2021 Garden Design Trends
/Looking at new trends in garden design for 2021, it is interesting to consider what is influencing these trends. In 2020 Covid-19 forced us to put the brakes on and stop during lock-down for a while. We began to notice the birdsong in our gardens, and the few bees on the flowers. We realized how peaceful our neighborhood is without so many cars and swapped noisy coffee shops and busy wine bars for home with family on the back deck.
So it wasn’t all bad, except for the lack of bees! Many of the changes to our lives last year is now influencing the trends in 2021 for our homes and gardens. Here are a few to take note of:
Keep it simple – we don’t all want over complicated, busy lives and the same goes for the garden. Try to stick to a theme and do not overdo it. Repeat similar plants. Also simplicity for your colour palette like a small burst of colours in one small group has great impact and easier to care for than a complicated, busy garden.
Colour trends – terracotta orange, dusky light blue, almost-lime yellow, khaki green, grey-pinks and lilac. The painting palette has a definite soft gray haze. This suits the garden in so many ways, blending with the plant foliage, giving a sense of distance. Gently muted colours offer a sense of calmness. Look for these colours to update your garden with cushions, planter pots, garden art, and annual or perennial flowers when buying plants.
Native Plants – buy local, grow local. There are many stunning NZ native plants and their cultivars all developed and grown here in NZ. Plus we now have a stronger than ever desire to surround ourselves with birds, bees and encourage NZ native insect habitats, which our endemic plants are best at.
Multiple outdoor spaces – when the house is full with family, it is imperative to have different zones around the garden for different activities, for children, and adults to go to. Most of my design work is taking the typical large, one piece suburban back lawn and creating separate areas that lure you into the garden where you have a choice of spaces, depending on the occasion or the weather.
Patterns and plantings – a jungle theme is popular, in fabrics, cushions and feature walls, decor items and pots. Adding ornaments and other garden art with this theme and using large leaved plants with varying shapes and shades will introduce this theme to your garden. Plants like NZ Five Finger, glossy leaf Coprosmas, groups of Rengarenga lilies, and big leaf Rangiora and Puka if you are in a frost free part of town. Also our stunning range of Lancewood and Cabbage Tree cultivars look truly troppo!
We don’t often think of ‘trends’ in the garden. Changes can be made easily with small additions of fashionable pots, decor items, outdoor furniture, trendy cushion covers, annuals and perennials in a colour theme and potted tropical-look-plants added to your patio, entrance and among the established gardens.
Design and Planting by Leaf Landscape Design, March 2020
Soft pastel colours are on-trend for 2021