With a huge drive for more conscious living one thing is for certain, 2020 is set to be the year that homeowners and gardeners will pursue garden designs that are beneficial for the local wildlife and the planet as a whole.
This means they’ll be making more environmentally friendly choices, selecting low-maintenance garden materials and focusing on the mental health benefits of being immersed in nature. In 2020 we can expect to see garden design taking a shift away from aesthetics and towards wellbeing.
Eco-Friendly Choices
There is a rising sense of urgency for people to take arms and combat the climate crisis. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that garden design trends are becoming greener in 2020.
One of the easiest ways to make more environmentally friendly choices for your garden design is to choose materials that don’t impact the planet, a garden design trend we can expect to see taking off in the next few months.
One such material is composite decking. Why is composite decking eco-friendly, you ask? Because unlike most plastic or timber decking, composite decking can be made using recycled materials. Wood cut offs can be turned into wood flour and post-consumer plastics can be melted and turned into a binding agent. This creates beautiful deck boards that are a wonderfully sustainable.
Green garden design trends don’t stop there, we can expect to see homeowners up and down the country installing compost crates in their garden. Composting helps to reduce your carbon footprint, provides you with a nutrient rich fertiliser for your plants and can be done outside large or small properties.
Immerse Yourself in Nature
The mental health benefits of being immersed in nature have been talked about more and more in recent years, so it comes as no surprise that homeowners are creating outdoor spaces where they can escape the stresses of real life and relax.
People without a garden may consider visiting a local park or botanical garden to get a dose of the outdoors, but with a well designed and thought out garden space, you won’t even need to leave the house!
One way you can make the most of your outdoor space without being left exposed to the elements is to install a glass sunroom in your garden. These sunrooms provide the perfect amount of protection without distracting from the beauty outside. Some sunrooms even offer spans of 7m between two of their structural posts which offers a completely undisturbed viewing experience.
Another way you could make your garden a more immersive experience is to add a plethora of new plants and flowers. This will not only attract new species of wildlife into your garden, but it will also add a flourish of colour particularly during summer and spring.
Low-Maintenance Options
Linking nicely on from our previous point, garden design trends are set to feature a wide range of low-maintenance or maintenance-free options to allow homeowners to spend extra time in their gardens.
By considering the lifetime of your chosen garden features and plants, you can determine whether or not your new garden design is going to require a lot of upkeep or do its own thing and still look great.
We love garden designs that feature porcelain tiles, for example, because they offer the beautiful allure of real stone without any of the tedious upkeep. Real stone such as slate or sandstone will need to be sealed annually to prevent water damage and staining. One of the benefits of porcelain paving is that it’s often vitrified at a very high temperature, making it impermeable to water and incredibly easy to maintain.
If you’d like to add a selection of low-maintenance flowering plants to your flower beds, consider one (or a combination) of the following:
- Lavender
- Geraniums
- Hydrangeas
All of these flowers will look and smell great without a rigorous maintenance schedule. This makes them the perfect addition to your low-maintenance garden in 2020!
We hope you consider choosing greener materials for your garden, immersing yourself outside or reducing the amount of maintenance your garden requires for a stress-free start to the new decade.
