Gardening Trends for 2020

By Kerry Ann Mendez

It is always interesting and eye-opening to read predicted horticultural trends for the New Year. These forecasts are compiled by the Garden Media Group that studies global consumer trends to see what's happening in gardening, landscape design and green living.

As stated on their web page, "In our first report in 2001, we predicted outdoor living would be a huge trend. We predicted container gardening in 2003 and the rise of vegetable gardening as early as 2004. We spotted a renewed interest in natives in 2007, the "buy local" movement in 2008, and vertical gardening in 2009."

I'd say they have been right on!

Big in 2020: Do-It-Yourself Repurposing

One of the 2020 trends is DIYing (doing-it-yourself) and repurposing. Being an incredibly thrifty gardener (my most recent book was The Budget-Wise Gardener), I totally embrace this movement.

I spray painted a cracked birdbath cobalt blue to jazz up a shade bed, dismantled a broken water fountain and planted the tiers with colorful xeric perennials, used a bunch of discarded Christmas ornaments for winter decor on a dwarf crabapple tree, picked up a discarded wicker mirror by the side of the road and tucked it into a shade garden to reflect limited light, removed invasive oriental bittersweet vines from trees and made decorative orbs from them, and artfully placed pieces of broken blue glazed pots among my mixed beds for colorful accents...and these are just a few of my many recycling projects.

The only limit is one's imagination!

Learn More

To learn more about the 2020 trends, check out Garden Design's informative and photo-packed article that includes how-to links.