If the word "fairies" conjures up images of delicate sprites flitting about upon gossamer wings, then you haven't met the Garden Fairies. Garden Fairies dig doing it and they have the dirt under their fingernails to prove it. But the Garden Fairies come into the story a little later.

First, allow me to briefly introduce fairies of an aquatic kind.

My introduction to the Fairies began in the Spring of 2002. I read an article in the newspaper about a group of adventure seeking 40-something-year-old women who were offering to teach windsurfing to other middle-aged women -- FREE! At the urging of a friend, I showed up for my first ever windsurfing lesson on the waterfront of Fred Howard Park. I surfed that day. I rode the waves, sidestepped around the boom, dropped the rudder, and beamed with delight. I left thinking it was too bad Fred Howard Park was so far up county. Since I live in west St. Petersburg, I knew taking the hour drive up US19 every weekend was doubtful. But, about two weeks later, I started getting emails about a group of women informally calling themselves "garden fairies." These creative women were drawn together by their mutual love and desire to do garden art. It was kind of a garden Co-Op. The deal was that if you spent three Saturdays working in three other fairy's gardens, a flock of fairies would come and work in your garden. At the time, I was transforming my yard from lawn to native plants. The results were, well . . . admirable in effort. However, my design lacks some fine tuning. But once again, time and distance were keeping me from joining the group.

Was I was destined to be part of this group?
I couldn't help but sense a strong synchronicity when the Country Day Montessori School was hosting the Livin' and Lovin' Art Home Tour in March of 2003. My husband and I had just enrolled our daughter in the school. And again:The Garden Fairies were right in the middle of the action. Our paths literally crossed and it seemed I was destined to be part of this group. I decided if I couldn't be part of the group, at least I could write about them. I am a freelance writer and I knew the Fairies would make a terrific story. I contacted Siobhan Nein, "Queen" of the Fairies and prolific email writer, and told her I wanted to write about the Fairies. We met and she told me the Fairies were considering a community service project. They had already done one at a nursing home, and some other small projects.

Good bones and bad bones
I asked Siobhan if the Fairies would consider rejuvenating the garden of a 76-year-old friend, Mable Wilcox. Mable has always been a bit of a sprite herself. It seemed a natural fit. Over the years, I'd listen to tales Mable and her granddaughter, Kerry, had created about the Fairies who lived in her backyard. She had made tiny fairy houses out of twigs and dried leaves, written stories about fairies, and made elaborate fairy costumes for Kerry. You must picture Mable's yard to understand why she might believe fairies live there. Much of Mable's yard is actually a tree-covered, viney field of wild ferns on an undeveloped lot. It's a tiny slice of natural Florida. It is beautiful just as it is; but left untamed for several years, Mable's jungle was threading to swallow her home and hearth. Upon seeing the garden Siobhan was immediately drawn to it's "good bones." In gardening lingo that means much of Mable's past efforts to define spaces with patios, paths and garden furniture was still evident. Unfortunately, the only good bones Mable seem to have were her garden bones. Mable has osteoporosis. She was recovering from a broken pelvis and the complications were beginning to take its toll on her back. The yard was beyond anything she could ever tame. But, as they say in real estate, it's all about location, location, location. Mable lives in Largo, halfway between Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg, making it possible for more fairies to participate it what was sure to be a huge project.

Project note: First build a strong a relationship of trust and communication. Mable wasn't about to let anybody wielding a machete into her backyard. So, even though she was happy to have help, it was clear the project's success would be dependent on building a strong a relationship between the Fairies and Mable. So with me acting as a liaison, Siobhan Nein, Heather Richards, Amanda Wilshire, Beri and Mike Coulter of Earthscapes often presented our ideas to Mable before taking action. It's a good thing we did. While not wanting to appear ungrateful, as I suspected, Mable had very strong ideas of exactly what she wanted and didn't want. Mable is an artist herself. She was concerned that she couldn't direct someone else on how to create just the right thing from her ideas. That's where communication played a huge role. Some of the communication problems were funny, others literally opened up a hornet's nest -- or were those honey bees?

How to coordinate an army of volunteers
The project began to take on a life of it's own in August 2003. Siobhan and her army of organizing women drew up a plan of action. The first task was to restore the garden paths, make them as wide and level as possible. Mable walks with a walking stick and the path had to be free of tripping hazards. Being the experienced Garden Fairy that she is, Siobhan realized restoring Mable's garden was going to require a partnership with a nursery. She contacted Earthscapes owners Mike and Bari Coulter. They agreed to take on the project after seeing the yard and meeting Mable. Mable's grace and charm, along with her Southern hospitality immediately draw people in and folks just want to sit and visit awhile. Everyone falls under her spell! What would the neighbors think! In the meantime, practical problems began to surface. For instance: how to provide restroom facilities for up to fifty volunteers who were expected at each work session? We had already decided do the project in three stages over the course of a month. Mable has one bathroom and she envisioned an endless trail of dirt and leaves tracking to her bathroom. She knew she couldn't possiblily clean because she can't push a vacuum, nor bend over to collect swept up dirt. We called for port-a-potties, considered the merits of renting it for a month, or just on an as-needed basis, considered where to put the outhouse, exactly how much to spend, how often it would be emptied, and what would the neighbors think! In the end, instead of getting the port-a-potty, Mable hired help for the days we were working. Whew! Why didn't we think of that first!

Then there were bees
Were those hornets? or honey bees? in that tree, right above the butterfly garden the Country Day Montessori middle school kids were going to be planting (they had volunteered their community service time to work in the garden)? Thus arose the question: Should we destroy the bees, or leave them and hope no one would get stung? On the first work session day, Bari and Laura (also from Earthscapes) upon entering the yard, were suddenly chased by a swarm of bees! It was a mad dash to the door to escape the angry swarm. It is unclear exactly where those bees came from, but one thing was clear, suddenly there was a lot of activity in Mable's yard in places where it had been quiet for years. Bari decided to err on the side of caution and hired a bee expert to destroy the nest. Mable always contended they were honey bees and it was safe to work around them. But, with some regret, she allowed the bees to be removed.

Garden Fairies move mountains!
The first challenge facing the organizing fairies was finding 150 feet of replacement fence and several strong men to take down a crumbling lattice work that Mable and her husband had built 25 years earlier. About five strong men took about 20 minutes to remove the fence and the vegetation attached to it. The men who showed up for this task were exceedingly patient and kind and willing to take orders! One of those men was Jesus (last name) who is an ex-Army Ranger with Special Ops forces who volunteered for every work session. When the area was cleared, what was left was a literal mountain of debris. Ever seen a fairy move a mountain? Well, Fairy Heather Richardson, almost single handedly, moved that mountain of debris after the City of Largo informed us they could not remove the pile because the location prevented their equipment from reaching it!

Encountering peaks and valleys.
Unfortunately, as we were entering the second work session, we still didn't have a replacement fence to install. It became the problem we couldn't seem to solve. Mable wasn't sure what she wanted: a reed covered chainlink fence as we first suggested, or a wood stockade fence -- easy, but unattractive and out of character for the rest of the yard design. The fence question didn't hold up the project. But it was unresolved. The chainlink was part of the original plan. But covering it with bamboo, as Mable had requested, was turning out to be expensive and possibly time consuming. Mable has a stand of bamboo she and the fairies had hoped to use to disguise the chainlink. But the weaving would have taken weeks and a whole flock of volunteers to work on that project alone. Further, about this time, Mable's health and her spirits were up and down. I worried that all the activity and decision-making was actually taking a toll on her strength. She was fighting serious back pain and was discouraged because her broken pelvis was taking so long to heal. She could barely walk and couldn't stand for more than a few minutes. She wasn't able to drive and was depending on others for grocery shopping and other errands. We knew we had to keep up the volunteer momentum and keep up Mable's strength until the garden was complete. We had two work sessions in front of us. Then, over the course of several days and many phone conversations, I noticed Siobhan had developed a persistent cough. This powerhouse of energy confessed she felt more tired than usual, and she planned to see the doctor because she just couldn't get rid of the cough. Good grief, I thought, if Siobhan doesn't show up for even one work session, who is going to get everything organized? It was a thought I pushed to the back of my mind.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes
Between work sessions, during the weekday evenings, several artist dates were held to create art gifts for Mable's garden. Lois Snyder, a Tarpon Springs cabinet maker, donated her shop space to use as a studio for a group of about 15 volunteers who made stained glass stepping stones. On a separate evening, I cut out and primed about 30 beer can butterflies which the Country Day Montessori kids later painted in cheerful colors and planted among the butterfly plants. Amanda Wilshire painted Mable's mailbox and replanted a garden there after she got off work. Mable and Amanda began to strike up a friendship. Lori Piper bought a garden fairy statue for the butterfly garden and everyone who worked signed a piece of stained glass which was later incorporated into a huge butterfly stepping stone.

Murals can be tacky or terrific
Shannon O'Leary Beck, a professional mural and trompe l'oeil artist, volunteered to paint a mural on the side of the house where Mable liked to sit. Mable was delighted with this idea . . . but again, with some reservations. She liked the idea of a fairy mural, but was concerned about the choice of colors and exactly what it would look like. The wall faced her neighbor's sideyard. She had assembled a pleasant, pink and white boarder of impatience surrounding her patio. She often sat in the bench swing which hangs from the limb of oak tree and faces the wall. Shannon's gift turned out to be a Florida scene that extends and blends into the natural garden Mable had made. And best of all, up high on a painted oak tree limb, sits a little fairy holding a cardinal in the palm of her hand. The mural painting required a pre-sketch, color-coordinating, primeing the walls, painting a door and awning so as to incorporate them into the scene. This mural was the crowning touch on the project.

No corner of Mable's yard was left untouched!
The project mushroomed in scope until every side of Mable's home was touched. New flower beds were planted, old paths were uncovered, a rock garden was restored, foundation plants were added, the butterfly garden and stepping stones were created as a focal point, the mailbox was painted, 150 feet of fence was replaced. Trees were trimmed, weeds pulled, edging was cut and a giant stag horn fern was moved from a spot where it was hidden from view to a place of importance.

Could this be the start of a new type of women's movement?
From the beginning of the project, until the final day, news cameras followed our progress. WTSP and Fox News had crews at two events. But a freelancer, Carlos Bricena, writing for the St. Petersburg Times, was so swept up with the amazing spirit of volunteerism that he appeared at every work session. Maybe he just wanted to see if we could actually pull it off. It's the kind of story that you just have to see to believe. After all, it makes no sense. Why would 100 people, mostly women, volunteer to work in a neighbor's garden for free? Why would volunteers create original art, donate a truck load of plants, donate a fence (in the end, Florida Fence donated the chain link fence and we covered it with store bought reed), and do back-breaking dirty work to restore a strangers garden? Well many 40-something women say, "This is just what I need, an artistic fun group working on a garden project." Now, that's creating some serious magic!

When Fairies build relationships, real magic happens.
That persistent cough that plagued Siobhan turned out to be walking pneumonia. Yet, she didn't miss a single work session. Not surprisingly, the day after our last session, October 28, 2003, she fell into bed and didn't move until the next week. A group of women volunteered to continue watering the new plantings to get them started. Amanda dropped by most often. Amanda, a ceramic artist, discovered Mable had created some ceramic pieces too. She is now encouraging Mable to squish around in some clay and see what she can make. As a thank you, Mable made a tiny fairy chair for Siobhan and a detailed fabric strawberry Christmas ornament for a few of the organizing fairies. On New Year's Day, she came to Fred Howard Park for a picnic with the fairies. Her back is still troublesome, but Mable is getting out more often and she plans to join the fairies for some of their future create-garden-art dates. She even volunteered to hold a How To Build A Fairy Chair workshop.

Just Believe!
Mable's Yard was just the beginning. The Fairies are currently scouting around for another senior whose yard needs rescuing. One thing is proven, amazing transformations happen when women work together. It's kind of an unexplainable sychronistic alchemy of good. You just have to believe.

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