Garden Trends – 20 for the 20s

It’s that time of year…

Chances are you’re starting to think about your garden. If you’re not sure where to take it we thought that with the start of a new decade it would be fun to have a go at predicting some of the garden trends and practices we’d expect to be seeing over the next decade. It might help inform some of the decisions you make in your own garden. So, in no particular order here are our 20 for the 20’s…

  1. Purposeful. Gardens will be more than something to look at and enjoy; we think they will be increasingly designed and built to achieve things too. So, for instance, they might be helping to manage rain water within your property, or boosting wildlife habitat, etc.
  2. Wildlife. We’d expect to see a more relaxed style to our gardens as supporting wildlife becomes ever more important. Increasing development plans brings with it decreasing wildlife habitat and we expect to see more and more people want to do more for our beleaguered wildlife.
  3. GYO. As plant based diets, increasing food costs and the need to know where our food comes from continue to surge we’d expect to see more people growing their own.
  4. Indoor. Houseplants sales have been a growing trend over the last few years and we’d expect that trend to continue, driven mainly by increasing urbanisation, pollution and lack of access to nature.
  5. Containers. With increasing numbers of renters and gardens getting smaller and smaller container gardening is likely to make a big step forward as a portable, viable option for many dealing with little or no-soil spaces.
  6. Vertical. We’d expect to see many more living walls appear driven mainly by lack of space and a changing climate.
  7. Green roofs. Currently concentrated around London, Birmingham and Manchester we’d expect to see green roofs more widely spread around the UK. The benefits of them far outweigh any negatives.
  8. Low maintenance. While we see the drivers behind people’s decisions about their gardens changing, time-poor people generally want to enjoy their gardens rather than ’maintain’ them.
  9. Technology. Where there’s a will there’s usually an app for it! We expect the use of tech in the garden to grow over the next decade.
  10. Sustainable choices. As awareness of the climate crisis grows we expect growing consumer demand for more sustainable options to elicit significant changes in garden related markets.
  11. Soil. We expect to see soil care taking centre stage in gardens with no-dig outweighing dig methods, home composts and green manures being increasingly used.
  12. Composting. We expect to see increasing numbers of people home composting driven by soil and waste awareness, and economics.
  13. Organic. The organic market has seen consistent steady growth over the last six years and we expect to see that trend continuing through the next decade.
  14. Plastic. Worth a mention of its own, the plastics battle is likely to rage throughout the 20s and beyond. In the design and gardening fields we expect to see a major shift in demand to natural and plastic-free materials.
  15. RRR. We expect to see a buoyant reclamation sector emerge around the landscaping industry as people’s desire to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle materials grows. On more individual levels we expect to see a growing trend for personal upcycling/repurposing garden projects.
  16. Water management. Future predictions for the UK weather points to hotter, drier summers and much wetter, warmer winters so water management is likely to play an increasingly important part of our garden planning.
  17. Adaptive planting. Increasingly our plants need to cope with significant weather events so we expect to see more adaptive planting styles coming to the fore. Plants are likely to be chosen more for their adaptability than their looks.
  18. Trees, shrubs & hedges. With their superior ability to help mitigate flooding, reduce temperature and support wildlife we expect to see a resurgence of tree, shrub and hedge planting across UK gardens.
  19. Plant biosecurity. Increasing awareness of the potential import of foreign pests and diseases into our fragile eco-system will see the demand for reputable plant suppliers rise. However, with new customs practices and probable rise in plant costs we also wouldn’t be surprised to see a rise in black market plant sales potentially bypassing the plant passport system.
  20. British grown. Linked to the above we expect to see a big rise in the use of British grown plants.

Fruitfully Speaking!

apples on the tree

Fruitfully Speaking!

Having a productive garden – it’s all the rage, bang on trend and everyone seems to want one.  The only thing is no-one seems to have the time to tend one and as much as they’re popular now, they can be time consuming and, for beginners, confusing. 

You could start small, think about what you like to eat, (take a look at what is in your fridge right now if you’re short on ideas) and rather than having to think about things like crop rotation if you’re growing vegetables you can grow some in containers instead - but if that’s not for you (and it’s not for everyone) – my advice is to think about fruit.  It is generally easier to grow, not as time consuming to look after and the rewards are truly wonderful (as our picture shows!).

There is a lot to be said about fruit, but designing a garden that is both practical and productive whether it is an urban or rural garden, contemporary or traditional it is possible to combine it with fruit.  I’m not suggesting that you have a specific fruit growing area but instead that you try and grow your fruit in and around the rest of your plants – incorporate them into the borders and the design. Imagine sitting on your deckchair looking out over the garden - the tall grasses and perennials are swaying gently in the breeze and amongst them your apple and pear trees are in full fruit, the medlars are looking good and the soft fruits are ready for the picking.

Sounds lovely doesn’t it?  Well, it is achievable; it’s is all about planning – choosing and positioning plants that look aesthetically right, through texture or height, contrasting with or complementing the leaf and fruit shapes of the chosen varieties you want to grow.  Choose accompanying plants that won’t grow too vigorously either – fruits generally like the light so you don’t want their neighbours blocking it out from them and reducing your crops!

Any fruit you grow would certainly reduce ‘fruit miles’ and encourage our native bees and other beneficial insects into your garden which is great for biodiversity.  It would also be a talking point for friends and family and above all, its fun to harvest and eat or store your fruit to eat over the winter.

So if you haven’t considered growing fruit before I hope this has convinced some of you to just have a go – it really is great to pick fresh strawberries off the plant!