No longer just a horticultural flight of fantasy from days gone by, Miniature Fairy Gardens are once again gaining popularity. In fact, creating and tending to one might just be the perfect antidote to mundane modern living. All you need is a space as small as a window ledge and a little imagination and you'll be ready to go!

When selecting a location, consider easy all-around access for maintenance. A framed raised bed or a large outdoor container on a patio is a suitable location for your fairy garden. Planting in containers or raised beds also helps curb growth rates by preventing root spread.

Position your fairy garden in a sunny spot and ensure that it is watered regularly, especially in dry, hot weather. Use a high-quality potting soil such as Kellogg Premium Potting Soil . Make sure you have adequate drainage, by piercing holes in the base of containers to allow water to escape, and line containers with gravel or sand. Fertilize the fairy garden during the active growing season with a water soluble food like Peters 20-20-20 .

It's important to think about scale and proportion when selecting plants for fairy gardens. Look for slow growing plants that don't have flowers that will be out of scale with your garden. Plants with tiny leaves work best, especially if they can be trimmed easily. Don't use annuals, because they grow quickly and can get "leggy" fast. Also, look for plants that have similar light and water requirements, since they all need to get along in the same garden.

Plants and miniature shrubs that work well for fairy gardens include alpine plants, Japanese dwarf plants, bonsai trees (planted in pots concealed beneath the garden surface), and slow-growing herbs (because you can trim and use them, too). Any plant can be replaced if it gets too large. Remember, the fun of a fairy garden is in maintaining it. It becomes your special, personalized little landscape area.

Consider small Italian cypress, Japanese boxwood, dwarf euonymus, and false heather (Cuphea) for trees. For bushes, saxifragia, thyme, dwarf lavender, lemon balm, chamomile, oregano, rosemary and dwarf sage varieties make good choices. Use mondo grass, blue fescue grass or chives for grassy plants and Scotch moss, Irish moss or blue star creeper to simulate lawns.

Finally, add the finishing touches by decorating your mini-garden with scaled-down versions of garden accessories using weather-proofed dollhouse furniture, miniature glazed ornaments, toy farmyard items or aquarium accessories. You could even use a small dish containing water, embedded in the surface to resemble a miniature pond. Add a miniature fairy-sized path made of small pebbles. The possibilities are endless. The important thing is to let your imagination go and have fun!

Many gardeners give up on their roses in the summer, believing they produce quality flowers only in the spring. Rose blossoms do tend to be smaller in the summer and the colors not quite as vivid because the summer heat forces the blooms to open before blossom size and color pigment have completely developed. But given the proper care, combined with a few simple pruning techniques, roses will re-bloom every six weeks until the first frost.

There are two ways to prune roses during the growing season, and both will encourage new blooms to set. Most roses have leaflets (with three to seven leaves) every couple of inches along the stems. In order to produce blooms you need to prune at least to the second five-leafed leaflet. (Pruning just above will eliminate nasty dead stems called coat hangers.)

If you also want to prune for size control, you can go as far down as two leaflets above the previous cut. Pruning beyond the previous cut tells the rose you don't want it to bloom. Remember that hybrid tea and grandiflora rose stems tend to grow at least 18 inches after each pruning before blooming, so if you prune only the minimum amount you will have a very tall (and possibly leggy) rose by the end of summer.

Because roses are constantly growing, they are in constant need of food. It's important to feed roses every 6-8 weeks with a quality rose food like Dr. Earth Organic 3 Rose & Flower Fertilizer. Continue feeding through September, and you will have quality rose blooms into fall. So don't give up on your roses. With a little help, they will provide loads of blooms for you all season long.

Who's your bud? Not the budworm. When the weather warms up, you can bet this pest is on its way. The budworm (a type of caterpillar/moth) is gunning for your geraniums, petunias, snapdragons, and other flowering plants. Knowing the budworm's diet, habits, and the effective control methods, you will be armed and ready for combat.

It can be hard to spot budworms. They are very small and they tend to take on the color of the bloom or foliage they are infesting, further enhancing their camouflage. You will see irregular chewing on the blossoms and round holes through flower buds and leaves. The numerous black droppings they leave behind are one of the telltale signs. Many gardeners may not know they have a problem until the damage becomes severe.

Controlling this pest depends on the amount of planting. With a small patio of plants, physically removing and killing them should be effective. A larger yard would require spraying. Insecticides that contain Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), such as Safer BT Caterpillar Control, offer reasonably effective biological control. Because the Bt must be ingested by the insect to be effective, it may take a few days before you no longer see any signs of budworms. Plant sprays containing Sevin are also effective in controlling budworms.

Now that you know what to look for, and what to spray, you'll be armed and ready at the first sign of attack.