While garden trends may come and go, certain concepts remain popular. From growing your own vegetables to adopting more sustainable gardening practices, these gardening trends are sure to flourish into 2023 and beyond.
Layered planting schemes that mimic indoor living spaces have proven incredibly popular; and with plants like hydrangeas and magenta foliage available, the possibilities are truly limitless!
1. Plants with ornamental qualities
As temperatures warm up, garden flowers and ornamental plants with ornamental qualities should become increasingly abundant in gardens. Colorful oranges, reds, purpose, and yellows will become especially eye-catching features of gardens while unusual exotics could also flourish as people experiment with various varieties to adapt their home environment to warmer temperatures.
Foliage plants with showy appearances will become more fashionable in 2023, too. They may be deciduous, turning vibrant red, yellow, and gold before dropping their leaves in autumn; or evergreen with an intense dark green shade – topiaries, succulent topiaries, or boxwood hedges all work great with this style.
Farming our own vegetables and herbs will become another prominent gardening trend in 2023, not only providing delicious food but also creating a more personalized relationship with our garden and meeting individual tastes and needs. Planters and window boxes can be great ways to grow our own produce; tall planters allow access to plants without bending down. Alternatively, teapots or buckets could even be reused as unique planting containers to make an eye-catching statement in any garden!
2. Workhorse Plants
Workhorses are plants used for revegetation or gardening that look their best all year, yet require little care and upkeep. Examples include native grasses, wildflowers, and hardy shrubs – often chosen to adorn public street plantings due to their ability to tolerate hot temperatures, extreme dryness conditions, dog urine deposits, trash contaminations, and pollutants.
Planters are returning to basics in their gardens. Longstanding favorites, like African violets and anthuriums are making a comeback, with nostalgic accessories like macrame giving these perennial plants new life. Furthermore, more people are trying their hand at cultivating cut flowers themselves.
Another popular garden trend will remain gardening with sustainability in mind, particularly in urban environments. This includes collecting rainwater for reuse indoors as greywater and drought-tolerant planting. This trend is particularly important to “Super Agers” and Millennials looking for ways to incorporate nature into their busy lives while creating an oasis-like retreat; smart devices, electric tools, and innovative planting techniques make this easier than ever!
3. Decorative Screens
An increasingly popular trend in urban gardens with limited privacy is to add visual interest with decorative screens. Such walls can make the space feel larger and cozier; for instance, intricately-patterned metal panels with botanical patterns or natural-looking woven walls like branch formations may do just the trick.
Another way to add visual interest is through planting flower beds filled with easy-care flowers like sunflowers, zinnias, and cosmos of various colors at home – this trend fits nicely into 2023’s trend of nostalgia since many of these flowers were considered popular during previous decades.
Warm orange tones are another retro trend influenced by nostalgic styles that bring fresh and vibrant looks into any outdoor space. From painting terracotta pots or planting the garden with these hues to pairing this hue with New Victorian styles for an outdoor oasis – you won’t find anything better.
4. Brighter is Better
Gardeners want their gardens and landscapes to look their best, which often means brightening things up. From colorful planters and benches to eye-catching flowers, brightening up outdoor spaces is an increasingly popular trend in gardening. Plus, brighter ideas may even help people with back or knee issues feel more at ease in their yards or gardens!
An emerging trend is viewing your garden as part of an ecosystem, whether that means using native and pollinator plants to provide habitats for insects and birds, letting weeds grow tall for monarch butterflies, or replacing gas-powered tools with battery-operated versions such as garden rakes, brooms or leaf blowers.
As part of their efforts to adhere to tradition, gardeners are shifting away from manicured lawns towards more natural landscapes that reflect nature’s rhythms and encourage play – such as wildflower meadows or gardens that encourage creative play. This trend helps gardeners connect with nature while finding balance in their lives while reflecting greater importance on self-sufficiency and environmental responsibility.
5. Pollinator Gardens
2023 is heralding gardening trends that draw inspiration from nature. From wild perennial-filled meadows capes to hillside tropical gardens, these trends focus on welcoming wildlife into our backyards and providing habitats that support pollinator populations.
At a time of global concern for monarch extinction and climate change, people are increasingly looking to their gardens as sources of joy, seeking plants that offer both beauty and utility. This trend translates into planting more pollinator-friendly flowers and ornamental grasses such as native sunflowers, lupine, garden phlox, and coneflowers; mixed flowering times help decrease competition while providing continuous food sources throughout the growing season for pollinators.
As part of the maximalism trend, this movement embraces bold colors in both flowers and foliage. Terra-cotta hues, warm orange tones, and reds have become increasingly popular choices when selecting plants from tropical houseplants such as Monstera deliciosa to hardy blooms such as hibiscus. Furthermore, this garden trend embraces nature by including features like natural wooden benches or reclaimed materials in its designs.
6. Recycle and Up cycle
Gardeners continue to see their gardens as part of the larger ecosystem, encouraging pollinators and wildlife with native plants, providing food sources such as berries, nuts, and fruit trees, and reducing waste through composting or using alternative materials such as biochar. Furthermore, many garden machines such as mowers and weed whips are being replaced with battery-operated options which are less hazardous to the environment.
Drought-tolerant gardening has grown increasingly popular as water restrictions become an increasing worry among many homeowners and gardeners. Planting succulents or other drought-tolerant species and refraining from overwatering helps lower overall usage, while many also utilize rainwater collection systems and greywater irrigation in order to conserve water more effectively.
Indoor gardening has become an increasingly popular trend as its enthusiasts find caring for houseplants a therapeutic hobby with numerous health advantages. Furthermore, decorative pots made of recycled materials and those featuring functional designs such as handles or drainage holes have begun making an appearance on store shelves. Up cycling involves taking items no longer being used and turning them into something useful with greater value than what was initially intended; such techniques include painting them to change their original purpose into planters that function better as planters than they once did or by adding additional features like handles and drainage holes – which is known as up cycling.
7. Home Orchards
Gardening for food has seen an exponential surge. Vegetable gardening has long been popular, but some gardeners are taking things one step further by creating home orchards – fruit trees such as oaks, figs, and cherries can be combined with ornamental shrubs and berry bushes to form eye-catching eye catches that provide both delicious meals and self-sufficient gardening solutions. Gardeners now have yet another reason to enjoy getting outdoors and reconnecting with nature in their yards!
Drought and water restrictions have led gardeners to focus their gardening efforts on hardy plants that require minimal upkeep, including those adapted to dry soil environments and hardy shrubs like Ball Horticultural’s ‘Hula’ Begonia or succulents that thrive in dry environments.
Transporting indoor comforts outdoors is another gardening trend we anticipate will remain popular through 2023. Look out for more seating areas, terra cotta planters, and Greek-inspired designs featuring climbing plants such as bougainvillea to create an environment that makes outdoor living feel like a relaxing vacation getaway.
8. Decorative Planters
Due to an increase in maintenance and energy use in gardens, tall planters for flowers, vegetables, and herbs have become increasingly popular. Look for ones made of recycled materials in warm colors like Terra Cotta for optimal results.
As water conservation becomes an everyday priority for homeowners, they will strive to create low-water gardens that are both beautiful and drought resistant. This may involve replacing lawns with ground covers, creating permeable hardscape designs, and including drought-tolerant species like Jean Genie Colorado blue spruce, Burly blue juniper, Blackhawks Big Sky Sage, or Sumer lasting Plum Crape myrtle into their landscape design.
Pollinator gardens are becoming more and more popular as gardeners recognize the ecological advantages of adding native species that attract butterflies and other wildlife into their yards – an effective way to reduce pesticide usage. Gardeners are also turning kitchen scraps into compost, using recycled troughs as planters, or sharing cuttings of their flowers with neighbors; small steps taken collectively can have an enormous impact on our planet!