Now you're speaking my language. Although I was first turned on to gardening by my gramps I saw the Margaret O'Brien version of The Secret Garden when it first came out. I was about 12 and going through a rough patch, this movie left quite an impression on me. Today it is still one of my favorite movies and the best version to date.

I don't have a walled garden but my garden is divided into sections, pseudo garden rooms :o).

Annette

I wouldn't want a garden that was too secret - as in locked away. Gardens are for sharing I think. It's part of the pleasure. However I do like making the garden a surprise for visitors. My front garden is open to the street and is a very sunny, colorful garden. The backyard garden is a woodland/shade garden with a formal lawn in the center. The side alley gardens are transition gardens that link the sun and shade gardens. The gates at the side of the house are both sort of peek-a-boo; they provide a glimpse into the back garden so you know it's there but you can't see what it's really like until you make the journey down the alley and emerge into a totally different garden than the 'public' one visible to all at the front of the house.

I'm still working on mine. It's a very small sunken garden with boxwood hedge on two sides, a large sprawling juniper at the foot and stone work at the head. I continue to add to the stone work in the one corner, wanting to build it higher. The boxwood was only 1' high when first planted, it is now about 4.5' but looks taller because the garden is sunken. I'd like to replace the spirea at the head with an evergreen hedge or tall stone wall. Toying with the idea of putting concrete columns on either side of the bench in front of it and two shorter in back and cover with either a roof or trellis. To give it that "Roman temple" or folly touch.

The stone steps were put in without thinking that I might want a door there someday. Have envisioned a gate of some sort, but a heavy wooden door would be ideal. Of course it wouldn't look right unless the hedge "walls" were taller and more enclosing on all sides. Maybe several more years and it will begin to look like what I wanted.

The entrance, steps go down:
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Looking to the right when inside:
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The juniper at the bottom: (still growing)
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The stone at the head (spirea now without leaves so not very private this time of year):
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If you want to see a secret garden..check out this Aiken House and Gardens in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Carolyn and her husband have the most beautiful gardens..her blog is one of those you drool over.

I'm not sure I would want to have a secret garden because I can't sit still. I imagine a secret garden serves as a place of meditation.

Having said this, why don't you try to propagate your shrubs. What kinds are evergreen in your zone?

I imagine a secret garden to be whatever you want it to be. If I choose to sit still in mine, then that's what I'll do - when I have the time. There's plenty to keep me busy in all parts of the garden.

Why don't I propagate shrubs? I don't want to wait 10yrs.for a mature shrub or hedge; not anymore.

I think a secret garden means something different to everyone who has ever imagined having one, or already has one, like schoolhouse.

Mine would be full of roses, herbs and other flowers and I would want a lilac hedge around it, I think. I already have lilacs on one side of the garden and I would love to add more. Like schoolhouse though, I don't think I want to wait 10 years to enjoy my garden. So, I'll transplant some of the larger starts and probably have a fence around the other sides,for now, maybe with some (very hardy) climbing roses and vines to screen it.

In my case, it's not so much meditation, as having a place that's a little more girly than the rest of our property. We live on a farm, so while it's beautiful, it's rather rustic and the flowers are a nice contrast to the pines and aspens that grow along the creek in the pasture.

My mom wants a secret garden that's behind her house, where she can sit and read her book in the summer and no one will know she's there. She lives in town, and while she enjoys her neighbors, it's a very friendly little town and people stop by a lot. Her space is a place to enjoy her hummingbird and butterfly garden, but not be seen by the neightbors when she wants a little quiet time :)

The more I think about it the more I like the sound of a secret garden. I have two ideas really- the first is just a daydream that involves an old mansion in England (if you are going to daydream you may as well go big, right?) and yew hedges to surround my secret garden. I always thought I would like a garden walled in by hedges more so than actual walls. Ahhhhh....

The second is more achievable for my yard. My dream is not so much a secret garden as it is a private garden, one that neighbors cannot peek into. 8-) All I need now is to put up a few more vines and several well-placed trellis to block the views from open angles.
CMK

Hey christinmk, how'd you get into my daydream? :)

CMK- an old english mansion and yew hedges....very secret garden :) Is your more achievable secret garden in the front or back yard and what vines do you plan to use on the trellis? I'm trying to figure out how to get grapes, roses, wisteria and clematis all on the same arbor (LOL)

Schoolhouse- which daydream? :)

-Christine, great minds must dream alike ;-D

-LL, I think you could get some of those vines to grow together really well. I see people who grow Clematis up rose canes all the time- very pretty combo too! And someone I know from the forums has clematis growing up a wisteria tree. I think that would look pretty in your garden.

The back yard is where I want the privacy. The front doesn't matter so much- a lot of traffic comes by here so there is not a great deal of privacy anyway.

Most of the backyard is enclosed by either a tall vinyl fence or elm hedge (what nasty trees!). The trouble spot is the east side, along a semi-long stretch of chain link fence. It is hard to plant anything along it because there are a lot of tree roots in the area, so you have to find 'pockets' of loose soil to plant in. The solution will likley be to make a loooong trellis, since it would take a lot of little metal ones to make it work.

I used to have a Silver Lace Vine in this area. It did a great job at blocking, but it was a rampant thing that wanted to take over all nearby trees. So I got rid of it (pruning weekly to keep it in check is too much!). I plan to put various honeysuckle vines on the trellis- once it is up that is. I already have a sweet smelling Woodbine honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) there and may some day add Lonicera reticulata 'Kintzley's Ghost', because I like weird looking plants ;-)
CMK

CMK- I saw a picture (somewhere in all the books and magazines I've been looking through lately) that had honeysuckle vines with clematis and a climbing rose...very pretty! Also had clematis with honeysuckle and morning glories. Mom had some great morning glories on her front arbor last summer. They took until the end of July to really get going, but they were beautiful all through August and half of September :)