Wooster woman creates fairy community in her front yard
Every piece of the intricate fairy community, located at the foot of Kim Bullock’s driveway on Monterey Street in Wooster, tells a story. Many were created by Bullock.
Kim Bullock has called Wooster home for 31 years, and now a whole community of fairies also has made their home in her front yard.
It started many years ago when she first created a fairy house in a tree stump in her backyard. “It lasted a few years until the stump disintegrated, so by that time, I was eager to do it again,” she said, “but this time on a larger scale and more permanent.”
Having always been fascinated with miniatures, Bullock longed for a dollhouse as a child. She never got her wish but now delights in the fairy garden. “This is my grown-up dollhouse,” she said.
Every piece of the intricate fairy community, located at the foot of her driveway on Monterey Street in Wooster, tells a story. Many were created by Bullock.
“The very first piece I made myself by turning a clay pot upside down and painting it like a mushroom. That mushroom house sat beside the tree for years and held our personal geocache,” Bullock said. “The mushroom house is now a part of the fairy neighborhood, although it no longer hides our geocache. The garden is a leftover from my backyard tree trunk house.
“The barn is the newest addition. I wanted to find a barn that had the Ohio bicentennial logo on it, but they don’t exist. So I painted the logo on the barn myself. I also have good friends that have given me many decorative pieces to add.”
Creating and sharing the fairy garden also has been a great way for Bullock to deal with the loss of her dog Zany. She calls the creation her “fairapy.”
“It’s very therapeutic,” she said. “There are a lot of tears in my fairy garden. It gave me time to think about the 15 1/2 years that we had (Zany) and how much joy she brought. There’s even a little blonde fairy doggy, like my sweet Zany, playing in the yard of one of the fairy houses.”
There are some regular visitors who walk by the fairy garden often to visit and enjoy. Bullock has had acquaintances bring her miniatures to add to the community. A neighbor brought one of her favorite pieces she has been gifted, an outhouse with a gnome inside reading the paper. Recently, she and her husband helped someone they didn’t know in the neighborhood find her lost cat.
“A few days later, she came to my door with a gift bag full of little fairy kitty cats,” Bullock said. “I didn’t have any cats in my fairy garden, so it was a wonderful surprise and a great addition.”
Bullock enjoys seeing people discover the garden. “Sometimes when I’m sitting out on the porch, I see people walk by and stop and look and can hear the excitement in their voices as they talk about it and point to things,” she said. “I love the fact that they are taking the time to look it over and enjoy seeing all my little miniatures.”
A neighbor also joined the fun, adding a planter fairy garden to the crew of gnomes in their own yard. Bullock would be delighted if other people added their own bit of fairy magic to the neighborhood. “How fun nightly walks would be,” she said.
Bullock said the setup of a fairy garden can take a lot of time and attention to detail, and there is maintenance involved in keeping the fairies’ home free of leaves and debris. They also hibernate in winter to protect them from snow and ice.
If anyone is interested in getting started with a fairy garden and would like some help, Bullock would love to start a fairy garden service. She can be emailed at kbullock2466@gmail.com.
“I hope that (when people see the garden), they feel the way I feel when I’m down there, that even if for just a moment, there are still beautiful things in the world to see if we just slow down and look,” Bullock said. “And I hope the adults get that childhood feeling back for that moment as well.
“And I hope the children’s imagination takes them inside their little houses like it does for me.”