During the coronavirus crisis, restrictions mean more people meeting in gardens. This has led to a surge in sales of outdoor heating (up to 400% up) and lighting, barbecues and outdoor kitchens, garden furniture and home office building.
Other trends in garden design include rewilding and greener re-use of materials for land sculpting in garden projects, a move identified by Cleve West.
Bowles & Wyer sees workplace owners investing in green spaces around their buildings (on roofs, balconies and in communal areas) to create biophilic environments with grow your own areas, relaxed seating and yoga areas at the workplace which may tempt workers back to their offices.
Fisher Tomlin says wilderness gardening will grow and we should be leaving at least 10% of a garden to it’s own as a way of balancing residential client needs with helping wildlife. Also, simple design interventions will become more popular - especially low-cost solutions as people watch their budgets. From a design view this could mean changing maintenance of lawns to cut socially distanced picnic spaces in publicly accessed gardens. From a gardener and designer view it will mean smaller plants.
The RHS says health and wellbeing and international gardens will be big at Chelsea in 2021 with a new category in response to garden's beneficial impact during the coronavirus crisis.
Top 50:
Kim Wilkie Sarah Price Sarah Eberle Dan Pearson Piet Oudolf
Andrew Fisher Tomlin and Dan Bowyer
Isabel and Julian Bannerman
Michael Balston and Marie Agius
Robert Myers Hugo Bugg/Charlotte Harris Juliet Sargeant Adam Frost Chris Beardshaw Mark Gregory Kate Gould
Tony Heywood and Alison Condie
Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam
Daryl Moore/Adolfo Harrison
Debbie Roberts and Ian Smith - Acres Wild
Emma Mazzullo and Libby Russell
Ian Kitson
Pip Morrison
Tommaso Del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz
