Garden Design Trends for 2024

Chelsea Gold Medalist Tony Woods offers insight into the Garden Design Trends to watch out for in 2024

The Aesthetic

Garden design trends in 2024 we will see more of – Think refined Mediterranean meets a weekend in the Cotswolds. Whispy, wirey, semi-wild Mediterranean vibes in the planting and soft biscuit neutrals in hard materials where textural contrast is king amongst the designers. The ultra-crisp satisfaction of ‘stackers’ – the successor to the Dutch clay brick trend now provides the ability for landscapers to have engineered perfection in laying patterns with the slightest tumbled and textures edges and surfaces. Widely available in sandstone and limestone, these products have quickly become best sellers for many landscape suppliers and are in most drawing packs our for tender in 2024.

These will be married with swathes of gravel and stepping stones – it’s not an eco-alternative to artificial grass for sure but it does help mitigate some excess rainfall and allow self-seeding of grasses and perennials.

The Big Ticket Items

With hybrid working very much the norm now, garden studios are becoming an essential element of many gardens and do make the most of often unused shady areas of the garden. A huge range of architect designed pods, studios and cabins are available with many new designs for 2024. We are also seeing a trend towards making garden studios into more of an ‘escape’ to chill and read or to have a sleepover for those that are less used for working from home for clients returning to the office. A typical starting point for a garden cabin is £30k plus prep, base etc.

The Tech

Robo mowers could be the saviour of real grass! As the growing revolt against artificial grass grows, the big question – what is the best alternative? Well it could well be real grass with a well installed robotic mower. How will this help take away some of the reasons went for real grass? Regular mowing produces what is called a thicker ‘sword’ which is ultimately a thicker, greener lawn that is more tolerant to heavy traffic and when cut on a higher setting less frequently will be more drought tolerant in hot summer months.

Controlling garden lighting and irrigation from your phone is also becoming easier and the market is seeing a surge in brands vastly improving their offer to integrate home and garden lighting and water management.

The Plants

Being self-sufficient in even the smallest of ways continues to be a growing theme with planting design. The environmental benefits of being able to grow even just a couple of bunches of home-grown flowers or enough tomatoes for a salad to remember along with the satisfaction and self-achievement are an investment of time many of our clients and colleagues are keen to develop.

Annuals such as Sweet Peas and Zinnias continue their rise in popularity and are easy to grow in most gardens. Dahlias are still growing in popularity however like most trends they are heading in a more naturalistic direction with looser blooms in pale shades winning the race for early sales.

Amelanchier often used for its multi-stemmed form will dwindle out of fashion with more inspired planting designers, particularly in urban gardens where it has continued to struggle with mildew and rust. Betula Nigra and natural forms of Olive continue to be popular trees that appeal to a broad range of styles and aesthetics.