?
[Horrified]: "A lot!!"
I'm done!
"Maybe I should just pull it all out and start over?"
Yup...pretty sure that's about our only option right now.
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Before and After:
I know she's sad, so I feel bad laughing, but it is too, too funny!
Worst case, she starts over; I already have clippings in water waiting for the roots to grow, so it's not a huge deal.
She's a great vegetable gardener, but obviously small plants in small, enclosed containers need VERY different care than vegetable gardens! I told her to stop over-loving it! :-D
Oh we got rather a great chuckle at these fairy garden adventures!
To be continued!
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