5 Steps to Create Your Secret Garden (2024)

FAQs

5 Steps to Create Your Secret Garden? ›

Ornamental grasses work well too, and for colour, try planting some tall airy flowers – allium, verbena, hollyhocks, honeysuckle and lavender are good ideas, and verbena and lavender are good for attracting bees. Plant buddleias to attract butterflies.

Ornamental grasses work well too, and for colour, try planting some tall airy flowers – allium, verbena, hollyhocks, honeysuckle and lavender are good ideas, and verbena and lavender are good for attracting bees. Plant buddleias to attract butterflies.

Techniques like strategic planting, raised walls, or trellis structures adorned with climbing plants can create this sense of seclusion. A hidden oasis can incorporate elements of surprise — a winding path leading to an unexpected water feature, a secluded bench under a canopy of leaves, or a private dining area.

As a general rule, put tall veggies toward the back of the bed, mid-sized ones in the middle, and smaller plants in the front or as a border. Consider adding pollinator plants to attract beneficial insects that can not only help you get a better harvest, but will also prey on garden pests.

For privacy, strive to enclose three sides of the garden and limit sight lines into the surrounding landscape. This can be accomplished by planting tall shrubs and grasses, or clumps of bamboo along the periphery of the garden.

There will always be debate as to which version is the best version of 'The Secret Garden'. The most faithful is perhaps the 1975 adaptation, and the 1949 film with Margaret O'Brien is also very much worthwhile.

The main theme of The Secret Garden is healing. By tending to the garden, Mary and Colin heal their relationships with themselves and those around them.

The Secret Garden is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in The American Magazine (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is seen as a classic of English children's literature.

The Secret Garden takes place at the fictional Misselthwaite Manor in North Yorkshire, England. It begins in colonial India, where the protagonist Mary Lennox has been living with her parents. However, after their deaths she goes to live with her uncle on the lonely moors of North Yorkshire.

How would you describe a secret garden? ›

The secret garden was locked away behind tall walls and a doored gateway in Frances Hodgson's fictional book, The Secret Garden. In the same way, the private spaces afforded by large English estates were often walled. Within this sanctuary were plantings which awaited discovery and tending.

Roses. The roses are Mistress Craven's personal symbol; they are mentioned whenever she is mentioned. The bower from which she fell to her death was covered with roses; when Mary first discovers the garden, it is still flooded with rose-trees and rosebushes, though none are in bloom.

The Secret Garden emphasises the power of positive thinking: “thoughts – just mere thoughts – are as powerful as electric batteries – as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison”. This focus on the power of positive thoughts highlights Burnett's interest in New Thought and Christian Science.

The style of The Secret Garden is relatively straightforward with occasional prosaic passages that describe the beauties of the eponymous secret garden. The style is distinctly Edwardian, meaning that it reads as ornate and formal to twenty-first century readers who are used to different diction and syntax.

Grid lines drawn at 45 degrees can be used as a guideline to design the garden. Rectangular themes are the most popular and widely used. They are adapted to give a formal look to the garden. Long or narrow gardens can be easily divided into even sections using this particular theme.

Make a rough sketch first and use it to log all your measurements. Then transfer them onto paper to make a precise scale plan. If you have an established garden with lots of plants or structures that make access to the boundary tricky, you might find it helpful to look online at an overhead view.

There are two basic rules when arranging plants in the beds: 1) space the individual plants so that they touch each other when they reach their mature size, and 2) overlap the masses of plants and connect them so that they flow without space between them. Avoid gaps or large open areas between masses.