My front and back gardens contain many miniature fairy gardens. So I was thrilled to find Janit Calvo's TwoGreenThumbs website several years ago. This is a reprint (with Janit's permission) of her October 2025 newsletter:
A funny thing happened the other day on Instagram. Janit posted an old, rotted miniature dollhouse and asked,
“Alright, fellow miniature gardeners, please help me decide! This is from an old display from a big garden show a few years ago. Should I just trash this dollhouse that’s already deteriorated – or make it into a Halloween House project??”
But Janit already knew what her friends, fellow Miniature Gardeners and followers would say despite the house being very rotted, missing a lot of pieces and fragile to the touch. It took 92 comments and one, “Why is this even a question?” and she decided to make it into a Halloween house. (Just for the record there was only one, “Let it go and move on.” which she was partial to, she added!)
Enjoy the results! Here is a photo essay on what happened to this old dollhouse….
The Origins
Janit found the house at the Fremont Sunday Market in Seattle, many moons ago when she was vending every Sunday and spreading the joy of the new hobby of gardening in miniature. The dollhouse was made from a plywood kit, but the owner literally gave up the ghost and aborted all intentions with it and thus – it came into her hands for a mere $20.
The outside of the dollhouse wasn’t bad at all. The inside? She should have taken a photo! It was beyond repair with so many of the pieces missing – it was perfect for a miniature garden scene!
The First Reincarnation
Several years ago Janit did get a chance to use it in a display for the big Horticulture Garden Festival for a fairy garden theme. She painted it the blue, white and orange colors to go with the whimsical fairies and mixed in a bunch fairy gardens to go with it.
The Second Reincarnation
After the show, she tucked into a back garden bed and let it age naturally, not knowing what to do with it as the inside was still in bad shape and would be a challenge to get it up to par. So there it sat for 10 years, waiting for its redux.
However, as a Halloween House, I do believe she has brought it back from the dead!
| She says that if she blew on it, it would crumble in pieces. But Instagram won and out came the whisk and the broom! Janit did say that she had to re-home several spiders… The house held up nicely! By leaving it out in the weather to age naturally, Janit believed that it worked-out better than if she had tried to age it herself. |
Janit's renovation-in-progress in her in-ground miniature garden was the perfect spot to set it up. That’s a Japanese Andromeda on the left and a Graham Blandy Boxwood on the right. New Zealand Brass Buttons is planted on either side of the impromptu pathway.
Bring Your Broken, Your Damaged, Your Weathered Accessories…
Halloween is the perfect theme for your broken miniatures and weathered furniture. You can really squeeze the life out of your miniatures with this great hobby – see what she did there? Heh, heh, heh… :o)
Often times, less is more... Janit had to stop herself from going “full-tilt-boogey” on this room. She wanted to release her inner miniature interior designer and fix it up with wallpaper, flooring & drapes but it still wasn’t worth it – it’s now a permanent Halloween House.
| Janit advises that whenever you see a good miniature tombstone, grab it, you can never have enough for a good miniature cemetery! Keep your eyes pealed - collect the weird and wonderful throughout the year. Look for furniture that has seen better days. Find oddities like miniature legs and hands and skulls from skeleton garlands – they only add to the weirdness. |
Here's what it it looks like at night all decked out in fairy lights. Okay you must be scared by now. Just a little??
Happy Halloween from Janit Calvo at TwoGreenThumbs.com and the Heards Garden Tour Board Members... Our Moon Garden Queen and President, Jennifer McInteer; wickedly awesome webmaster, Sarah Eakins; social media maven, Autumn Jade Bellman; treasurer and the keeper of the coveted Heards Garden Tour yearly rocks, Jan Kabat; our terrific tour guide designer, Laura Lockwood; our secretary who keeps us on track, Vicki Brown-Middlesworth and your newsletter editor and miniature garden enthusiast who wants to visit Janit's amazing Two Green Thumbs Garden Store, Cindie Reilly
Written by Board Member Cindie Reilly.
