5 tips for adding an element of mystery to your garden

5 Tips for Adding a Touch of Mystery to Your Garden

From overgrown pathways to rose-covered bowers, discover the myriad ways you can add a touch of mystery to your garden.

A Hidden Sanctuary

A lost key, a curtain of ivy concealing a forgotten door, an overgrown tangle of greenery beyond—Frances Hodgson Burnett masterfully crafted mystery and magic in her children’s novel The Secret Garden, published in 1911. In it, orphan Mary discovers a hidden sanctuary at Misselthwaite Manor, embarking on a journey of healing and self-empowerment. This classic tale is one of the best examples of how gardening benefits our mental health.

While I haven’t dug up a rusty key leading to “the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place anyone can imagine,” I recall the delight of discovering unexpected green spaces. There was the cool dampness of the ponga-clad fernery at my aunt’s house, the fountain in the rose gardens hidden within a circle of blue hydrangeas, and the property concealed behind a macrocarpa hedge so thick that kids could climb around in it—I never did, but I longed to see the house it was hiding.

Creating Garden Secrets

All gardens need a secret. Here are some ideas to create an element of surprise in yours, no matter how small or unsurprising you think it is.

Walled Hedges

Garden writer Lynda Hallinan knows how to cultivate a good mystery. “I think the best secret gardens are behind hedges or through tall, narrow gates,” she says. “They’re wildly romantic. Although I suppose posher gardeners call them ‘rooms’!”

Botanical artist Felicity Jones has a walled eugenia hedge with an archway in her Auckland garden. As soon as I saw it in a magazine, I was desperate to visit. Last year, I finally got the chance. Like visitors at a masked ball, she led me through the hedge into an area where she propagates veggies and flowers and has a studio for creating her botanical artworks.

Walled hedges are a wonderful way to divide spaces, even in relatively small gardens. For a fast-growing, dense hedge, plant thuja or leyland cypress. If you want flowers from winter until spring, plant a camellia hedge. You don’t even need a hedge to create a sense of enclosure. Lynda recalls visiting a garden with a hidden room created by a ring of conifers, which even had its own doorway.

Beyond the Veil

If regular clipping doesn’t spark joy, create a sense of privacy by growing a tree with a weeping growth habit. With their graceful, arching forms, weeping trees have cascading branches of leaves that sweep the ground, creating a private space perfect for hide and seek.

Weeping willows and elms grow large enough for an adult to stand under.
Weeping cherries offer breathtaking beauty in spring with their curtains of frothy pink and white blossom.
For smaller spaces, Prunus ‘Falling Snow’ grows 3m high by 2m wide.
For stunning color and petite size, grafted weeping maples generally don’t reach more than 2m by 2m. Acer ‘Viridis’ is a chameleon with shredded-looking lime green leaves in spring and summer, turning red, gold, and orange in autumn.

Secret Passages

To create a sense of mystery in my own small garden, I planted a densely vegetated garden on either side of a narrow, curving pathway. Inspired by the yellow and brown floral 1970s wallpaper in my childhood bathroom, it features rudbeckias, abutilons, flaxes, daisies, and grasses. I want it to feel like you’re walking through an overgrown meadow to a secret beach. To intensify the sensation of going on a journey, opt for plants all of the same kind, such as bamboo or mānuka.

Beneath the Vines

Anything overgrown with greenery has a Sleeping Beauty appeal and certainly lends itself to a place for a romantic tryst or a few minutes of peace. Train plants over archways, gazebos, shelters, and sheds to create a secret hideaway.

Climbing roses provide beauty and scent (my favorites include pink ‘Albertine’ and the dainty sweetheart rose ‘Cécile Brunner’).
Honeysuckle and jasmine are evergreen with intoxicatingly fragrant blooms.
Grapes give food and privacy.
Grow a plant with a mysterious past, like the cream-flowering native climber Tecomanthe speciosa, one of the rarest plants in the world. The only specimen ever discovered in the wild was found on the Manawatāwhi/Three Kings Islands, 55km from the top of Aotearoa.

Just Add Water

While I’ve always dreamed of going full Pre-Raphaelite and creating a lily pond where my water nymph pals and I can toss a golden ball, even the smallest water feature can be a delight. Whether it’s a bubbling fountain or a puddle-sized plant saucer lined with pebbles, water adds another element to an outdoor space. If your garden is all in pots, why not add a large container of water lilies among your other pot plants? Frog optional.

For more gardening tips, visit The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Guide.