ARE YOU sometimes overwhelmed by the size of your garden? Do shovelsful of dirt get heavier every year, the weeding, pruning and hauling of mulch wearing on body and soul? Janit Calvo of Two Green Thumbs suggests a solution: downsizing. All the way down to pruning with hand scissors and raking with a kitchen fork.

"I've always been a gardener and a miniaturist," says Calvo, a transplant from Toronto who started out fashioning tiny dioramas for greeting cards. When working at Swansons Nursery she fell in love with dwarf conifers. Soon enough, Calvo was creating elfin gardens as a backdrop for the greeting-card dioramas.

A decade later, Calvo makes a living growing and selling dwarf plants and tiny garden furniture, building materials and tools online. "I've been jumping up and down with this hobby for 12 years, and now it's getting lots of attention," she says. "I have clients in many parts of the world and in every state in the country."

I can see kids delighting in these tiny gardens, but for grown-up gardeners? Calvo, bubbling with enthusiasm, ticks off why she's sure miniature gardens will be the next big thing. "They're inexpensive, can be created in a few hours, are accessible for all ages, and appeal to seniors who have had to give up their gardens . . . They're so doable."

Growing little plants in trough and alpine gardens is a long-standing tradition. And isn't all gardening playing around with scale? Not like this. Miniature gardens are about creating an entirely new world, like the one discovered by Gulliver when he washed up on the shores of Lilliput.

In the realm of miniature gardens, including fairy gardens, train gardens and terrariums, Calvo is a realist. She likes to set a scene, leave out the Barbie or other dolls (a miniaturist trend, too) and create a garden that she'd love to be in herself. If only she could get hold of Alice's shrinking elixir.

Calvo's garden in the Boulevard Park neighborhood must feel mysterious, with dozens of miniature gardens planted in the ground and pots. When integrating mini-scenes into a larger garden, she prevents a patchwork look by dividing the spaces into garden rooms using "hedges" of ornamental grasses or walls built of tiny bricks. She adds pathways, patios, itty-bitty furniture and layered plantings from ground covers to the tiniest of trees.

The trick is to use plants that not only start out small but grow very, very slowly. Small-leafed sedums, dwarf mondo grass, thyme, Irish or Scottish moss or baby tears might form the ground-cover layer of the garden. If a container is at least 8 inches deep, dwarf conifers like the Hinoki cypress 'Dainty Doll' or the squat little Norway spruce 'Tompa' do well. Baby English boxwoods like 'Graham Blandy' and miniature junipers form the middle layer, and you have a garden that will last three to five years with regular watering and a little snipping and grooming. "They take minutes to care for," says Calvo.

She admits that gardening on such a tiny scale has caused her to take a good long look at her inner control freak. And that she's a bit obsessed. "I see the stems of blueberry bushes as huge tree trunks, and a baby cherry tree as a spot for a tiny ladder and treehouse . . . I'm open to using my imagination and seeing all the possibilities."

Calvo will have a miniature garden display at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in February and a book out from Timber Press later in 2012. In the meantime you can learn about how to create your own downsized garden at www.twogreenthumbs.com or visit Calvo's online miniature garden center to purchase tools, plants and accessories at www.shop.twogreenthumbs.com.

The bottom line? "A full-size garden can weigh on you," says Calvo. "Miniature gardens are fun to play around with."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "The New Low-Maintenance Garden." Check out her blog at www.valeaston.com.