Brendan Wetzel’sGarden Trends for 2023: 9 Great Ideas to Add Interest to Your Yard
Cultivating a garden is one of the oldest and most timeless pleasures. Even so, the gardening world does see trends come and go, as garden designs, techniques, and plants rise and fall in popularity. In 2023, well-being and sustainability are predicted to be prominent themes in the gardening world. Here’s a look at these and few other trends for the coming year.
1. Vegetable Gardens
With inflation and the cost of living on the rise, many gardeners are setting their sights on creating a vegetable bed to save a bit of cash at the grocery store. A vegetable garden also gives people more control over what they eat — plus, the fresh flavor can’t be beat. In addition, a growing number of people are concerned about the residual pesticides and fertilizers in the produce they buy from the store. A home vegetable garden gives these individuals the opportunity to eat 100% organic if they choose.
Growing a vegetable garden can be a challenge for newbie gardeners, however. For inexperienced gardeners who are short on space, growing salad leaves, herbs, tomatoes, and peppers in containers is a great way to get started.
2. Jewel-Colored Gardens
Experimenting with color is one of the most exciting aspects of creating a garden. Bold reds, purple, and oranges will be particularly popular through 2023 — these rich, dramatic colors offer an added boost of positive energy. Crocosmia and canna lilies can be used to add a blaze of reds and oranges through the summer months, while chrysanthemum, camellia, and hellebores add color through autumn and winter.
3. Outdoor Living Rooms
The pandemic normalized remote and hybrid work models, and two years later, it’s likely this change is permanent. It’s not surprising, then, that people who work from home are increasingly taking their office outdoors, as weather permits.
Outdoor living is much more than just a wellbeing trend. A growing body of research shows the positive impact of spending time outdoors in terms of both physical and emotional health.
An outdoor living room is an extension of the home — it increases the home’s usable square footage and makes it easier and more comfortable to spend time outside. An alfresco living space also increases functionality in the garden, providing extra space to work, relax, or entertain. Even a small space, like a side yard or apartment balcony, can be converted to an outdoor “room” with some potted plants and garden furniture.
4. Creating a Cutting Garden
Even the tiniest garden can be a cutting garden, provided it contains the right cut-and-come-again flowers. There are a huge range of plants to choose from for a cut flower garden, from regimented, poker straight canna lilies, to the rambling country cottage look of cosmos. Other popular favorites include daffodil, which blooms early and makes beautiful spring bouquets; sunflower, which is easy to grow and produces iconic, bold blooms in summer; and dahlia, which produces ruffled blooms in a huge array of colors and sizes.
5. Adding Mediterranean Flavor
Climate change is a reality that many gardeners are already beginning to cope with. In drier climates, this means more frequent droughts. Selecting a water-wise Mediterranean theme is an excellent way of future-proofing your garden, ensuring it thrives both now and in the future. Palms and hardy trees from the Mediterranean region can be paired with succulents, lavender, rosemary, salvia, sage, and poppy to create a low-water, yet lush landscape.
6. Home-Grown Fruit
Growing fruit is a possibility for almost everyone, even those who don’t have a large backyard. Compact fruit bushes and dwarf fruit trees can provide an abundance of fresh, delicious produce, even for those who are short on space. Even a few of these modestly sized fruit trees can produce pounds and pounds of fruit for eating fresh or making jellies, jams, pastries, sorbets, and ice creams. Popular dwarf fruit trees include apple, cherry, fig, peach, and pear.
7. Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose
Sustainability is a rising trend that looks set to continue through 2023. Today, many gardeners are incredibly ingenious in recycling and repurposing items in their gardens. For example, they’re using old bathtubs, sinks, wheelbarrows, and even chandeliers and closet shoe holders as planters. Others are buying mulch made of recycled rubber and avoiding cement in outdoor spaces by selecting materials with a lower carbon footprint instead.
8. Low Maintenance Lawns
Tapestry lawns are created by using a combination of different mowing-tolerant grass species. A tapestry lawn is a low-maintenance alternative to traditional grass that still offers considerable ornamental and environmental value. With a tapestry lawn, the need to mow is reduced by up to two-thirds compared with a regular grass lawn. In addition, a tapestry lawn also incorporates multiple grass species, creating a habitat for more insect species. Although meadow lawns may not be possible in small gardens, a tapestry lawn could be the ideal solution.
9. Rewilding
Rewilding was a popular theme through 2022, and there’s no sign of it abating anytime soon. Eschewing the trim, manicured look, people are interested in natural, loose gardens that aren’t over-designed. They want to feel like they’re in a wild, organic space, rather than their own backyard.
