Garden Trends – 20 for the 20s

It’s that time of year…

Chances are you’re starting to think about your garden. If you’re not sure where to take it we thought that with the start of a new decade it would be fun to have a go at predicting some of the garden trends and practices we’d expect to be seeing over the next decade. It might help inform some of the decisions you make in your own garden. So, in no particular order here are our 20 for the 20’s…

Purposeful. Gardens will be more than something to look at and enjoy; we think they will be increasingly designed and built to achieve things too. So, for instance, they might be helping to manage rain water within your property, or boosting wildlife habitat, etc.
Wildlife. We’d expect to see a more relaxed style to our gardens as supporting wildlife becomes ever more important. Increasing development plans brings with it decreasing wildlife habitat and we expect to see more and more people want to do more for our beleaguered wildlife.
GYO. As plant based diets, increasing food costs and the need to know where our food comes from continue to surge we’d expect to see more people growing their own.
Indoor. Houseplants sales have been a growing trend over the last few years and we’d expect that trend to continue, driven mainly by increasing urbanisation, pollution and lack of access to nature.
Containers. With increasing numbers of renters and gardens getting smaller and smaller container gardening is likely to make a big step forward as a portable, viable option for many dealing with little or no-soil spaces.
Vertical. We’d expect to see many more living walls appear driven mainly by lack of space and a changing climate.
Green roofs. Currently concentrated around London, Birmingham and Manchester we’d expect to see green roofs more widely spread around the UK. The benefits of them far outweigh any negatives.
Low maintenance. While we see the drivers behind people’s decisions about their gardens changing, time-poor people generally want to enjoy their gardens rather than ’maintain’ them.
Technology. Where there’s a will there’s usually an app for it! We expect the use of tech in the garden to grow over the next decade.
Sustainable choices. As awareness of the climate crisis grows we expect growing consumer demand for more sustainable options to elicit significant changes in garden related markets.
Soil. We expect to see soil care taking centre stage in gardens with no-dig outweighing dig methods, home composts and green manures being increasingly used.
Composting. We expect to see increasing numbers of people home composting driven by soil and waste awareness, and economics.
Organic. The organic market has seen consistent steady growth over the last six years and we expect to see that trend continuing through the next decade.
Plastic. Worth a mention of its own, the plastics battle is likely to rage throughout the 20s and beyond. In the design and gardening fields we expect to see a major shift in demand to natural and plastic-free materials.
RRR. We expect to see a buoyant reclamation sector emerge around the landscaping industry as people’s desire to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle materials grows. On more individual levels we expect to see a growing trend for personal upcycling/repurposing garden projects.
Water management. Future predictions for the UK weather points to hotter, drier summers and much wetter, warmer winters so water management is likely to play an increasingly important part of our garden planning.
Adaptive planting. Increasingly our plants need to cope with significant weather events so we expect to see more adaptive planting styles coming to the fore. Plants are likely to be chosen more for their adaptability than their looks.
Trees, shrubs & hedges. With their superior ability to help mitigate flooding, reduce temperature and support wildlife we expect to see a resurgence of tree, shrub and hedge planting across UK gardens.
Plant biosecurity. Increasing awareness of the potential import of foreign pests and diseases into our fragile eco-system will see the demand for reputable plant suppliers rise. However, with new customs practices and probable rise in plant costs we also wouldn’t be surprised to see a rise in black market plant sales potentially bypassing the plant passport system.
British grown. Linked to the above we expect to see a big rise in the use of British grown plants.

Pledge for Pollinators

Pledge for Pollinators

Here at Blue Daisy we’re really passionate about saving our humble British bumble bee and other pollinating insects like hoverflies, moths and butterflies. The decline in our pollinating insects, especially bees, has been noticed through various studies over the last 50 years or so, the reasons are far reaching but one has been the reduction of our wild-flower meadows through the use of chemicals. Recently it has become a hot topic with many organisations including the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) taking up the mantel led by Sarah Raven, to help gardeners identify the best plants in garden centres. They have introduced a badge called ‘Perfect for Pollinators’ which will be on plant labels in all good garden centres.

Why are we interested in pollinating insects? Well in brief, they transfer the pollen from one flower to the next allowing it to be fertilized, which means it will have the ability to set seed or produce fruits. This is really important for us all, if plants aren’t able to set seed we risk reducing the amount of plants we can have as they could become endangered or extinct. The worst case scenario is that the pollinated flowers don’t turn into fruit which means it could have a huge impact on what we are growing and eating, or not eating as the case may be! The pollination would need to be done by hand, it would be such a laborious task taking so many hours that the products themselves would subsequently be so highly priced the average person in the street may not be able to afford them.

We rely on insects to pollinate apples, raspberries, strawberries, red and blackcurrants, plums and pears so that we may eat and enjoy them. It doesn’t just stop at fruit the bean family i.e. broad beans and runner beans also the marrow and pumpkin family too are pollinated by insects. The value of insect-pollinated fruit and vegetables grown here in the UK is a staggering £220 million every year.*

What can we do? There are so many things that we as garden owners can do to help the bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies. Did you know that the combined area of our gardens is larger than all of our nature reserves combined? It goes without saying if we change but one thing in our garden we are helping the biodiversity for our community which in turn will have a beneficial effect for our diets, also our colour and variety rich gardens. Here are just a few things you can do:

Avoid ‘doubles’ or showy blooms because they have been bred specifically for show, there is either little or no nectar available making it so difficult for the insects to find.
Plant insect friendly plants in a sunny spot clumped together so they can be visited without too much effort of flying a huge way to find a food source
Don't use pesticides
Attract moths by planting nocturnal flowering plants
Leave a small amount of fallen fruit under a tree in the autumn as butterflies feed on the over-ripe juices.
Leave an area in your garden to nature, let the grass and weeds grow a bit longer.
Have clean water available as all insects need to drink, make sure there is a shallow ledge or a few stones in there so they can stand safely whilst drinking.
Consider growing all types of plants from trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals to encourage a wider range of insects to visit your garden.

Here at Blue Daisy this year we will be encouraging our customers to consider the insects in their gardens. We will be advising which plants to buy to extend the pollinating seasons and above all we guarantee that all our planting plans will have pollinator friendly plants incorporated.

Blue Daisy is asking you to consider what you can do to help our insects, asking you to think about what new plants you are buying and making sure that at least 50% of them are pollinator friendly from now on. You don’t have to start from scratch in your garden it’s about being realistic, it’s about understanding what is in your garden now and what you can add to make it more friendly.

From now on please consider our pollinating insects every time you buy new plants for your garden or as presents for friends and relatives. Blue Daisy is a small business but if we and all of our customers, old and new, commit and if we can convince anyone else to along the way, together we will hopefully be starting a wave of change! So please, commit now yourself and use our social media buttons at the bottom of this article to get the message out to others! We really can't afford to lose our pollinators and we CAN do something about it, so please, let's try.

*Source: www.rhs.org.uk

Good Pollinator Plants

The RHS has produced a list of plants that are perfect for pollinators and here are a few of our favourite plants from that list:

Winter:
Sarcococca hookeriana (winter box)
Galanthus nivalis (single snowdrop)

Spring:
Chaenomeles x superba (Japanese quince)
Geranium phaeum (dusky cransebill)
Ribes sanquineum (flowering currant)

Summer:
Buddleja davidii (butterfly bush)
Lavender cultivars
Verbena bonariensis

Autumn:
Anemone hupehensis (Japanese anenome)
Dahlia cultivars (single flowering )

Useful Pollinator Links

Fruitfully Speaking!

Fruitfully Speaking!

Having a productive garden – it’s all the rage, bang on trend and everyone seems to want one. The only thing is no-one seems to have the time to tend one and as much as they’re popular now, they can be time consuming and, for beginners, confusing.

You could start small, think about what you like to eat, (take a look at what is in your fridge right now if you’re short on ideas) and rather than having to think about things like crop rotation if you’re growing vegetables you can grow some in containers instead - but if that’s not for you (and it’s not for everyone) – my advice is to think about fruit. It is generally easier to grow, not as time consuming to look after and the rewards are truly wonderful (as our picture shows!).

There is a lot to be said about fruit, but designing a garden that is both practical and productive whether it is an urban or rural garden, contemporary or traditional it is possible to combine it with fruit. I’m not suggesting that you have a specific fruit growing area but instead that you try and grow your fruit in and around the rest of your plants – incorporate them into the borders and the design. Imagine sitting on your deckchair looking out over the garden - the tall grasses and perennials are swaying gently in the breeze and amongst them your apple and pear trees are in full fruit, the medlars are looking good and the soft fruits are ready for the picking.

Sounds lovely doesn’t it? Well, it is achievable; it’s is all about planning – choosing and positioning plants that look aesthetically right, through texture or height, contrasting with or complementing the leaf and fruit shapes of the chosen varieties you want to grow. Choose accompanying plants that won’t grow too vigorously either – fruits generally like the light so you don’t want their neighbours blocking it out from them and reducing your crops!

Any fruit you grow would certainly reduce ‘fruit miles’ and encourage our native bees and other beneficial insects into your garden which is great for biodiversity. It would also be a talking point for friends and family and above all, its fun to harvest and eat or store your fruit to eat over the winter.

So if you haven’t considered growing fruit before I hope this has convinced some of you to just have a go – it really is great to pick fresh strawberries off the plant!