Located on the historic Mersham le Hatch Estate—once owned by Lord Brabourne—the Secret Garden has been part of the local community for nearly 20 years and remains proudly owned by a local farming family.
Over the years, we’ve earned a reputation for exceptional, locally sourced homemade food and warm, attentive service. What began as a farm shop with a small café soon grew into a thriving restaurant that occasionally hosted weddings. Then, in early 2022 becoming an exclusive Wedding & Events Venue.
We are incredibly proud to be one of Kent’s leading venues. It’s been quite an adventure already, and we’re so excited for all that’s still to come for the Garden.
At the Secret Garden, we love to celebrate love—whatever that looks like for you. After all, that’s what it’s all about. We’re dreamers, fun-loving, and always open to your ideas. Whatever will make your day truly yours, we want to hear it. We believe wholeheartedly that the magic of a wedding lies in crafting a celebration that reflects your unique love story: the journey that brought you here, standing at the top of our aisle, making commitments that are deeply personal to you both.
There is no “one size fits all” approach to weddings—and this is the heart of our ethos. Our entire team, from our Coordinators to our Chefs and Bar Managers, is passionate about helping you shape a day that feels like your own. We’re here to guide you, support you, and create something magical together.
Our Sister Venues:
Sustainability isn’t just a policy at The Secret Garden—it’s a promise. After discovering how much environmental impact a single wedding can create, we made a conscious decision to do things differently. Today, we grow many ingredients, partner with local suppliers, reduce waste wherever we can, and offer renewable décor through our Prop Hire service. And with the launch of our Wedding Tree Project, every celebration helps give something meaningful back to the land that inspires us. We’re passionate about creating beautiful weddings that tread lightly on our planet.
Our Farms
We have three farms based in Aldington, Braebourne and Herne.
We manage land responsibly to protect and enhance the natural environment. We focus on nurturing soil health, supporting wildlife, reduce pollution, and ensuring resources are used sustainably. By caring for the land in this way, we have helped preserve the countryside for future generations while continuing to produce high-quality food.
Some of the projects we have undertaken
Planted wildflower meadows to support pollinators.
Restored hedgerows to provide shelter and corridors for wildlife.
Protected watercourses with grass margins or fenced-off areas.
Planted cover crops to reduce soil erosion and improve organic matter.
Restored and built ponds
Planted new hedges, trees, to enhance the landscape.
Managed Grass to support plants and insects.
2026 We are Providing educational access for schools and community groups.
Homegrown Ingredients
Our on-site Fresh Herb & Vegetable Garden is lovingly tended by our team and provides some of the seasonal vegetables, herbs and edible flowers served at our weddings. If you walk around the walled gardens, you will see a variety of fruit & nut trees, inc. many varieties of Apples, Pears, Plums, Cherries, Cobnuts, Walnuts and Figs.
Our family farms produce lots of produce for us inc. FR eggs and Vegetables, which are used in many of our dishes.
We have our own butcher based on the farm in Aldington and he prepares our meat, FR Chicken, Pork and Beef.
Pollinator Planting
Many of our prettiest insects feed on nectar and need flowering plants for their survival. Butterflies, moths, bees and hoverflies all need sources of nectar and pollen to thrive. To help our insects in 2024 we planted a white garden that was mainly native plants and were planted in clumps and patterns to help the insects thrive.
Organic Gardening
Insect Hotel
New for 2026 is our Insect Hotel that will serve as a habitat for a large variety of insects that will enhance Biodiversity, support pollinators and offer natural pest control. Our climate is changing, and our hotel will offer shelter to insects from rain, wind and sun throughout the year.
Real Petal Confetti
We provide your guests with dried Petal confetti, this is a mix of Petals we dry ourselves and brought in Confetti from a UK Farm. This helps us Support wildlife, is Eco friendly and keeps the garden tidy.
Prop Hire: Sustainable Wedding Styling
We created our unique Prop Hire service after noticing that many couples were buying the same trending décor pieces—only to throw them away or struggle to repurpose them after the wedding. Our ever-growing collection includes card boxes, table runners, signage, table numbers, and more, all available for couples to hire at little or no cost.
These items are sourced from local businesses and even purchased from past couples. It saves our couples money, reduces waste, and keeps wedding styling beautifully renewable.
Recycling Waste
We separate and recycle as much of our waste as possible.
Cardboard is sent to a local farm that makes cardboard bales for recycling
Glass is separated and collected for recycling on a weekly basis.
Composting All our Green waste is made into compost and put pack on our flower Borders to help mulch and feed our plants.
Planning Portal
To reduce our printing and paper waste we have partnered with Sonus a planning portal specifically designed for couples to work with us by planning and designing there perfect day on line, thus has reduced our printing by over 90%.
Planting Trees
IN 2025 we were delighted to launch our Wedding Tree Project.
We will plant one tree for every wedding we host. Located at one of our three farms in Brabourne, Aldington, or Herne—each couple will receive a photograph and a What3Words location of their tree, creating a meaningful, lasting reminder of your day.