What garden trends are we going to see in 2024? Well, it is National Gardening Month (April) and there is a lot of things to look at. National Gardening Month was founded in 2018 by Cool Spring Press, and announced as a national holiday at the same time. Because we have such a holiday, we have garden trends that come from it. But before we can get into the garden trends for 2024, we need to look at some of the statistics around gardening.
Garden trends include things such as new and renewed types of gardening, plant trends, and more. But statistics around gardening can be mind boggling. Americans spend a lot of time and money to grow gardens, for both food and pleasure.
Gardening Statistics
Some of the more interesting things about gardening is when it began to happen. Forest gardening, for example, is the world’s oldest form of gardening. It is growing food among the trees. It started in the Garden of Eden. Cottage gardening became popular during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and resurfaced again in early colonial gardens of America. And it is trending now!
More stats:
- 55% of American households garden.
- Americans spend $47.8 Billion on lawn and gardening equipment annually!
- The average American garden produces $600 per year in food. Imagine if you were way above the average? Homesteaders try to grow most of their food in the garden, or raise livestock to supplement it.
- 35% of households grow vegetables and fruit.
- The Top 10 Vegetables in order grown are: tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, beans, carrots, summer squash, onions, hot peppers, lettuce, peas.
Dates of Note for Garden Trends
Besides the statistics, which are interesting, there are several “national” days each year that are important for gardeners to know about. Some are completely arbitrary, and others are important for a lot of reasons.
- April 14th in National Gardening Day
- April 22 is Earth Day
- Arbor Day is April 26th
- May 13th is National Apple Pie Day
- May 16th is Love a Tree Day
- July 8th is National Blueberry Day
- World Gardening Naked Day is May 4th
Garden Trends for 2024
Now to the meat and bone of it. What are the garden trends for 2024 and beyond? It is too much work to predict the future of gardening in most situations, but some trends are ongoing. The first few garden trends on the list have been building in popularity over the last decade and are being streamlined by the Millennials generation of children, all of whom are now grown up.
Edimentals
Say what?! When I first heard this term I was wondering if some gardener was drunk. But it is now a real term, describing plants which are edible and ornamental. I have been using edibles as ornamentals for decades, not knowing it would become a garden trend in the 2020s. There are a variety of plants which fall into this category. Surprisingly to many gardeners, most of our vegetables, herbs, and fruit bushes/trees have ornamental characteristics.
Naturalistic Plantings
Of course they mean using natives or plantings that mimic nature. Another trend I have been waiting to come into popularity. As many of you know, I am an avid promoter of native plants and matching your landscape to the natural lay of the land where your house is. Trying to mimic nature in your garden not only makes your landscape fit in its location, but it benefits both you and the wildlife you live among.
Rain Gardens
And another. Rain gardens are trending especially in areas where there is required water conservation. Areas which receive less rainfall normally or are under drought restrictions are natural choices for rain gardens. Rain garden plants not only have to be able to slow, stop, or mitigate runoff from rain events, but they must be drought tolerant as well.
Love Bugging
I changed the title of this one. It is actually learning to love bugs and other arthropods. For a lot of the Baby Boomer and Generation X, bugs and insects in the garden were all considered pests, whether good or bad. Following WWII, pesticides became common in the gardening world and were used readily. But now, gardeners are realizing both the harmful reactions of pesticides and the beneficial nature of most insects. Even the pests are not as bad (in most cases) as people were led to believe.
Adaptive Gardening
This is in response to pushed and biased climate change or “global warming” agendas (most climate scientists agree there is no such thing as climate change). As the earth breathes, the climate is constantly changing from one season to the next. Each year is not a perfect copy of the previous season, but there is enough change to capture the minds of people who need something to cling to besides the truth. So adaptive garden trends become a thing. Gardens should be adaptive, full of plants which can handle a multitude of weather conditions within its ecoregion.
Creating Unique Spaces
Well, is that not the point of landscaping? To create something unique in your personal space outdoors? That is what I was taught, but many of my colleagues do not seem to practice it. The American landscape has become overrun with foundation plantings, and not with the outdoor rooms and hidden spaces that made gardening exciting when I was a kid. My favorite garden related book is The Secret Garden by Burnett and I reread it every spring.
Gravel Gardens
This is one of those garden trends I just cannot get into. Why put down gravel on top of soil and plant through the gravel? I remember when it became popular in the last decade, but I just cannot promote it. They do look cool. But I see the problems down the road as with using rock/gravel as a landscape covering instead of mulch or compost. Weeds are going to get out of control as soil and debris build up between the spaces of the rocks.
Garden Preservation
This is an interesting one. I preserve my garden through photos and memories, but Millennials are preserving their gardens by collecting and creating art from dried flowers, leaves, and seeds. It is cool, but my mind cannot wrap around to do that kind of thing. I will leave it to them.
Stump Gardens
I had never even heard of this one! Apparently, stump gardens or stumperys were popular in the Victorian Era to show of one’s fern collection. A rotting stump, cut to 3 or 4 feet high was used. And now, people are bringing the stump back to life in a new way. With the increasing number of tree pests like Emerald Ash Borer, more large trees are being removed. And people are gardening in those stumps. I could see a fairy garden, a fern collection, a potted orchid collection, or even a miniature Japanese garden planted onto a stump. It sounds interesting!
Webinars
Since covid, more and more gardeners are choosing to find out about gardening ideas and information from webinars and social media. And there are a lot of garden gurus out there, not claiming to know everything, but just showcasing the plants and personalities of their gardening experience. With webinars, garden masters and horticulturalists can teach without exposing themselves to others illnesses.
Conclusion
Garden trends are not just a yearly thing, they can go on for decades. But now that social media is a thing, gardeners might blow up the new trends before the old ones have even taken root. It does not matter. Go out and do your own thing, share it with others, and have fun in the garden. That is what it is about.
Happy planting!
