Will you be embracing fashionable new gardening trends in 2024?

It’s the classic January flex when we start looking forward to the end of winter and the re-awakening of the garden.

Things generally look pretty drab out there right now and let’s be honest, how many of us are actually going out to do anything meaningful? Not me. I’m trying to observe the age-old wisdom of ‘don’t walk on the grass at this time of the year’.

Other than trips to the compost bin, nipping out to top up the bird feeder, hanging out clothes on the odd day when it’s dry and windy, or an opportunistic cuppa on the patio. Most of us are just looking at the garden rather than being in it. So, now’s the time to get planning. Glass of favourite drink in one hand, leftover mince pie in the other (don’t mind if I do) and stand by the window surveying the scene, imagining how it will be in five- or six-months’ time. But also thinking back to three or four months ago when those little frustrations about the layout or the planting were really niggling you. You felt it was too late to do anything about it. Well, get ready to deep dive and interrogate what you’d like to change. Now is the time.

And as additional food for thought, let me throw in some of the trends for next year, as reported in the Garden Media Group 2024 Garden Trends Report. It’s fair to say that some are a continuation of habits we’ve been talking about and adopting over recent years. Like an increasing sensitivity to pollinator plants, growing our own produce at home or in community, the increase of vertical planting – whether hanging plants for interiors or small outdoor spaces – where you can literally grow a whole garden.

These all speak to our awareness of the climate emergency and how a restructure of our garden habits and greening our living