Our close ones are the ones who make a home... a home. And for nature enthusiasts, trees are like a family that completes the home. On the balcony or in the backyard, having a slice of nature in our personal space contributes immensely to our personal well-being as we spend hours with the leaves, the dews and the soil. Gardening is nurturing. Not just the plants but ourselves. It is a place where we feel safe as our minds and hearts heal and flourish.
Gardening is therapeutic. For some, it is a work of art just like music, literature, weaving or any fine art. From the environmental point of view, a garden leads to a lesser carbon footprint. There is absolutely no better alternative to practising farm-to-plate consumption, and the perks of having a home garden are endless! If you are into gardening, be it in your sweet little corner on the balcony or on a sprawling lawn, you might want to transform it from ordinary to extraordinary. Here’s looking at a few ways that can modernise the look and feel of your garden. We have also taken note from the recently concluded RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London. If you have an artistic vision, you will see how softly nestling these changes in your green cover will add to its natural charm and beauty.
The Pantone impact: Pantone declared peach fuzz as the colour of the year. And ever since, we have been embracing the colour, from our sartorial choices to interior decor, accessories, phone cover and wallpaper. As we celebrate the colour everywhere, bring the theme into your garden by adding flowers in soft peach shades. Peach-fuzz flowers like Tulip Apricot Beauty, ‘Just Joey’ Rose or Rosa Just Joey, Icelandic poppy ‘Giant Peach’, Dahlia ‘Apricot Desire’ and Daylily ‘Luxury Lace’ could be your ultimate choices to incorporate the Pantone-approved hue in your garden and reflect your keenness on keeping up with time and trends.
Edimental gardening: Covid-19 made us self-reliant. It taught us how things can be efficiently managed from home and drew us towards the idea of growing our own food instead of making frequent trips to the local market. And here comes edimental gardening that furthers that cause. Edimental plants continue to enjoy rising popularity among discerning gardeners for their multi-tier benefits, which include creating an ornamental and productive garden space. Edimental gardening is not just a visually appealing addition to your landscape. It is a versatile way to combine the pleasure of consuming garden bounty and beautifying your outdoor space with plants that are edible. A diverse range of herbs, flowering herbs, colourful vegetables and fruits fall into this category. These plants are low-maintenance, which makes them a great choice among new gardeners. Savour the fresh produce on your plate next time you pick up your asparagus, apples, pears, currants, gooseberries, and more from your multi-functional garden. Edimental gardening does not need an extensive area to be cultivated and can be dotted around your backyard.
Pollinator-friendly garden: Inclusivity is now the keyword in every area of life. More and more people are embracing the concepts of diversity and inclusivity and doing their bit to make the world a better place. The practice of pollinator gardening has found a new relevance in the gardening space, exploring the theme of inclusivity. The concept is to include a range of flowers that attract pollinating insects, which ultimately creates a healthy, balanced ecosystem. With this, we can open our gardens to pretty guests like butterflies, bees and even birds, to come and interact with the flowers, thereby creating an ecological diversity. This will transform the garden into a natural habitat for animals whose beauty and movement will elevate the yard’s ambience.
Goth gardening: 2024 is all about embracing colours in your garden, and Goth gardening is an enchanting juxtaposition of darkness and beauty in your outdoor space. Create a garden with Goth flair by incorporating darker hues. This concept may have originated from Victorian-era literature, urging us to embrace our dark side. A simple yet classy Goth implementation would be complementing a light-toned flower with dark-hued ones. Complementing one dark hue with an even darker hue creates a striking visual impact. You can create a dark, beautiful masterpiece by choosing a colour palette of deep purples, rich reds, and velvety blacks.
You could also include some typical gothic elements. Imagine a wrought-iron gate adorned with intricate patterns leading to a pathway that twists and turns around pergolas covered with foliages of untamed vines and mysterious, crumbling walls, dimly lit with candles or lanterns. Weathered statues and ornate tombstones lurking from the bush might add to the air of mystery. To create a Goth garden with flowers, you can choose black roses, dark dahlias and deep purple irises and accent them with blood-red lilies and midnight-blue delphiniums. Add some drama and darkness to your garden by aesthetically complementing light hues with dark dues. This will create a foliage that is both captivating and haunting.
Inside out: There is a growing interest in extending the living space to the outdoor area. Create a cosy seating area in one corner of the garden and sit down for breakfast or a dinner date. This could be a wonderful way to transform your garden into a peaceful retreat and relax and enjoy the beauty of nature as you watch the boundary between indoor and outdoor areas blur. In simple words, this is what we call space-fluidity. Select the spot where there is a balance of sunlight and shade. Create a sitting area in your garden by including functional elements like comfortable and weather-resistant furniture and weather-proof cushions and pillows. You can also outline the space with low hedges to create a sense of privacy.
Naturalist planting: Just on the opposite end of the spectrum of the manicured landscape lies the principle of naturalist gardening. This traditional approach to landscaping emphasises the need to come out of structured layouts and let vegetation grow in a not-guided manner, resembling the way they would have grown in the wild. Embrace this natural pattern and celebrate the beauty and resilience of nature while creating a vibrant landscape in your backyard. For the keen observers, this could be a wonderful way to train the focus on how a garden spontaneously evolves over time and plants interact with each other. An emerging garden trend we have spotted at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is forest gardening. Forest gardens host a range of perennial shrubs, climbers and trees, mimicking a diverse forest ecosystem.
Resilient plants: With the mercury hitting a new high every day, choose plants that thrive well in drought conditions, with less water and maintenance. Drought-tolerant succulents like aloe vera do demand a little effort, though. On the other hand, the whitebeam tree requires minimum pruning. Equally important to possess are flood-resilient plants like alder tree noted for their waterlogged soil tolerance.
Sustainable practices: Sustainable gardening continues to top the trends chart. Gardeners can minimise the environmental impact by choosing organic pest-control methods, composting, water conservation and organic fertilisers.