We browsed our gallery for private garden spaces perfect for sharing words or a quiet cup of tea. By happenstance, all the gardens we chose are shaded; we're thinking you'll bring your own sun.
For more inspiration, browse our gallery of Small Space Gardening.
Above: A "Lilliputian backyard" behind a San Francisco home feels larger than it is thanks to designer Alma Hecht's strategy of subdividing the yard into distinct outdoor rooms. A "living room" in the back corner of the garden is hidden from the main house by a freestanding fountain. For more of Hecht's strategies, see Small-Scale Gardening in San Francisco. Browse our gallery of Outdoor Furniture for sourcing ideas of your own.
Above: New Remodelista + Gardenista Designer Directory member Paula Hayes designed this tiny garden on a lot behind a gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Pieces of driftwood serve as informal seating. For more small garden ideas in the big city, see all of the New York City projects in our gallery.
Above: A private corner shares space with 250-year-old Australian tree ferns in a small courtyard garden in London's Piccadilly. See the rest of the project in A Secret Courtyard Garden in Piccadilly, Ancient Tree Ferns Included, and find more prehistoric greens in our gallery of Ferns.
Above: Garden designer Richard Miers created a shaded "secret garden" at the back of a terraced house in London, complete with a water feature. For the rest of the garden, see Bloom Time with UK Garden Designer Richard Miers and browse examples of Brit Style gardens in our gallery.
Above: UK garden designer Anna Wardrop stacked oak sleepers to create a corner seating area and raised beds in a small garden in London. Find out what she planted in Design Sleuth: Town Garden in Stoke Newington, London. Inspired to tackle a hardscaping project of your own? See our galley of DIY projects.
For other unlikely romantic outdoor spaces, see Design Sleuth: Romantic Curtains for a Greenhouse and Steal This Look: Romantic Outdoor Kitchen in Puglia.