January 15, 2024
As a new year comes into bloom, now’s the time to start planting the seeds for your dream garden. Whether you’re looking for a simple garden design to maintain or a complete garden renovation, the team at GDT has kept their eyes peeled on the most popular garden trends for 2024.
Garden trends mean more than simply following the latest landscaper or garden influencer; there’s a reason why trends have become so popular. Within the horticulture world, changing themes help you adapt your outdoor space to match your lifestyle – whether simplifying with a wildflower lawn or becoming more creative and growing your food! It also enables you to nurture your garden and narrow down the suitable turf, shrubs, and plants that’ll thrive year after year.
Plotting in pollinators is an easy win to give back to nature. The great part about this trend is it’s scalable to meet your flowerbed sizes and gardening skills! Adding even the smallest number of pollinators, you’re helping establish natural habitats for insects, encouraging biodiversity and supporting your well-being by staying connected to nature.
Incorporating wildflower turf and pollinating flowers into your garden design is pretty easy, from potted plants on your balcony and wildflower borders to a lawn full of wildflower turf. Focus on the best pollinating flowers, such as lavender, butterfly bushes, sunflowers and poppies, to bring beautiful bugs, creatures and colour into your backyard.
The edimental trend has been around for years with people living off their land in one way or another. Edimentals is a multipurpose trend and brings plenty of planting perks; not only are they ornamental, but growing your food saves money, allows you to enjoy tasty treats, and brings a sense of pride for nurturing your fruit and vegetables!
Edimentals include herbs, vegetables, fruit and even edible flowers. When choosing the right edible plants for your garden, focus on the fruits and vegetables you like. More importantly, play to your garden’s strength and consider the type of soil, turf and how much sunshine it receives – that’ll help determine your menu.
When planting your edimentals, use sleepers to section off vegetable or herb gardens and add a layer of high-quality topsoil for extra goodness. For smaller spaces, consider pots for your herbs and for larger gardens, how about a fruit tree? Remember to pop any edible waste into your compost and reuse it to enhance your crops for the next season.
When you think of garden landscapes, you might picture striking pinks, yellows and oranges against a lush green backdrop. For 2024, goth-gardens are the next big thing, and we love it! Darker shades of royal purples, rich burgundies and deep greens for plants and shrubs create depth and texture within your garden landscape. Making smaller spaces appear bigger and adding dramatic features to break up larger land.
If you’re new to this trend, speak with a garden designer who can recommend the best plants to match your garden’s shape and soil. There are several ways to develop your moody atmosphere – plant darker flowers amongst brighter ones or create a dedicated ‘darker’ section of your garden. Alternatively, pack out an entire pot with dark-shaded plants like ferns, Deadly Nightshade or Delphiniums.
Sleepers complement these darker shades, too, and are ideal for displaying a dedicated flower bed. Or enhance the look further by adding a layer of bark; the darker shade allows the deeper shades to stand out.
This is a winning theme for small and urban gardens. By optimising your vertical space, you can extend your garden and become creative with your landscaping, cue hanging and trailing plants. It also means you lift your fauna and flora, leaving more space for a turfed lawn or stylish decking where you can sit and relax in your personal Eden.
Hanging baskets and trailing and climbing plants are ideal for this garden look. Choose brightly coloured pots or bold flowers to add colour and incorporate different heights. For example, lupins, sunflowers and sweet peas grow tall, creating depth and maximising your space.
Hortifuturism might sound like a term from the future, but it’s very much a present-day garden trend. The hortifuturism hype refers to plants and gardens that reflect a natural sci-fi vibe to surprise your guests with bright whites, electric neon and spikey-leafed plants. You want to avoid empty spaces and mix in garden accessories such as reflective surfaces, water features and lighting for an out-of-this-world finish.
The secret to mastering the hortifuturism trend is picking the right plants and optimising light. Think succulents, Japanese forest grass, colourful vegetation, and alien-looking plants such as air plants that don’t need to root but survive by absorbing moisture and nutrients from the air – we love how these look against sleepers and barked areas. But to fully master this trend, gardeners use the latest garden tech, like robot mowers, automatic sprinklers and solar lights, to produce a sci-fi haven.
The ‘Nature Calls’ trend encourages gardeners to consider and expand the sustainability of their outdoor space and garden techniques. With increasing environmental issues, naturalistic planting is undoubtedly a way forward! Using wilder but softer foliage which is native to your location encourages wildlife to thrive and naturally reseeds itself – ideal for those looking for a low-maintenance garden!
The great news is no matter how ample your outdoor space is, there are plenty of ways to include ‘green gardening practices’. Robust turf, such as our Trident turf, is ideal for daily wear and tear, whilst our shade-tolerant turf thrives in dryer conditions with minimal rainfall. For low maintenance and mowing, wildflower turf provides a natural finish and supports the ecosystem, whilst bark mulch, or creating your own composted mulch, makes a fantastic top layer to feed your garden with essential nutrients.
These are just the core garden trends for 2024, but there are lots of different garden designs you can consider. The key is to find a theme that works with your available space and that, realistically, you have the time and patience to maintain.
In summary, your go-to garden trends to try in 2024 include:
Whichever garden theme you opt for in 2024, we’d love to hear about it and see your success! Email your hints and tips for us to share or tag us in your garden pictures. We can’t wait to see the results.
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