5 Garden Trends for 2020

We’re excited to share our predictions for the trends to look out for in 2020. From ‘rewilding’ to dirty secrets, these are the five key trends shaping our outdoor spaces as we begin a new decade.

Indoor houseplants with thumbs up

Indoor Greenery

Houseplants are set to steal the spotlight at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2020. Malvern Garden Buildings are again supplying the garden studios for the plateau in Ranelagh Gardens and this year they will be transformed into an array of indoor gardens bursting with foliage and ideas for creatively styling your prized houseplants.

In 2020 we’re predicting that houseplants will become the focal points in our homes. Colourful, attractive foliage with purple and pink tinged leaves will be making a splash as will rare houseplants and colourful succulents. Approach your indoor planting as living décor. Just as the lines between indoors and outdoors are blurring so too are the lines between plants and furniture.

Hands cupping plant in soil

Get down & dirty

In the past dirt has had a bad reputation but since the discovery of the benefits of the soil bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae on the immune system there’s been a newfound respect.  We foresee gardeners everywhere will stop digging to keep soil healthy and encouraging children to get their hands dirty and make mud pies.

Maybe more of us will be turning our hand to the Japanese artform “hikaru dorodango”. This is the practice of making unique mud balls which are dried and polished to a lustre.

Our connection to the earth is certainly something we’ll all be feeling and appreciating more in 2020.

Amphibian in a pond

‘Ungardening’

Embrace the back to nature trend. “Rewilding” or “ungardening” is all about shunning harmful pesticides and the sterile decking to create a garden that welcomes native wildlife.

The key to becoming an eco-gardener is getting your garden to work for you instead of spraying pests and in so doing removing food sources for birds. Set a beer trap for slugs instead or encourage Blue Tits with a feeder and they will reward you by picking off the aphids eating your roses.

If you’ve the room build a pond where birds and mammals can drink, and frogs can spawn. The frogs will eat the slugs, snails or other insects to keep the bugs at bay. Create a frog “hot spot” with log piles, a compost heap or designing your own frog abode (shop bought “frogilos” are also available) where the critters can shelter.

Man mowing a chequer board pattern into a lawn

Striped Lawns

If going wild isn’t your thing and you want your lawn to be a cut above the rest, the answer is a striped lawn. You’ll need a lawnmower with a roller, for the sole purpose of making stripes.

If you really want to impress turn your turf into a verdant work of art and mow a chequerboard or diamond pattern.

White dandelion clock sitting on indigo fabric

Colour of the Year

The Pantone colour of 2020 is “classic blue”. Expect to see this timeless and enduring blue hue trickling through from interior styling to garden spaces.

It’s described by the trend spotters at Pantone as “a boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky”. With so many beautiful blue blooms to choose from it’s easy to incorporate this calming colour in your garden’s scheme. Sow a sea of Delphiniums, Love in the Mist, Asters, Lily of the Nile, Hydrangea, Globe thistle, Bellflower, Flax or Forget-me-nots.

Alternatively bring the inside out with an outdoor sofa styled with blue cushions or unfurl a blue garden rug. If you’re feeling energetic paint an accent wall, plant pots or even your garden building in inky indigo.

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