Kathryn Swenson believes in fairy tales. Her conviction stretches all the way back to childhood. “I grew up around Seattle in a neighborhood where there weren’t a lot of kids, but there was a forest right across the street. I spent every day in that forest with my dog, and in my mind, fairies lived there,” Swenson says. “It was just the sort of place that fairies should be. Moss covered the forest floor, ferns spread out, light filtered in through the trees. Everything was lush and green. Whenever I heard a rustle, I always thought it was the fairies. I grew up with that magic.”

Swenson has never lost touch with that magic. Instead, she has built a business upon it. Swenson’s company, Gnomen Culture Inc., designs, manufactures and sells a line of miniature garden fixtures that create an outdoor diorama replicating a scene in the English Cotswolds. Once compiled and arranged, the fixtures resemble a sprawling English garden complete with cottages, stone walls and wishing fountains. The collection, called The Fairy’s Garden, transforms any backyard flower patch into a magical, little village ripe for potential fairy population. Fairies have such a childlike innocence about them. They are mystical, magical, connected to nature. There is something very primal about them and I think people want something other-worldly to believe in,” says Swenson, “especially now. We live in such a dark world. We all need a place where the darkness can’t creep in.”

Swenson took the first steps toward launching her business after a very dark day. “It was right after 9-11,” she says, “and I already had plane tickets to China. I was planning to go to a convention to find a manufacturer, and I almost didn’t go, but then I figured it was probably safer in China than it was here at home, so I got on that plane.” With no knowledge of the language, she managed to find a small manufacturer with whom she felt a personal connection and negotiate a contract.

They have worked together since. Roughly six months after her first trip, in the spring of 2002, she had her first garden series in hand, ready to market.  For Swenson, that trip to China was a coming together, not only for her business, but for her personally, too.

Trained in design, Swenson worked in architectural and interior design for 30 years. It was an industry she loved, but over time, she says, it grew to feel cutthroat and she began looking for an out. During that time, gardening kept her sane, she says. In summer 2000, Swenson and her husband, Jack, embarked on a massive redesign of the garden around their Orono home. Part of that redesign included a courtyard garden. It was Swenson’s idea to use a bird house and some tiny park benches in one corner of the courtyard to create a miniature garden scene—a garden within a garden.

Friends gushed over her little scene, but by the end of the summer it was falling apart. “The sprinkler system got the best of it. The wood pieces were coming unglued and the metal parts were rusted through,” Swenson recalls. “I went online trying to find things to replace it with, and I couldn’t find a single thing. Nothing. And that’s when my business idea came,” she says. “In an odd way, creating fairy gardens just made perfect sense. Gardening has always been my Zen thing. I’ve also always had this fascination with miniatures. Architecture and design have long been passions.”