How to Create a Secret Garden | 15 Steps You Don’t Know Before

The first thing you need to do is to know what place your secret garden will occupy in your home. Some people place them in the back of their homes, but others select a brick path or a remarkable space. The location can also be within side corridors or sheltered areas. The point here is to ensure that the site is suitable for you and your family. Another essential detail is to consider the furniture we are going to place. So, let’s get down to business and see how to create a secret garden.

How to Create a Secret Garden (15 Steps to Follow)

Here are the steps you have to follow to create a secret garden at a glance;

• Select a location for your secret garden
• Grow lush, flowering plants
• Add foliage for contrast
• Add some greenery for texture and color
• Consider incorporating a water feature
• Create a cozy bench or seating area
• Install the right plants in your garden
• Use Shade-loving perennials
• Shrubs to create a secret garden
• Deciduous shrubs for leafy shade
• Evergreen shrubs for year-round greenery
• Ground Covers to Create a Secret Garden
• Climbing plants to make your garden taller and greener
• Fruiting vines to create a secret garden
• Pathways and walkways through your garden

Now, let’s explore the steps one by one;

Select a location for your secret garden

Garden designs allow you to place things like leaf covers, rows of trees, planters, and artificial shade. However, we leave you some backyard privacy ideas for selecting the garden of your dreams.

Grow lush, flowering plants

One of the characteristics of secret gardens is having the plants you want, which is why lush is fashionable. 

There are native plants that give a classic touch to your secret garden. However, there are other plants, such as potted and adult plants. All of them can give you the original touch you are looking for. Flowering plants also provide a lot of visibility and even pleasant smells. You can find the multiple benefits of secret gardens for our home and family in the references section.

Add foliage for contrast.

Add plants with texture and attractive foliage to contrast when the plants do not bloom. It provides a simple income to all the plants to manage to take care of them in conditions and that their care is not complex for you. Use herbs such as lavender, basil, chamomile, fennel, or dill to offer aroma and perfume to your garden and good taste to your meals.

Creating a formal garden design can help you recreate a beautiful and fantastic spot where you can spend moments of rest. 

In addition, your secret garden can be an alluring destination for your visits or to spend your free moments sitting at a tea table or in your flower garden.

Add some greenery for texture and color.

If you know something about the garden or not, you can design a garden from scratch and have an excellent result. To do this, you can lean on greenery. In the references, we leave you a catalog so that you can choose the one you like the most. However, an essential part of this section is that your magical garden is a perfect space where you can have Plant shrubs and, at the same time, a colorful space in which you enjoy being.

In terms of texture and color, your secret garden can have an original touch with various plants and, at the same time, have versatility in terms of the perception of your garden with your five senses. So it is right to select some exotic plants and search the internet for some plants that match the type of climate and vegetation in your area.

Consider incorporating a water feature.

This step is crucial because, at the same time, being a visually pleasing look can add harmony and even allow other elements into your magical garden. You can even incorporate some fish species in your fountain or install a runoff system in your magical garden to give it unique functionality and visibility.

For this, the most important thing would be to consult with an expert in fountain systems for gardening or look for some ideas on the internet. However, in the references section, we leave you some ideas directly related to installing fountains for secret gardens. This includes elements such as the water supply and aspects related to the current needed by the water pumps that feed the Home Affluence sources section.

Create a cozy bench or seating area

Your secret garden can have anything from a pretty table to a curved path. The limits are only in your mind, and creativity can come to the fore when you design your secret garden from scratch. Many people enjoy that feeling of privacy and being in a beautiful outdoor space that allows them to do pleasant activities such as reading a book or contemplating the landscape.

For these reasons, create a bench or a rest area that allows you to enjoy your garden and, at the same time, be an excellent area if you invite someone to have intimate conversations and meetings with family and friends.

Install the right plants in your garden

The trick to choosing the best plants for your ideal garden is selecting those plants that look beautiful together, deciding on the right colors, sizes, and shapes that manage to grow well in the conditions of your garden and that are simple to hold. 

Plants are classified in many ways, but these are the basic ones:

Herbaceous plants: those that only exceed the soil and are usually short-lived. 

Shrubs are smaller than trees, with branches that grow from the ground. 

Trees are the largest, with a trunk that branches at some height from the ground, and from there, its branches lengthen. If your space makes it easy, your garden should ideally consist of these three sizes of plants.

Use Shade-loving perennials

Many types of perennials can give you a lot of shade and adorn your magical garden. However, we leave you all the options you have and the uses so that you can choose the one that best suits your needs:

Autumn ferns. The autumn fern is a fantastic alternative to add an extension of color to your perennial collection. They have beautiful coppery red foliage in the spring that turns a rich green color in the summer.

Hydrangeas. With an extensive diversity to select from, hydrangeas are an impeccable alternative for your shady garden if you want to add a beautiful and incredible color. It is feasible that you will require regular watering on truly hot days.

Japanese holly fern. The Japanese holly fern is a robust fern that embodies bright dark green leaflets. It is still evergreen in mild winters and an impeccable alternative for ground cover or the edge of your garden under the shade. Japanese holly ferns can grow up to two feet tall and three feet wide, so keep in mind to consider the mature plant and leave plenty of room to grow.

Hostas. As a very low-care plant, the hosta is another good choice. And with a surprisingly extensive diversity of sizes, colors, and textures, you have a lot of configurations to choose from! The hostas, inclusive, will produce spring flowers that tempt hummingbirds and bees, attracting them to the garden.

Japanese painted ferns. With beautiful blue-green foliage and silvery edges, these low-care ferns will also add an expanse of color to your shade garden. They can grow up to 60 centimeters, both in height and width. These ferns would make a vast border near a pond or the edge of your hydrangeas.

Shrubs to create a secret garden

You will have to imagine how it will look for every plant, shrub, or tree you want to plant. For gardens with a vast space to decorate, the landscaper often uses intense colors, such as yellows and reds, and organizes among numerous groups of shrubs so that we focus more attention on these points. Or if, on the contrary, the garden has little space, shrubs with softer colors, such as white and bluish, come well to offer a more spacious impression.

Nor does it tend to get quite saturated with plants and decorations, whatever their size. Suppose the garden was of the reduced style, in its lighting, in addition to illuminating the entire region with a specific tactic with a not very deep tone. 

So, it could increase and focus on some decorative elements we have chosen. In this way, it will make us pay more attention to the object, and we will perceive it more extensively. If an element stands out from the rest of the plants, its particular lighting should follow from the ground upwards.

Deciduous shrubs for leafy shade

Deciduous or deciduous trees lose their leaves at certain times of the year. This class of trees modernizes its foliage by losing its leaves in the coldest and darkest seasons: autumn and winter.

If we choose deciduous trees for our garden, we can enjoy their shade in the hottest seasons of the year and benefit from the sun’s warmth in the coldest seasons.

Pay attention to the place in the garden where you will plant your tree. To benefit from its orientation, we suggest planting it on the south, east, or west side of your house; in this way, when it loses its leaves, you will receive more natural light in your place of life. In addition, choosing this kind of tree will let you enjoy its highest splendor in good weather, which is when we make the most of our gardens.

Evergreen shrubs for year-round greenery

In many respects, evergreen trees are characterized by the durability of their foliage. As opposed to deciduous ones, perennials stay green throughout the year. And what does it mean? After all, a plant with this property will not lose the integrity of its leaves when the most unfavorable season for plants comes, that is, autumn and summer.

These species are ideal for a space to look evergreen, to hide with their foliage some region or element of the sector in which it is planted, and we do not want them to see and offer shade on the hottest days of the year.

Ground Covers to Create a Secret Garden

Let’s see some plants that can help you decorate your secret garden spectacularly.

Isotoma fluviatilis is a very versatile and robust plant. It holds the footsteps very well and has an agile development.

Creeping thyme, Thymus serpyllum, is a diversity of thyme that propagates with simplicity. Its foliage is a grayish-green color, and its flowers are purple.

Sagina subulata, Irish moss, is a widespread early development plant frequently used on roads and walkways. It forms a very dense carpet of bright green color. Its small white flowers begin to show in late spring.

Leptinella Squalida is a great evergreen plant for garden paths. It is low development and very simple to protect.

The Lysimachia Nummilaria is a plant with yellowish-green leaves that turn orange in winter. For this reason, apart from being a vigorous and low-care plant, it is very decorative. It requires acceptable exposure to the sun.

The bastard Sedo, Sedum spurium, grows well under challenging environments. It requires a lot of sun and poor soil. It will help if you exercise caution with excess water.

Climbing plants to make your garden taller and greener

Flowering outdoor plants in the garden are the perfect resource to fill it with color, beauty, and, on many occasions, evocative aromas.

That is why, if you like climbing plants, there are fascinating varieties characterized by their beautiful flowering. They are perfect for decorating a pergola or a wall, and most are easy to grow.

You can find in the references a guide that can help you choose the climber that best suits your climatic conditions and add that touch of beauty to your secret garden.

Fruiting vines to create a secret garden.

Vines for the garden are climbing plants used for vertical gardening of a summer cottage or a garden plot. They can offer volume to the garden and added beauty. Vines proliferate; they do not need any particular care.

All plants every year are distinguished by a short serviceable life and agile development.

They are part of plants without goals and do not need particular care. But simultaneously, they require a lot of light. So, for planting, selecting sunny, well-lit sites is preferable. You will have the possibility to find specific ideas of perennials for your garden based on the references.

Pathways and walkways through your garden

Your magical garden can have extraordinary paths and walkways. It would only remain to choose the one that you like the most and suits your needs and budget. Everything will depend on the type of walkway you want to install and the materials to use.

The wooden walkways have an extensive typology of installations similar to wooden boards to make paths in interior spaces.

They commonly consist of planks of treated wood arranged transversely to the paths and mounted on wooden beams. Another considerable consideration for assembling wooden walkways is avoiding the assembly of freshly treated boards in warm seasons.

Expert Opinion

A successful lesson for the secret garden to gain its entity is to select another type of pavement that visually delimits the area. In this case, the proposal bets on a lawn garden and the private part, with a bathtub, located on a wooden platform that contributes to dividing the space visually.

When we have a garden of generous dimensions in its design, there is nothing worse than leaving it all to the view that looks like a football field and creating different zones to enjoy another way. Among those areas are the secret gardens, intimate and personal corners (or maximum for two or a small group) that configure extraordinary spaces.

Sources

• Owens, C. (2021, September 24). 13 Ways to Create a Secret Garden in Small Space. Retrieved November 7, 2022,
• Slsson. (2018, June 12). Secret gardens: A global tour of hidden urban oases. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://archive.curbed.com/2018/6/12/17453896/urban-park-secret-garden-rooftop-greenspace 
• Rare Plants. (2022, February 12). Secret Garden Rare Plants. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://secretgardenrareplants.com/ 
• Samsone. (2021, September 14). 20 Best Climbing Plants for Your Garden. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.purewow.com/home/best-climbing-plants 
• Flaherty. (2022, May 31). Affordable Garden Path Ideas. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.familyhandyman.com/list/affordable-garden-path-ideas/ 
• Gate. (2021, October 13). 41 Stunning Garden Water Features to Recreate in 2022 Easily. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.plantedwell.com/garden-water-features/