Landscaping Design Trends of 2022

Landscaping is hot, as homeowners crave comfortable outdoor retreats for entertaining and stress relief. Here are seven landscape trends to watch.

Landscaping Trend: Supporting Wildlife and Native Plants

Homeowners are paying more attention to landscaping for wildlife, which includes birds as well as bees, butterflies and small critters. In 2020, 67.2 million households purchased at least one plant because it benefitted pollinators or birds, according to the Garden Trends Report.

Native plants are continuing to catch on as homeowners realize they’re beneficial to wildlife and more resilient to erratic weather. In support of this, the National Wildlife Federation launched a Garden for Wildlife collection of native plants intended to attract beneficial insects that feed most bird species.

Landscaping Trend: Growing Food

Another offshoot of the pandemic: The increased desire among homeowners to grow more of their own food. Vegetable gardens are becoming a more common site in the landscape.

While edibles are sometimes combined with ornamentals in front-yard gardens, more often than not they’re self-contained in raised beds in the backyard. With raised beds, homeowners avoid dealing with deficient or poor-draining soil in their yard.

Landscaping Trend: Bringing the Indoors Out

The longer people remain home, the more they want to spruce up their house and landscape, says the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) in its Landscape and Industry Trends for 2022.

“I think there’s a new realization of how people interact,” Miles Kuperus, Jr., LIC, owner of Farmside Landscape & Design in Sussex, New Jersey, tells the NALP. “They want to be home and minimize their exposure and enjoy the people they have on their property.”

Outdoor kitchens, pavilions, pergolas, outdoor fireplaces and fire pits are all expected to remain popular as homeowners seek a seamless transition from the home to the yard. Some of these outdoor living spaces can be extravagant, with popular features like outdoor televisions, refrigerators and full kitchens.

Landscaping Trend: Accessorizing to Extend the Season

People are finding ways to extend the outdoor season to take greater advantage of these more elaborate spaces. “The longer through the year a customer can use their outdoor space, the better,” Tony Nasrallah, president and founder of Ground Works Land Design in Cleveland, Ohio, tells the NALP.

To accomplish that, Nasrallah noted more widespread use of space heaters and motorized shades to shelter the tops and sides of garden pavilions in outdoor seating areas. Landscape designs are increasingly incorporating accessories like these to make homeowners more comfortable deeper into fall and winter.

Garden Trends to Embrace in 2022 (House Beautiful)

While 2021 was the period of experimental gardening, some of the biggest garden trends to emerge in 2022 will include a return to bolder, colourful planting choices, natural wildlife gardens, mini growhouses, boutique hotel-style features and the concept of all-weather gardening, all of which ties into two common themes this year – wellbeing and sustainability.

'Home horticulture will never be the same again,' says Guy Barter, RHS Chief Horticulturist – and he's right. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, our gardens have truly become our sanctuaries. Wellbeing benefits provide comfort in uncertain times and the extra time spent at home has enabled us to tend to our plants like never before, grow vegetables, fill plots with pollinator-friendly plants, and design outdoor living rooms that provide a place to retreat.

An overarching theme in 2022 will be a renewed emphasis on planet-friendly gardening, as gardeners seek to adopt new habits that can impact the planet positively, from an increased demand for pollinator-friendly plants to demand for peat-free compost. The UK's gardeners will draw on quick fixes where necessary but work to 'ensure their plots are planet-friendly and an inspiring place to work and play', says Guy.

1. Jewel-colored Gardens

Experimenting with color is one of the most exciting things about creating a planting palette for a new garden, and daring, bold colors of reds, oranges and purples with crocosmia, salvia and canna are set to prove popular in 2022, the RHS predicts. This color trend is also reflected in new releases from growers such as everlasting flower 'Granvia Gold' and echinacea 'SunMagic' series.

2. Rewilding

The immersive, natural, wildlife garden will be big in 2022 but it hasn't always been viewed as a must-have design element. 'Upcycling and rewilding can be misleading in terms of aesthetics and for most clients a garden's aesthetic is a priority,' notes Andrew Duff.

Ann-Marie Powell says her studio is receiving lots more enquiries from clients wanting natural, loose gardens, predicting that 'nature-scaping' and 'curated wildling' will be the buzz words of 2022. 'People want gardens that look like they are "of nature" rather than the more obviously designed spaces,' she explains.

3. Spotlight on aster

One plant that is flying off the shelves is aster,' says Shannen Godwin. 'The bright, mood-boosting flowers have been popular for wellbeing-focused gardens, but they also offer air-purifying benefits and provide bio-indication when there are pollutants around.'

Other plants with air-purifying benefits set to be big in 2022 include ivy and lady's mantle.

Winter Landscape Ideas

Want to know how you can welcome the arrival of fall frosts with anticipation? Assemble a winter landscape that not only boasts beauty, but also demands a little attention. It will keep your green thumb happily busy as you cultivate winter plants and shrubs. If you’re a diehard lawn ranger, you can even tackle a little winter lawn care. Winter landscapes offer plenty of opportunities to bundle up and get out and garden.

Stock your yard with winter plants to ensure a year-round outdoor show. These plants fill a winter landscape with color, textural interest and sculptural beauty. Some offer traits that are subtle; others have in-your-face attributes that command attention. Count on evergreens to provide the backbone to your winter landscape with their strong, steady color. In addition to evergreens, fill your winter landscape with eye-catching trees. Coral bark Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’) and Japanese flowering cherry (Prunus x yedoensis) feature winter interest with colorful bark. Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) and Chinese or lacebark elm (Ulmus parvifolia) have exfoliating bark that creates intricate color patterns on their trunks. You can also draft winter shrubs to infuse frosty scenes with cheery colors. Include hollies in your winter landscape for their evergreen leaves and brightly tinted berries. Variegated holly stands out when planted with other evergreens and can lend pretty prunings for use in winter floral arrangements. You’ll also want to plant several winter berry hollies (Ilex verticillata) to ensure you have plenty of berry-bedecked branches to enhance holiday décor. Another fabulous shrub to use in gracing winter bouquets is Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). The twisted, gnarled stems on this shrub are beautiful when displayed against a blanket of winter snow. Red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea ‘Cardinal’) also sparkles against a backdrop of snow, which makes the red stems shine.

Winter lawn care isn’t too demanding, but you can find some chores to tackle, even in snowy regions. For instance, you can patrol to ensure no one drives on the lawn, possibly killing grass crowns and creating bare spots. You can also make sure you don’t accidentally toss salt-laden ice melt onto lawn areas beside walks and drives. The high salt content can harm grass and lead to bare spots. In mild winter regions, warm-season lawns can trade post-frost beige for green when you plant winter grass, a type of ryegrass. By overseeding in fall with ryegrass, you can have a green and growing lawn to tend all winter long, including mowing and watering. If you opt not to overseed, use the lawn’s downtime to spotlight winter weeds. These green interlopers show up easily in a beige lawn, providing the perfect opportunity for herbicide spot treatments. A well-designed winter landscape showcases strong lines during the garden’s quiet season. Inspect your own yard from several points indoors. Notice where the landscape lacks focus or eye-directing lines. Make notes of areas where you need to create winter interest. You may need to add a hedge, a specimen plant or an attention-grabbing piece of garden art.