PHOTOS: Setauket's Own Secret Garden

It took Shawn Keane three nights working to midnight to build, but it was worth it. Keane, the owner of in East Setauket, finished building the nursery's "Fairy Garden" in May, and gave Patch a tour of the miniature world.

"It's pretty much like doing a regular landscape," said Keane, who also enjoys building Christmas villages.

He got the idea in 2011 when he went to a trade show, where he saw the cottages but no fairies on display. He ordered two of them, added flowers and small shrubs in a two-tiered presentation, built a waterfall out of cardboard and spray foam – and moved in more than a dozen small fairy figurines (which he also sells in the store) to complete what has become one of the focal points in the store. Now, he said, he's had customers bringing him photos of their fairy gardens inspired by his own.

"It was more popular than I thought it was going to be," Keane said.