Six gardening trends to monitor for 2022

"Adopting new trends offers gardeners the perfect way to revamp home gardens with new ideas and inspiration, while using gardening to promote year-round health and well-being," says Andrew Bunting, Vice President of Public Gardens and Landscapes at PHS. "This list of garden trends for 2022 is ideal for gardeners of all interests and experience levels to incorporate into their own gardens."

Utilize Native and Pollinator-Friendly Plants

Adding native pollinators to the garden is a simple way to support the ecosystem right from your own backyard. Pollinators are vital to creating and maintaining ecosystems and are crucial to agriculture. Plants like Pycnanthemum, mountain mint, Echinacea, coneflowers, and Liatris are all great at attracting these important insects.

Consider Turning Lawn Space into Garden Space

Even removing a small piece of lawn and transforming it into garden space has the power to significantly lower fossil fuel emissions that would otherwise be applied to the lawn through regular trimming and maintenance. Your new garden space can also boost its positive environmental impact by being used as a pollinator garden, perennial garden, or even a vegetable patch.

Attend a Plant Swap and Make a New Friend

Connect with fellow gardeners and bring home new plants. A great way to incorporate new plants in your garden and gain expertise as a beginner gardener is through attending a plant swap. At a plant swap, attendees can bring their small plants, cuttings, potting soil, pots, or other gardening equipment and exchange them for something they don't have. This is a simple way to diversify your garden, learn new horticultural skills, and connect with fellow gardeners. Many of these meet-and-greet style exchanges can be found in local gardening Facebook groups, so be sure to check online for groups in your area.

Try Gravel Gardening, Waterwise Gardening, or Xeriscaping

Not great at regularly watering your garden? Thankfully, you can build a garden with hardy plants and low water requirements. With more and more areas of the country experiencing inconsistent weather patterns and periods of drought, planting gardens that require little watering or irrigation is growing in popularity. Gravel gardening offers just one way to cut back on water requirements, irrigation requirements, and fertilizer use in your garden through eliminating the use of soil. Xeriscaping refers to landscaping and gardening in a way that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. Gravel gardens and xeriscaping can incorporate a multitude of plants including a wide array of succulents in the Sedum species, as well as Sempervivum tectorum, hens and chicks, hardy cacti such as the Opuntia species, some ornamental grasses, Amsonia hubrichtii, threadleaf bluestar, and even yucca. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's own Meadowbrook Farm has already embraced waterwise gardening practices and incorporated many of these species, alongside of many other garden spaces across the U.S.

Grow Your Own Fruit

With just a little space, you can enjoy your favorite fruits right from your own garden. Growing fruit is no longer reserved for those with orchards. Even just a few fruit trees can produce hundreds of pieces of fruit perfect for jams, jellies, cookies, ice cream, or simply eating as-is. Dwarf fruit trees come in many varieties including figs, mulberries, apples, and pears, and are ideal for growing with limited space.

Cut Flowers Are Trending

Across the U.S., boutique flower businesses are incorporating more and more classic cut flowers like Zinnia, Dahlia, Papaver rhoeas, poppy, Cosmos bippinatus, cosmos, and Leucanthemum x superbum, shasta daisy. The return to these timeless varieties of flowers demonstrates a shift away from the more non-traditional, eccentric, and often minimalist style common in modern floral arrangement today. From purveyors of elaborate homegrown cut flowers to the backyard gardener, cut flowers offer a rewarding means to immerse yourself in horticulture and experience the pride of growing your own flowers and sharing them with loved ones that will surely never go out of style.

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Source: Greenhouse Grower