Secret Gardens are some of the most magical spaces. Find small corners and spaces hidden in your garden and turn it into your own personal sanctuary. Take a tour through several secret gardens to find inspiration and learn tips for creating your own along the way.
Have you been lucky enough to visit a secret garden? Walking through routes, or through ornate gates, or through rose-covered arbors, you will likely arrive at a welcoming spot with water features and benches, and enjoying sitting and enjoying a small space that is usually beyond the view.
It will attract you.
Turning the corner or opening the door, you will encounter the mysterious answer. Garden spaces that appear to be made just for you.
Secret garden.
Kanack Place
After touring Canuck Place Children’s Hospice Gardens and seeing a secluded, unique location designed on the premises for families and children, I became interested in the idea of a secret garden.
Kanuck Place is truly a place of movement, full of beauty and love for the most unimaginable and challenging times that a family can experience. Gardeners work hard to create collections of them in secret gardens, or in the entire larger garden, as a place of joy and tranquility.
It was a small space that hit me on a tour of the gardens. Like a friendly embrace, the hidden bench and covered arbor that invited you to. Volunteers can work hours to create such a space throughout the garden and get exposed to the lives of those who need it.
Secret gardens are everywhere
After a tour of Kanak Place, I began to notice secret gardens hidden in garden tours, public spaces, plants and public garden homes.
From doors to outdoor living spaces, to quirky benches built into hidden corners, the secret garden is unexpected, charming and quaint.
Each of the things I’ve seen is completely unique, but all of those general threads are that they are intense and personal.
Surrounded by wild-looking grass, the modern concrete contrasts with the front yard running down the riverbed.
My first secret garden
When I was in my first home and recovered from a debilitating illness, I created spaces that I could use to sit and enjoy my garden in those times when I had little power to stand upright. The backyard garden is my therapy space, where I take the garden to strengthen my body and mind. One day, I was only able to work for a few minutes, but being in the garden made me feel soothed.
I found a hammock chair and hung it under a small deck. There was plenty of room to push the chair in, and it was a completely cool and suspicious place to watch the pollinators ring and the flowers blow in the wind.
The ground below was covered with river stones and carved rocks in words such as “love” and “smile.” It may not have been the most elaborate space, but I spent hours healing in that space and I am very grateful for it.
Time to make a secret garden again
When I moved, my hammock chair came with me and was set up under an arbor in a prominent place in my backyard. I spent many summer days hugging my son. Hammocks have a brand new life.
I missed that secret place under the deck, a quiet and lively space. There, we had a great time looking at the garden.
The garden is beneath a large Pacific dog tree centered around a large Pacific fountain and a bed of rocks in the river, lined with lace leaves crying Japanese maple. I have studied these spaces frequently and am still amazed at how much joy they provided.
It was a secret, but not isolated. The garden welcomed family and friends to sit, talk, read and watch wildlife.
The front yard was my favorite garden on the premises. It had some beautiful mature plants and wonderful structure.
When you walk along the sidewalk in front of the house, you drape blooming hydrangeas, Japanese maple, and find colorful shaded garden plants such as ferns, hellebores, and fuera.
A few people noticed a tricky sound and turned the corner and peered strangely. The secret garden was not so secret. It felt like it was just one thing. It was just a few feet from the public sidewalk, and passersby could hear the fountain bubbling as they approached the stairs in front of them.
Friends and neighbors (and occasionally off-leesh, water-loving dogs) can sit down the stairs with sounds, watch the fountain, be welcoming to the bench, sit and enjoy the space. Like a friendly embrace.
Tips for creating your own secret garden
After enjoying the garden for ten years, it’s time to move back. I am now shaping my new space and I feel that a new secret garden will take shape.
If you want to make yourself, here is what I recommend:
Mark at a special entrance. This is as mesmerizing as the moon gates and the arbor covered in clematis, and as simple as my route before the bench. Something that draws you into space. Adds water functionality. This can be a small fountain, a bird bath, or even a wildlife pond. Water brings quiet thanks to its soothing, repetitive sounds and reflective quality. Includes sitting areas. You want to sit somewhere and enjoy your secret garden. It is a place of relaxation and is intended for you to rest. It appeals to the senses. Add fragrant flowers and herbs with stinky smells, wind chimes to listen to, soft plants to touch, and interesting leaves to see. All this helps you ground in space. Personalize. All secret gardens are deeply personal and very reflective of the gardener who created them. Add your beloved plants, hang garden art and make it a place just for you.
More gardens to inspire you
With a city girl who learned to garden, it changed everything. Author, artist, master gardener. A better life through plants.
