Snow might come to cover parts of the country, but gardeners are already thinking ahead to their 2025 landscapes.
What you need to focus on this year is creating pollinator-friendly environments, making your garden more sustainable, and creating engaging outdoor spaces.
You can either go for native plants thriving on natural rainfall or incorporate organic grasses to attract pollinators; all these gardening styles can boost biodiversity, and experts are predicting these choices will stand out as trends of 2025.
1. Sensory gardens
Landscapes are evolving into more than being visually appealing. What are sensory gardens? They engage all five senses, and they become more and more popular. These gardens deepen your connection with nature, and they promote mindfulness and stress relief. It can be filled with the soothing sounds of bird baths or enhance your senses with the texture of ornamental grass, but there are many other ways to create an immersive experience as you stroll through your garden.
2. Food forests
The idea of growing food at Gome has been around for years, but the food forest concept has recently gained traction, especially as a way to support local communities. Now, individual homes are opting for this as well. This type of food forest is a self-sustaining system where edibles are grown in layers, looking similar to a forest.
The base layer is formed by root vegetables of fungi, and the top layer consists of larger trees. You can add herbs, shrubs, or vines in between to mix everything together for a balanced, productive ecosystem. This is an approach that provides fresh food, biodiversity, and soil health, which is why it’s becoming an appealing choice for a huge number of gardeners.
3. Cottage garden
An increasing number of gardeners choose to embrace the free-form design of charming English cottage gardens. With the pressure of keeping your landscape perfectly manicured getting reduced, you find yourself delighted by wildflowers, romantic arbors, or winding gravel paths that create an eclectic and harmonious mix of natural and whimsical.
This trend encourages uniqueness and creativity, allowing every passionate gardener to showcase their taste and vision.
You can incorporate vintage furniture, colorful art, or birdhouses to create this relaxed aesthetic. Loosen up and prioritize a carefree approach, fostering a sense of tranquility and playfulness in your outdoor space. This will create an inviting atmosphere for both exploration and relaxation.
4. Ornamental grasses
Ornamental grasses are set to step into the spotlight already in 2024. These stunning and low-maintenance plants are popular in colder regions because of their ability to withstand hard weather and thanks to their durability.
More than just being visually appealing, ornamental grasses come with numerous benefits, such as providing food and shelter for wildlife, enhancing soil health, and contributing to overall biodiversity.
Their unique textures and movement will add a dynamic value to your garden throughout the seasons. You can choose from a large variety, and some examples are Panicum, Miscanthus, or Calamagrostis. They not only create focal points, but they attract pollinators and insects, becoming a valuable addition to any garden.
5. Gothic Design
Vibrant and whimsical gardens are clearly the top choices of 2025, but we observe a rising interest in moodier and more dramatic designs. In 2025, Gothic gardens will make a big impact, according to the gardening trends report.
How will they capture this aesthetic in a garden? Well, planting flowers and foliage with dark, rich hues like burgundies, deep purples, and blacks will give the desired vibe.
Gothic-inspired elements can be added as well, for example, wrought iron features, vintage-style pottery, or stone statues, as they will bring a mysterious vibe to your garden. This tent is not only about visual appeal because it taps into a sense of old-world charm, and it’s an inviting space for reflection with depth and emotion to your outdoor environment.
6. Tropical plants
Experts are anticipating the popularity of tropical plants, both as houseplants and outdoor gardens. These plants are known for their large and vibrant foliage, and they can bring a unique and exotic flair to any space. A tropical climate is not absolutely necessary, as there are many plants thriving in various environments. You can opt for easy-care options such as photos and snake plants. These resilient tropical plants will add beauty to your garden and will help purify the air, so they are amazing choices for indoor living.
For people looking to create a vibrant, lush vibe, it can be a good idea to incorporate plants like birds of paradise, monstera, or philodendron indoors or for your garden design.
7. Maximalism
This design has been popular for years, but mostly when it came to interior design. This trend focuses on creating landscapes that are fun, vibrant, and energizing. They can either look wild and eclectic focused on perennial meadows or can experience layered tropical hillsides featuring handmade tiles for the hardscaping. The whole idea of this trend is to be bold. Whatever style you choose, play with colors, diverse textures, and varying volumes to create an impactful maximalist garden.
What this trend encourages is thinking outside the box, so you can mix different plant species, materials, and patterns, as well as incorporate unexpected elements, like quirky garden sculptures, vibrant furniture, and accessories that will give more personality to the space. The goal is to create a lively and unique vibe that invites exploration and joy.
8. Grass lawn alternative
It became common for gardeners to choose alternatives to traditional grass lawns because they want to conserve water and create a more eco-friendly environment. With concerns about monarch extinction, water restrictions in the West, and drought conditions, more and more homeowners across the country are looking for sustainable design solutions for their yards.
So, this is how this trend appeared, as homeowners chose to reduce water-intensive lawns and replace them with alternatives such as clover lawns.
Clover has vibrant green foliage and an ability to fix nitrogen in the soil, so it doesn’t only require less water than conventional turf but also attracts pollinators and improves soil health. There are other alternatives, including ground covers like thyme, creeping phlox, or sedum, which provide beautiful blooms while being drought-resistant.
Homeowners choose to create visually appealing landscapes by embracing this option, and they made a priority of being environmentally friendly and resilient to climate change.
As we look ahead, 2025 trends reflect a growing awareness of sustainability and a desire for engaging and expressive outdoor spaces. We can notice that gardeners are moving away from the traditional high-maintenance design, and they opt for free-form landscapes, focusing on creativity and natural beauty. Maximalism makes a mark outdoors, and it encourages the use of vibrant colors, varied textures, and unexpected plant combinations to create lively environments.
From food forests to tropical and ornamental plants, these upcoming trends suggest a transformative approach to gardening, embracing diversity, fostering a connection with nature, and promoting ecological health by creating spaces that are both sustainable and beautiful.
If you’re looking for out-of-the-box elements that will enhance your garden, here you have some unique solar decorative lights that will work well with any of the styles you opt for, and well all know, lights will be eternal on-trend.
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Let us know in the comments which one is your favorite, share your gardening experience, or let us know what you’d like to know more about and we come with all the information you need.
