Growing bananas – why not !?!
Since tasting bananas in the tropics for the first time, many moons ago, I’ve always
Welcome to Aotearoa's best kept Secret Gardens
Have you ever peered over the fence into an amazing garden and wished you could step through the gate and explore? Welcome to Secret Gardens, the garden-share platform that enables you to visit a diverse and inspiring collection of New Zealand gardens, across the seasons - and to meet the passionate, knowledgeable gardeners who created them.
Behind fences, hedges and gates throughout New Zealand lies a hidden world of creativity, passion and hard work – thriving diverse ecosystems, organic vegetable gardens, permaculture food forests, secret urban sanctuaries for native flora and fauna… and a wealth of valuable gardening knowledge.
Amongst the compost heaps and pea-straw you’ll find their creator, curator and caretaker, the keen gardener – always eager to share their hard-earnt wisdom, their successes and failures, and to help inspire a new generation of gardeners.
Whether it’s a large-scale formal garden, a compact inner-city sanctuary, a productive kitchen garden or a prized dahlia collection, every Secret Garden offers something unique and inspiring to explore and learn from.
Explore Secret Gardens
Secret Gardens are open to visit throughout Aotearoa, and across the seasons.
Unlike many traditional ‘show gardens’, Secret Gardens are not all about perfection. Our focus is on inspiring, beautiful and productive home-gardens, created out of hard work and resourcefulness.
Meet the Gardeners
Behind every Secret Garden is the talented and knowledgeable gardener who created it, and who loves sharing what they have learnt along the way.
Merve, Hakea, Raglan
Linda, Ngāmotu, Taranaki
Jo, Greenhills Paradise, Coromandel
New Listings
Here’s a sneak peak of some of the most recent Secret Gardens we’ve discovered. We can’t wait for you to visit!
Featured Gardens
Our Secret Gardens range from urban sanctuaries to extensive rural gardens …and everything in between.
If you have a garden you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you!
Forest Hill, Auckland
Phoebe and Dave’s beautifully designed, productive garden in suburban Auckland is an absolute inspiration, especially for those looking to create their own urban haven. Alongside their stylish potager, picking garden, mini orchard and native area there is still room for chickens, children’s play areas and entertaining.
Stokes Valley, Wellington
Since Lucy and Jacob purchased their 1940s house in Stokes Valley back in 2021, they have dedicated hours of work and applied their own unique vision to transform the garden into a beautiful and productive environment, incorporating heritage vegetables, flowers and regenerating native bush.
Rangiora, Canterbury
Together Dave and Raewyn have created a natural wonderland on the outskirts of Rangiora, planting and nurturing hundreds of native trees, ferns, roses, shrubs and perennials of all kinds. Pathways and bridges meander from one intriguing zone to another – a true secret garden waiting to be explored.
Workshops
As well as hosting garden visits, many of our Secret Gardeners offer workshops and practical demonstrations, covering a whole range of topics and practical skill sets.
The Secret Garden Club is a live, online event designed to bring our garden-loving community together, and connect you with our experienced hosts. This is an informal space for learning, sharing stories, and encouraging each other to get out and grow.
At each event we will be joined by a panel of inspiring and knowledgeable Secret Gardens Hosts, from three gardens across the country.
The Secret Garden Club takes place via Zoom, once a season. Tickets $10. All welcome!
Articles
Growing Community Connections: Grow Forrest Hill
Every time you book a garden visit or workshop through Secret Gardens, 10% of your
FAQs – BECOMING A SECRET GARDENS HOST
We’ve put together these FAQs based on the questions we get asked most often. If
Secret Gardens of Aotearoa
by Jane Mahoney & Sophie Bannan
$49.99 + Postage
Explore twelve intriguing and unique New Zealand gardens – from a hidden suburban food forest in Coromandel Town to an ever-evolving collage of botanical curiosities in Dunedin.
Though each garden is unique, all embody the Secret Gardens values of sustainable gardening practices, kaitiaki and knowledge sharing.
Do you have a Secret Garden you would like to share?
Fantastic! Get in touch and we’ll send you an information pack.
Give the gift of gardening inspiration buy a Secret Gardens voucher