About Us

• In 1978 Mike was an officer in the Fire Brigade and I was at home bringing up our two small children. We moved in with two small children and a vague idea of being self sufficient. We grew organic vegetables and kept ducks & bees.
• To keep my sanity I attended evening horticultural courses at local colleges and did correspondence courses in garden design at home.
• Before having the children had been an engineering draughtswoman, a gardening career started to unfold.
• It started with designing gardens for friends. I then qualified as a freelance horticultural instructor and still provide training for garden centres, landscapers and local authorities in the winter when our land is too wet to work.
• I designed a couple of award winning gardens for the National Garden Festival in Gateshead and the garden design service took off.
• My hobby was and still is propagating rare & unusual hardy plants, gradually we could hardly walk along any of the paths for plants in pots and the garden was full so I started providing plants for garden design clients from our cottage nursery.
• We managed to purchase some of the field adjoining the vegetable garden to use as a plant production area. This was the start of the secret gardens about 1987
• Since Mikes early retirement from the Fire Brigade we have both been involved in all aspects of the business.
• One of us (usually both) are to hand when visitors arrive and we now have lots of regular visitors who have become friends.
• Every winter we undertake a new project, this year we’ve had a lovely coffee shop built in keeping with the original pantiled outbuildings.
• Non - gardeners now visit the coffee shop not just for the good quality food but as a beautiful, peaceful place with a unique atmosphere.
• Available are hot & cold drinks, filled rolls etc. all freshly made to order, locally made tray bakes, gateaux & ice creams.
• Access for wheelchairs is available to the coffee shop, nursery , Topiary Garden & Terraces.
• From October- February we offer our garden design on a consultancy basis, there is more information on our 'Garden' page
• All of the student volunteers we’ve had here, have learned a great deal of practical skills and have gone onto good positions within the industry. If you would would like to work in heaven for a few hours a week, contact Christine