Trends to Consider for Your Garden this Summer*

Next week is May and we’re quickly slipping into those summer months. While it’s not particularly warm, in fact it’s still freezing at night, the time to focus on your garden is well and truly here. After a rough few years where socialising was discouraged you’re probably really looking forward to embracing Garden Party season. And of course we have the Queen’s Jubilee this year so if you’re wanting to have your garden on point for June, now is the time to get started.

For me, there is nothing better than a garden party, it doesn’t feel as claustrophobic and the clean up doesn’t feel as stressful. I’ve even hosted a few in the very limited space I have here but I if I’m being honest, I know right now my garden could do with some serious TLC, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Thankfully Ningbo have a great campaign to help with getting ahead of this years garden trends, there is still time to blossom, so let’s get on it!

Here are five of my favourite garden trends for this summer;

Colour

I am the queen of colour. Like not “hurt your eyes” colour, but there has to be colour. I’m not a fan of the whole all cream/grey/beige look and the same goes for the garden. I’m not just talking about coloured flowers, although I do love them, but furniture, woodwork and even stonework. This year the trend is pastels shades mixed with fire tones.. so pale blue and hot pink, mint green and orange. Using them will really make your garden pop.

Features

Now we’re navigating a line of life between working from home and the office, it’s not surprising that bringing the indoors out is a huge trend at the moment. A lot of people enjoyed spending more time in their home during the “stay at home” orders of 2020 and 2021 and want to find ways to bring that into 2022. From outdoor dining spaces, to hot tubs, working pizza ovens and even garden offices. Have a functioning feature to your garden is a trend I’m liking for this summer.

Speaking of functioning features for the garden, have you considered a Hammock with stand? They’re an unusual feature that you can guarentee will be a talking point when you have friends over. With the summers in the UK getting warmer, who wouldn’t want to lie out in the garden in a hammock? It truly has that white sands feel!

Sustainability

Living a more eco friendly and sustainable life is a trend we’ve seen explode in all aspects of our life over the past few years, so I wasn’t caught off guard to see it be something a lot of people have really embraced when it comes to their garden. There are so many ways to explore this trend (can we call sustainability a trend?) from conserving water, composting, growing your own fruit, veg and herbs (this is my personal favourite) and even recycling house hold items to suitably grow things in your garden without relying on buying something new. I’m definitely going to try and grow something in my old colander!

Planting

Obviously I needed to draw attention to this one given that fire tones are on point for this year, yes guys, get those gorgeous sunflowers planted! Sunflowers are my favourite flower and I love seeing rows on them in among a mass of other beautiful blooms such as dahlia and zinnias. If you’re not really into colours or flowers and you’re wanting to head down the sustainability route this is the year to think about broad beans, peas, garlic and spring onions. If you’re wanting to keep with the colour trend though you might be tempted by tomatoes, but remember these need heat and if you’re from the wintery north like I am, you’re probably going to need a green house!

Landscaping

When it comes to gardens I always feel there are two types of people, the people who likes grass and the people who don’t. Having grass in your garden is a lot of work so I can completely understand why people want to get rid of it. But if you invest in high quality grass seed you’ll see much better quality of grass that will be easier to care for. However with the trend for this year being bringing the indoors out, I feel we’re going to be seeing less and less grass in gardens, however if that’s the case, then instead of going the concrete slab route you might consider to go for bark or wood chips as this gives a more relaxed atmosphere and also helps with the draining your lawn once provided.

Remember, it’s still only April, plenty of time to get your garden looking the way you want it to before summer rolls around!