It
looks very much like the trend for black and amber shades in planting
will continue unabated. Many garden design experts have been using
the dark drama of black plants for years now, but combined with amber
leaves and foliage too – the effect on landscape architecture is
truly startling. We will be seeing much more garden design with amber
shades and amber tones.
Low-risk,
high-value plants will of course continue to be very popular in
landscape architecture.
Just as gardeners are being more careful with their water useage in
these times of drought, they are also shopping smarter, and looking
for greater value for money. In particular, they’re looking for
low-risk, high-value plants that not only look good in the garden
centre or nursery, but also have a tried-and-tested reputation for
solid growth and flowering or fruiting.
Landscape
design
companies such as Kim Wilkie, Sarah Eberle and Jinny Blom regularly
use plants that are bred to withstand attacks from pests and
diseases, and that are also tolerant of the local climate and soil
extremes. Of course designing for your clients in this way will
provide far better value. And its not just garden designers taking
this approach. Gardeners themselves are more aware than ever that
choosing the right plant for the right situation is crucial if you
want to garden in an environmentally sound way (and watch the bank
balance too). Long-term colour, for example, can be easily and
cheaply achieved by using continuously flowering shrubs such as
hydrangeas, potentilla and spirea.
Water
features are getting smaller in landscape design this season too.
More and more people are moving away from large ponds and towards
smaller water features such as a cut piece of stone, a boulder or a
beautiful glazed urn with water bubbling from it’s top. The cost of
time and maintenance is one of the issues here – the time is takes
to look after a real pond (or to pay someone else to do so) is
something we don’t have much of in 2012.
Garden
design
companies such as Randle Siddeley or Andy Sturgeon have also been
using natural stone or metal a great deal in their water features
this year. Ball-shaped fountains made of stone or copper are
particularly popular as are beautifully weathered metal planters and
pots or containers.
In
colder countries, garden design professionals are keeping ornamental
grasses each year, instead of cutting them back, so that they can
provide winter interest to the landscape architecture. And for the
same reason, garden design is featuring planting with winter berries,
evergreens, barks of different colours and textures or deciduous
trees and shrubs with dramatic forms.
It
seems that landscape design clients and customers have grown tired of
the stark, all-season gardens that were so fashionable a few years
ago. This year, according to Randle Siddeley and other celebrated
garden designers, its all about designing with a backbone of plants
that look great year round, but in a scheme that is not at the
expense of seasonal interest and colour.
And
research backs up some of these trends too. The number of front
garden design jobs (those landscapes you drive or walk through to
reach a property) is also on a steady rise according to the Garden
Trends Research Reports Early Spring 2011 survey (conducted for the
Garden Writers Association Foundation in America). It seems more
people are thinking about the public appearance of their properties
(and very possibly house value) as well as their private gardens.
Vertical
gardening is still a trend in garden design. The practice of growing
plants up from the ground instead of out, or of planting them off the
ground to start with on trellises, arbors, balconies and walls has
become especially popular among those gardeners with small awkward
spaces. One particular vertical gardening trend that looks likely in
2012 is green roofs. Green roofs help save on heating and cooling
costs and actually protect the roof underneath from the degrading
effects of the elements, so much so that some urban planning
organisations in the US have even received tax incentives for green
roof installations - A true sign of changing times in garden and
landscape design.
