Why I Oughta...

I spotted this annual outlook on gardening trends from Garden Design and will - I think - post about the full list at some point.  I've done that the past few years - 2022 trends -  and last year - 2023 trends .  There are a few items on this years list that are worth a blog-post-level exploration.   But...there's one item that was totally BRAND NEW to me.  Borderline revelation.  It was that in 2024, more gardeners are going to 'rediscover stumpery gardens'.    I read that and was like... Wait a second.  Stumpery.  What the heck is a stumpery?   I've never heard of a stumpery let alone thought about adding one or 'rediscovering' stumpery gardens.   Here's what Garden Design says : While once a Victorian fad designed to show off fern collections, stumperies are again making a comeback. Only now, the focus isn’t only on plant collections but also on creating wildlife sanctuaries while showcasing shade-loving plants. Simply speaking, a stumpery is a shad

Trends come and go, right?  In fashion.  In food.  In living.  Feels like you have to kind of pick your spots in all things trendy, right?  Can't be too on trend.  But, you still want to show how you're a little contemporary, right?  Trends in the garden are something that I've unpacked over the year.  Here's a trends post that I did very early this past year - January 2022 .  And I did the same thing in 2019 and 2020 .   I came across a recent 2023 Garden Trends list from Garden Design email newsletter and thought it was worth kicking-the-tires on the items they included.  Here's their list .  Below is a screenshot showing the nine items that they think will breakthrough and show up in gardens this growing season: There are a few - what I'll call - 'narrow' items on their list.  And others that are way more 'broad' in nature.  Let's start with the more 'broad' category items.  Why?  Because they're A LOT less interesting to me. 

What do they say about being 'on trend'?  Something like....if you stick to something LONG ENOUGH, it will eventually come back to being 'on trend'.  Like clothes.  If you loved wearing flannel shirts and Doc Martin boots back in the 1990's and you kept wearing them ever since?  Good news.  You're back on trend twenty-plus years later. With that idea, I suppose it is worth thinking about trends in gardening.  I've posted about trends in the past - here's a 2019 post about how gabion-style walls were on trend that year .  And in 2020 how creating little 'nooks ' was on trend.  There are various times when trends in gardening come out.  The first is typically during the Chelsea Flower show that takes place annual in London .  This year, the show was moved (Thanks, COVID.), but some trends continued to emerge - mostly related to the changing dynamics COVID has brought to our lives.  Something that seemed to percolate out of Chelsea this year was the