In a sunny corner of Tomoko and Kenji Usui's garden, surrounded by marigolds and goldenrod, there stands a peculiar little house. The thatched roof is tall and pointy like a witch's hat, with flowers growing around the brim. The porch is wide and shady, with a handmade wooden chair on it inviting visitors to take a rest. Imprinted in its plaster walls are stars made of wheat, pumpkin-seed hearts — and a fragment of a poem by Rumi, a 13th-century Persian mystic, spelled out in buckwheat: "Unfold your own myth."
A visitor might almost expect the low wooden door to swing open and a gnome to step out, digging fork in hand, to tend the garden.
In fact, the miniature house is inhabited by seeds — which, if you really think about it, are at least as magical as gnomes.