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Find a pocket of springtime magic at this Austin fairy garden

A fairy figurine kneels on a bed made of courts beside a miniature cauldron.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
AHB Community School sources many of its fairy garden materials from Austin Creative Reuse.

There are magical fairies hiding in Austin.

Your best chance of spotting them is in a Hyde Park garden filled with ceramic mushrooms, heart-shaped stones, gold-dusted pine cones and cozy wooden nooks.

At least, that's what the kids at AHB Community School say.

A mini metal cauldron surrounded by pebbles inside of a wooden A-frame structure.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
AHB students make potions to heal fairies and birds who visit.

AHB is a private school with about 90 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. You can find the kids' two fairy gardens by the fence around their playground and in the parking lot near 40th St. and Speedway.

A miniature wooden chair and table decorated with a white doily, plates topped with pebbles, cups and a very tiny pack of playing cards. The mini scene is inside of an A-frame wooden structure.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
The kids at AHB haven't seen the fairies themselves, but Elaine, age 7, thinks "their shoes are made out of leaves."

A tree is reborn for fairies

The story of the gardens starts with a beloved tree by the school’s parking lot. The students used to climb the tree, but after part of it collapsed, the city approved its removal.

“It was a place our kids used to play inside of as one last play before we got into our cars,” says Anne Rowes, an AHB parent and the school’s facilities coordinator. “To just let that go didn't seem right.”

AHB parents helped transform what was left of the tree into a fairy haven, turning the stump into the base for a miniature village in the fall of 2022. The garden eventually expanded to its second, larger location by the playground at the start of 2023.

A fairy village set up on top of a tree stump. There are bowls of bright pebbles, vases, ceramic mushrooms and wooden A-frame structures.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
What exactly you'll find at the gardens depends on the season. The school adds new decor a few times a year, and kids are free to make their own changes.

Parent Navassa Hilbertz led the project. A big part of her fairy design philosophy is using natural, recycled materials.

“We have, for instance, a fairy shower that's made out of a dried seed pod,” she says. “Almost everything that is used in the garden is made from repurposed materials, and there's something just really fun [about] finding little things and figuring out a way to put them together.”

She gets a lot of stuff from Austin Creative Reuse, and the school also encourages families to bring their own knickknacks.

The closer you look at the gardens, the more surprises you find.

Yes, you see the traditional flowers, butterflies and mossy pebbles. But there are also lots of bottle corks. Empty thread spools. Figurines with missing arms. Little things that might have seen better days, way back when — but they’ve been given a second life as a fairy offering.

Three figurines glued to a stand are placed on a tree stump in the garden.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Some figurines might be missing arms, but they make up for it with spirit.

Rowes, the facilities coordinator, picks up a small cup that has been turned into a vase for a budding plant.

“This was my mom's teacup. She broke the handle, was getting [it] ready for the garbage, but I brought it in because I love this kind of magical take,” she says. “We can find beauty in everything. This will not stay forever, but for now it is part of our garden and our whimsy.”

A lesson in impermanence

The fairy gardens are always changing. A few times a year, AHB organizes big decorating days, but the gardens are open to all sorts of interference — mystical or otherwise.

Students get free rein to add things or move them around, and the school incorporates the gardens into lessons. When the students learned about ancient Egypt, for example, they created a miniature Nile for the fairies.

“I just really like how the fairy garden is open to everybody, and you can just mess around with it,” says Ellie, an 8-year-old AHB student. “You can reach through the gate and grab something to use during your recess and just put it back later.”

A kid holds up a miniature playing card made for fairies. It's slightly bigger than a fingernail and is the ace of spades.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Ellie, age 8, likes borrowing from the bigger fairy garden during recess.

What do the fairies think?

After all this time and effort, there’s one big question: Just how successful have the gardens been at attracting fairies?

“I would say extremely,” Hilbertz, the parent in charge of the gardens, says. “Every time you come back, things have been moved around, rearranged.”

KUT didn’t witness any fairies. But the kids say that’s all a part of their magic.

“I think the fairies are skittish. They think we're huge,” says Elaine, a 7-year-old student. “They run away when we come.”

When humans aren’t looking, the fairies are up to a lot. On hot days, Ellie says, they turn the bigger garden's fountain into “a little water park.”

A lotus sculpture sprays water into a miniature fountain. Lots of coins and bottle corks float in the water.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Look a little closer at the gardens, and you'll see all manner of whimsical objects — like a googly eye on a lily pad.

But it’s not all fun and games in fairy world. The kids also made room for a hospital, a cemetery and even a prison.

“Sometimes they're naughty, like dropping ink on people's heads,” Ellie says. “So when they're naughty, they can get put in jail.”

When the fairies aren’t relaxing in AHB’s gardens or making mischief, the students say they stay at other magical places in Austin.

“I think they’re visiting other fairy gardens and helping other people make them,” Elaine says. “I think they really like to go in trees to see everything because you won't see a lot when you're so tiny.”

A kid crouches down to pick up a toy mushroom in the fairy garden.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
"If I were a fairy, I would travel all over the world," Elaine says.

There's only one surefire way to keep Austin's fairy culture alive — building more gardens. You don’t need a whole lot to get started. Just some corks, spools, a bit of time and imagination.

Quick, before the fairies drop ink on your head!

Chelsey Zhu is the digital producer at KUT. Got a tip? You can email her at czhu@kut.org.
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