Garden Design Trends for 2017

Gardening can seem pattern proof. After all, you can’t hurry an oak’s progress from acorn to shade tree, and making a garden isn’t like purchasing a brand-new throw rug for your home however rather sewing a few glimmering threads of your very own into nature’s abundant tapestry. But tastes do change in gardening, as your once-obsessed African violet-growing parents or grandparents could tell you. Those who work with the purchasing public are specifically attuned to what’s hot and what’s not. We asked landscape design contractors and sellers across the country to share the greatest patterns they expect for 2017. Here are five trends they say we’ll be seeing more of.

1. Natural dye gardens

Yard homesteading has been going strong for a while, and edible gardens, chicken coops and beehives are ubiquitous, even in urban communities. The current addition to the grow-it-yourself movement is natural colour gardens: plants utilised to make dyes for colouring fabrics, yarn and clothes.

“In 2015, I put in my very first natural colour garden here in Berkeley,” states Leslie C. Bennett, owner of Pine House Edible Gardens in Oakland, Calif. “It’s truly stunning and includes a great deal of vegetables, fruit trees, and pollinator-attracting flowers, but we have actually picked varieties and amounts so that the harvests can be utilized for natural plant dyes as well.” Numerous recent books consisting of Sasha Duerr’s “Natural Colour,” Kristine Vejar’s “The Modern Natural Dyer,” and Chris McLaughlin’s “A Garden to Dye For” likewise vouch for the growing interest in dye gardening.

Bennett favours coreopsis, universes, Japanese indigo, marigold, ‘Moonshine’ yarrow, blue cornflower and purple basil for making dyes. “A lot of these are cooking area and cutting garden favourites too,” she explains. “So it’s pretty easy to integrate a natural dye garden into an edible garden.”

2. Natural materials

After years of minimalist dominance in hard-scaping materials, furnishings and design, designers are observing renewed interest in natural products and a less geometric design. Designer Julie Blakeslee at Big Red Sun in Austin, Texas, states, “Instead of clean and contemporary, customers are asking for a more old-fashioned, more DIY look in their gardens. We have actually been using railway ties, free-form decks, smaller outside furnishings and swing seating. I think customers are looking for something more authentic and real. The Dwell look has been duplicated many times. People might be yearning for something more natural in their gardens.” Richard Hartlage of Seattle-based Land Morphology likewise sees an increased interest in natural, tactile materials like wood and stone for the built aspects of a garden. “People are moving away from concrete unless it’s an ultra-modern, minimalist garden,” he says.

3. Lawn Design

Long a sign of the American dream, the expansive and nicely manicured yard continues to take a hit, due in part to dry spell, water lacks and concerns about the environmental impact of fertilising, pest-control treatments, and other traditional upkeep. Lawn-like alternatives, however, are hot. “We’re setting up a lot more turf blends that do not have to be cut, like Habiturf [a native turf grass blend for the Southwest], as well as taller, prairie-type mixes,” says Tait Moring. Tait is one of the many landscaping contractors in central Texas, while he doesn’t prepare for completion of conventional lawns anytime quickly; his clients are opting for smaller sized ones than in the past. “These are lawns that will be used as opposed to being just for show,” he says.

In spite of controversy over its ecological effect, synthetic lawn continues to grow in popularity, thanks to improvements in how natural it looks. “We are still setting up a lot of synthetic grass,” says Blakeslee in Austin. Designer Sue Goetz of Creative Garden enthusiast in Tacoma, Wash., is too, specifically in small areas that clients do not desire the bother of mowing and for pet backyard. “I have had more ask for synthetic grass in the in 2015 than ever,” Goetz states. “It looks genuine. It also speaks to a desire for low maintenance.”

4. Active play areas for any ages

Playing out in the yard isn’t just for kids anymore, and even for kids it’s various. “I have actually had an uptick in clients asking for play and amusing areas,” Goetz says. “Bocce courts, pet and family pet spaces, dining areas, fireplaces, hammocks. Individuals do not want locations they have to weed. They desire places where they can unwind and play.” Susan Morrison, concurs that basketball courts for adults and households are popular as they can double as an open concreted area later on in life when the playing stops. Backyard basketball is a good family activity where everyone can get their favourite teams basketball jerseys on and play! If the family get really good at basketball, they could even create a mixed basketball team for a bit of fun and leisure outside of the house, topped with custom basketball uniforms.

And after years of putting wooden climbing up structures into their backyards, moms and dads today want developed areas for their children that motivate imaginative play. “Families with kids are requesting for active play areas rather than standard play structures,” Morrison says. “I’ve had four clients in the last year request areas where their kids can produce and develop, rather than simply get on a play structure or dig in a sandbox. The concept is a free-form digging location intermixed with plants, rocks, and landscape ties. The natural shape means it can be better integrated with the remainder of the garden than a stand-alone play structure can be.”

5. Sustainability tech

“It’s fantastic exactly what you can do from your cellular phone nowadays,” Morrison says. Ongoing droughts in California and throughout the West have actually galvanized a welcome of low-water landscaping, and technology advancements in solar watering systems make it easier than ever to control just how much water is delivered to plants. “Smart controllers that utilize weather data to automatically identify right watering amounts have been around for a while now,” Morrison says. “However the most recent can be set and monitored from your phone. You can literally look at your solar water heater system from your beach chair while on your trip! Some even consist of flow sensing units that send a text alert if they identify a leakage in the system and a portal so that your contractor can manage your irrigation from another location if you face scheduling issues.”

Moring agrees. “We are seeing advanced and effective irrigation systems that can provide a specific quantity of water where it’s required. It’s more costly up front, however you can likewise develop more zones so that particular plants can be watered more or less, depending upon their requirements.”

Another area of sustainable technology for your backyard is a solar panelling. Solar panels are particularly useful for backyards as the backyard is generally an area that only needs to be lit up at night, you can really benefit from collecting energy from the sun during the day to utilise all night long. Solar panelling isn’t only useful for energising lights; it is a good and environmentally friendly way to heat things. A solar hot water system could be really great to heat your backyard pool and be sustainable at the same time.