Fashion Victims

A Frozen Start

Well with the weather reverting back to winter it has been all systems stop in the frozen garden here. Siberian then Arctic winds, snow, sleet hail, frost and sunshine all in one week! Wildlife doesn't know whether to start nesting or hibernate. Today I drove part of the way to work on frozen snow covered lanes, came home in glorious sunshine. Next week apparantly it is a return to milder but wetter weather, for a few days anyway.

I have been looking at the trends in gardening for this year, for those fashionistas who see gardens as something which has to be changed like a wardrobe of clothes. We can easily ring the changes with annuals, providing your local garden centre follows trends – most of them seem to follow tradition. I tend to think of an ornamental garden as something more long term, allowing shrubs, trees and perennials to settle and establish themselves not be uprooted just because they have become last year's fashion.

Brave Little Dafs

I saw somewhere that Tree Lillies are fashionable this year, providing you can give them the warmth and shelter they need. As they are perennials will they survive or even be in fashion next year? According to one webpage 'Bright Jewel' colours will be in fashion – a great relief for flowers, heaven help us when beige flowers are invented!

Fashionable Jewel colour?

Last year apparently saw an upturn in the popularity of wildflower meadows and this trend is set to continue as part of the general trend for wildlife gardening. This would also tie in with two other trends; one for more naturalistic and native planting schemes. Naturalistic is a bit of a misnomer isn't it, they need to be managed as much as any other style of gardening otherwise it is just an unruly mess. Planting with native plants better able to cope with our bizarre climate is a better idea, less of those fussy, tender, demanding foreign plants will make life a bit easier. With this trend in mind the people at Miracle Gro have come up with a great idea, a variation on their 'Patch Magic' lawn seed this is Flower Magic. In a plastic container they have mixed flower seeds with coir compost and plant food. All you do is prepare a bare patch of earth and scatter it on, hey presto a flower meadow, or if you prefer colour co-ordinated flowers they do pinks or blue and white mixes. I like the sound of it – the garden anarchist in me can see it being used all over the place – writing messages on lawns, or in fields, or creating a piece of art visible from the air!

No way, not even indoors

The other trend is for tactile gardens which encourage us to 'engage with our gardens' and not just walk through them. Engaging with my garden usually means getting down on my knees and weeding – cant get much more engaged than that! I read that there is set to be a rise in the use of 'tactile trees and shrubs' – does that mean getting groped by a Garrya or fondled by a Fagus?!! Perhaps I'll plant a tactile tree and see what happens.

As is often the way when in recession people become nostalgic and this will be reflected in a trend for Victorian styled pots, planters, cloches etc. If people can't afford new nostalgia then recycling will become more popular with all sorts of thing being turned into planters, ornaments, seating, decorations and anything else that they want to make the garden look like an artistic scrapyard.

Shock the neighbours

The grow your own movement may well suffer a wobble, some are predicting an increase in GYO because of hard times. Whilst others are saying it may decrease because of last years dreadful summer and so many failed crops will put off novice growers. An interesting thought is that people will start to grow edible hedges due to foraging becoming trendy. Great for the birds if the hedges are left when that fashion fades.

Stylish recycling

I have never really followed any fashions, I very much doubt I will be jumping on the trendy gardening band wagon. No trees covered in old cutlery masquerading as art, no old toilets used as quirky planters, and we won't be having a fire place installed in the garden either! (supposedly big in outdoor living this year) Non tactile shrubs wont be uprooted in favour of more sensual ones. Bright coloured flowers will not be replaced by jewel coloured ones – hold on aren't they the same?! No I'll just do my own thing as usual.