The desire for a healthy lifestyle continues with nearly 39% of us spending more time in our garden and 45% of us seeing our gardens as an extension of our homes.
Growing our own fruit, vegetables and herbs in our gardens, allotments or with others in community gardens remains a very strong trend. For those of us with little or no outdoor space, the sale of indoor plants is on the rise, plus container planting in rental properties too – you can always take them with you.
After growing our own veg, fruit and herbs we want to enjoy eating it outside, preparing our food in outdoor kitchens and cooking on BBQ’s and enjoying a sizzling pizza from our own pizza ovens.
We also want to keep warm and extend the season in our garden with fire pits, fireplaces and get comfortable on outdoor lounging sofas, swing seats, hammocks etc in all shapes, sizes and colours.
In what feels like a difficult chaotic world the garden is seen as a place of wellbeing, pleasure and a safe haven for family and friends, reflected in the rise of garden areas for meditation and yoga.
The theme in garden design for 2017 is sustainability, with a desire for natural authentic local materials and less minimalist geometric designs.
Planting in the garden is continuing to move towards the use of more shrubs and multi-stem trees in perennial borders to give year round structure and lower maintenance. Flower colours are bold and colourful with gold being the ‘buzz’ colour for this year and a focus on planting for pollinating insects.
