The Secrets of a Secret Garden
- Michelle
- Mar 28
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 19
What makes a secret garden experience?
What do Indiana Jones’s Temple of Doom, Harry Potter’s Platform 9 ¾, and a flower-covered garden gate all have in common? They’re portals to the unknown. Gateways to the unique and unexpected, drawing you in to discover more while surprising and delighting along the way.
Secret garden portals come in endless forms – from a street-side door in urban Athens:
...to an old wooden gate in the English countryside.
There’s even more variety when it comes to what’s on the other side… orchards, lakes, courtyards or just a simple bench to rest and watch nature unfold around you.
My first secret garden experience
I saw my first secret garden, as a kid, in rural Germany.
Just off a country lane, past my grandmother’s charming half-timber Fachwerk house,
down the gravel driveway she shared with the neighbor, was a magical portal – a blossom-covered garden gate, hand-made from concrete and wire.
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Swaths of flowers, visible through the fence, beckoned you to turn the handle and step inside.
Upon stepping through the gate, we were greeted by teeming flowers and vegetables in the kitchen garden. The flowers were for appreciating and whichever of the vegetables were ripe would become that night’s dinner.
A bench, home-made out of concrete and wood, was tucked against the barn, shaded by a hand-made pergola. It was the perfect place to stop and smell the… sunflowers, in this case.
A concrete path led you past beds of potatoes and beans and gladiolas and on to a second gate.
The middle garden was a kind of catch-all area with a wood shed, a Zwetschke tree and a walnut tree whose fruit and nuts were used for baking or eaten straight off the tree. Two large compost bins ,full of grass clippings and food scraps, hummed with bees.
Past the wood shed, where split logs were stored for use in the kitchen oven, the path continued along to the third and final gate, hidden at the back of the property. Beyond which was an open field and creek belonging to the neighbor behind.
The last gate opened onto a large, fenced area - the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A clothesline was strung between two home-made cement pillars. A row of apple trees made our own little apple orchard. Rows of raspberry vines trained along the same cement-pillar-and-wire system as the clothesline and garden gates. Whatever raspberries weren’t eaten right off the vine were gathered to use in an afternoon cake or with ice cream for dessert.
As far as secret gardens go, this one had it all – tucked away behind the house, inviting gate after inviting gate, and a continuous path that ultimately led you to the pot of gold (a belly full of fresh fruit) at the end.
Secret gardens, in any form, often have a few aspects in common:
· Being hidden from view
· Welcoming you to step inside
· Drawing you in to discover more
· And surprising and delighting you along the way
So what makes these aspects of a secret garden so compelling?
They’re secret
At its core, a secret garden feels secluded, private. Like you’ve stumbled onto a special place that only you know about.
Sometimes there’s a hint that a hidden world might exist. A blossoming tree peeking over a wall. The sound of water from an unseen source. Or, as in the book The Secret Garden, a happy robin disappearing behind a wall of ivy.
Sometimes there’s no clue at all – just an imposing facade that gives no hint to what's hiding behind.
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Even then, a curious streak might pull you in for a closer look. It’s human-nature, after all, to want to know what’s on the other side.
The courtyards of Italy, Mexico, and Spain often begin with an imposing exterior that says ‘nothing to see here’ but behind which hides a lush, welcoming oasis.
They welcome
A door, a gate, a simple opening in the shrubs – a secret garden’s entrance compels you to engage.
Years ago, following a single-track path through the woods in Panama, I happened upon this view . I mean, come on. There’s no way I wasn’t going through.
This ‘tree portal’ led to an untouched beach on the Caribbean Sea. The sand, shaped in rough waves, was dotted with full driftwood trees. Not a soul in sight. Only fresh air and the sounds of nature. #SecretGardenBeachEdition
They draw you in
…typically with a path of some kind – gravel, pavers, or the negative space of lawn amongst flowers and shrubs.
Disappearing paths are my favorite. I would come upon them a lot while hiking and mountain biking – the kind that tease that there’s something ahead.
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Over the course of my life, I’ve traveled many more miles than intended, to “just see what’s around the corner”.
Disappearing paths are compelling even when you know what’s on the other side.
You still get the sense that you’re enveloped by your surroundings. In a calm and comforting space.
They surprise and delight
For me, the surprise – after I had run ahead, to see what was around the corner – was often yet another bend I couldn’t see around.
But just as often, there were unexpected delights, like:
Personal touches that made a space unique
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A spot to rest and take in your surroundings
A summer sunset
My own secret garden
Moving to my current house meant a chance at creating my own secret garden. For better or for worse, I was starting with a completely blank slate – a half-acre of grass surrounding the house, with neighbors on every side.
Getting from a giant lawn to a secret garden would mean a few major phases:
Phase 1 - getting hidden
planting border trees to provide privacy for the most-used parts of the garden
planting temporary, fast-growing ornamental grasses for immediate coverage
Phase 2 – filling in new plantings every Spring and Fall for six years
Phase 3 – ripping out all the temporary plantings in favor of native perennials and shrubs that provide more value than just privacy
It was hard work and worth every callous to have an oasis that surprises and delights me every day - with its blossoms, visitors, and views.
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Now, I finally have my own secret garden. And every time I open the gate, I still get excited – because I know what’s on the other side.
Tell us about your secret garden experience: gardenstories@thewildhydrangea.com. Send pics!
