Tin Can Fairy Garden House (Easy DIY)

A tin can is the cheapest sturdy shell for a DIY fairy garden house: it's already round, it holds paint and glue, and it lasts several seasons outdoors once sealed. This page covers the house build first, then how to plan the garden around it so the plants stay in scale.

Materials for the tin can fairy house

Tools: tin snips or metal-cutting shears, a nail and hammer, a metal file, marker, work gloves and safety glasses.

How to make a tin can fairy house

1. Prep the can Wash it, peel the label and soak off the glue. File any sharp rim or cover it with a strip of duct tape inside.
2. Mark the door and windows Decide which end is the floor: the open end down gives a clean base, the closed end down gives the roof something solid to glue to. Draw an arched door about 1½ in tall and a couple of small windows.
3. Cut the openings An adult punches a starter hole with a nail, then cuts the shapes with tin snips. File the cut edges smooth. For a no-cut version, paint the door and windows on instead.
4. Add a drain hole Punch two or three nail holes in whichever end sits on the soil so rain doesn't pool inside.
5. Prime and paint Spray a metal primer, then paint walls, door frame and window panes. Stone or brick patterns with a sponge look good at this scale.
6. Make the roof Roll a cone from card stock and cover it with bark chips, overlapping "shingles" cut from a second can, or glue on an upturned terracotta saucer. Glue it on with outdoor-rated adhesive.
7. Trim it Glue twig door frames, a pebble path, a bottle-cap window box or a tiny button doorknob.
8. Seal Two light coats of clear exterior sealer over everything, with time to dry between coats.

How to plan a DIY fairy garden

Choose the container

Wide and shallow works best: a terracotta bowl, an old wheelbarrow, a wooden crate, a cracked pot laid on its side or a raised bed corner. Clemson Extension calls drainage essential for miniature gardens, so drill holes if there are none. Big containers get heavy once the soil is wet, so put them in place before filling. Use potting mix, not garden soil, and skip the gravel layer at the bottom; UC Master Gardeners say it makes drainage worse.

Plants that stay small

Clemson's advice for miniature gardens is to pick dwarf varieties that stay narrow, spread little and have small blooms. Match plants to the light the container gets.

Clemson lists littleleaf boxwood, dwarf Japanese holly and miniature juniper among cold-hardy choices. Tropicals and tender succulents can stay in their pots and come indoors in winter.

Layout in five moves

1. Pick a focal point Put the tin can house toward the back or a third of the way in, never dead center.
2. Plant tallest at the back A dwarf conifer behind the house gives it a "forest" backdrop.
3. Lay a path Pebbles, aquarium gravel or flat stones lead from the edge to the door.
4. Add ground cover Moss or creeping thyme fills the gaps and holds the soil.
5. Accessorize lightly Two or three pieces in scale (a bench, a mushroom, a tiny watering can) look better than ten.

Fairy garden ideas

• Broken-pot terrace: lay a cracked terracotta pot on its side and build stepped levels with the shards.
• Teacup or tin garden: one sedum, one pebble path, one tiny door glued to the cup. Drill a drain hole.
• Tree-stump door: prop or screw a small wooden door and window against the base of an old stump (avoid screwing into living trees).
• Wheelbarrow village: several tin can houses in a rusty wheelbarrow, with a "main street" of gravel.
• Beach theme: sand, shells, a driftwood pier and blue glass "water". Use a succulent mix.
• Woodland theme: moss, ferns, acorn-cap bowls, twig fences and a bark-roof house for a shady porch.
• Bottle-cap pond: a jar lid sunk into the soil with a mirror or blue resin.
• Seasonal swaps: tiny pumpkins in fall, a mini birdhouse in spring.
• Glow at night: a solar stake light behind the house shines through the cut windows.
• Vertical fairy garden: tiny scenes on each tier of a shower caddy vertical planter.
• Door-wreath cousin: the same mini pots and succulents make a mini clay flower pot wreath.
• Kids' dig zone: a fairy corner next to the backyard sandbox, with sturdy plants only.

Care, weather and safety

• Water lightly and often in shallow containers; succulent gardens need much less than moss gardens, so don't mix the two in one bowl.
• Trim to keep scale. Pinch back anything that starts to dwarf the house.
• Sharp edges: cut metal is sharp. Adults do the cutting, wear gloves, file every edge.
• Small parts: pebbles, glass gems and accessories are choking hazards around toddlers and pets.
• Winter: move the container under cover, or into a cold frame or a mini greenhouse, which also keeps tender succulents alive until spring.

Looking for more weekend projects? Browse the rest of our garden projects.

Fairy gardens tend to grow into bigger gardens. If you're ready to start your own plants from seed, compare the best greenhouse kits, the compact small greenhouse kits for a corner of the yard, or the cheap greenhouse kits that hold up past the first season.