The Charming Inspiration Behind Joanna Gaines' 2026 Garden

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Good garden planning often takes time, so it's perhaps no surprise that garden maven Joanna Gaines discussed her strategy and inspiration for her 2026 garden as far back as summer 2025. In that issue of Magnolia Journal, she shared her plans to include a "secret-garden-style meadow" in her landscaping for 2026. This is part of her goal of bringing "a more wild and whimsical look" to her gardens.

"The Secret Garden", a 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, tells the story of an orphan who is taken in by her uncle and slowly learns to accept her new life in Yorkshire through cultivating a secret garden she finds on the property. While not all aspects of the book have aged well, the imagery of a hidden and wild garden continues to resonate today. So it's no surprise that Joanna Gaines would take inspiration from this beloved classic. If you want to read it for yourself, "The Secret Garden" is available online for free as it's in the public domain. Physical copies of "The Secret Garden" are also available on Amazon, including some with stunning bindings, like the hardcover Masterpiece Library Edition. 

After reading, you may be inspired to use the book for your own garden plans. You don't need nearly the amount of space that the characters in the book, or even Joanna Gaines, have to create an impactful garden of your own. While the beautiful hidden garden in "The Secret Garden" is famously located behind a locked door, you could also use a small gate, or even a twist in a pathway, to disguise your garden and keep it private from the rest of your landscaping.

Creating your own secret garden can be as simple as planting a few unexpected wildflowers in a hidden corner of your yard, or as complex as an entire garden of meadow flowers like Joanna Gaines has planned. You can even take direct inspiration for what to plant from the book "The Secret Garden" itself. Just remember that the novel was set in England, so some of the flowers mentioned may be invasive in other areas. Some good blooms to consider growing from the book include Canterbury bells and roses. The garden in the story also boasts a range of bulbs, including daffodils, snowdrops, and irises. Poppies also grace the garden and grow "as if fairies had tended them". Of course, you won't have fairies working on your plants, so consider starting with easy flowers for beginner gardeners.

The key is to focus on creating the "wild and whimsical" atmosphere that Gaines mentions. You can achieve this by training climbing roses or hydrangeas to scale a wall or trellis to create a backdrop, and mixing together a variety of blooms that thrive in similar conditions. This garden isn't intended to have a formal structure, but to instead evoke an English cottage garden, so have fun with it and embrace any native "volunteer" plants that appear as well.