If you need to ask the question then you obviously haven’t seen one. And, if you haven’t seen one then it’s obvious that you don’t believe in them. For if you did believe in them, you would see them everywhere.

I’ve never seen them – and I accept that my lack of belief has probably caused this seemingly irreversible condition.

My daughters, on the other hand, see them everywhere. And they’re quick to point them out – well, at least they were until they realised I was an unbeliever. Now they just shake their head and cuss at my inability to see the unseen in the same way Morpheus was bemused by Neo’s initial disdain for what he couldn’t see.

I’m talking, of course, about the garden sprite – fairies. Pixies, elves, nymphs, sprites are all part of the world our children enjoy despite their parents ineptitude at grasping the imaginary.

Garden sprites are those little creatures that adorn fairy gardens. If you have children you won’t need to add them in a physical sense because they just turn up. You may need to decorate a few shrubs with tinsel and allow them to store a few pieces of doll house furniture in the garden beds, but you won’t need to add any pixie characters – they’re already there.

No. Garden sprite adornments are not for children. They’re for the unbelieving parents who need to reminisce their childhood.

When you think of garden sprites there is only one name that comes to mind – Frank Lloyd Wright. Arguably the greatest American architect, Wright created the Midway Gardens in Chicago and with the help of sculptor Alfonso Iannelli <a href="http://phoenix.about.com/cs/famous/a/sprites01.htm" target="new" rel="noopener">positioned Sprites to protect the gardens</a>.

Their geometric shape is instantly recognisable and reproductions of Iannelli’s work are quite common for many gardening enthusiasts. Their purpose in the garden is supposedly the same – protecting it.