This is the season when we are given predictions of what will be the top trending features for gardeners over the coming twelve months. The trends described below are not concerned with colors or plant varieties, but are more general themes involving the way we treat our gardens. These four garden trends for 2018 are described in an article by Amanda and come from the American Meadows website.

With a year of conferences, tests, trials and garden visits under our belts, we?re excited to tell you about the big ideas we think will be influencing the gardening world in the months ahead.

2018 Garden Trends: Containers

Container gardening isn?t exactly new, but we feel confident that it?s about to get a whole lot trendier! With populations set to rise only in cities over the next 30 years and homes already being built smaller, more and more people will choose to do their gardening in pots.
Two big populations ? millennials and retirees ? are more frequently living in smaller spaces. Growers are keeping up with this trend by hybridizing favorite varieties into dwarfs, meaning that they’re saving everything you love about these flowers, but breeding them to be much shorter. Some of our favorites are Compact Lavender, Dwarf Cosmos, and Dwarf Pampas Grass. If there?s a plant that you love, chances are you can find a dwarf variety of it!

Containers are a way for those living with small outdoor spaces (balconies included!) to create an oasis for pollinators in areas where they often need it most. It?s also a fantastic way for home gardeners to grow their own food ? there are plenty of new dwarf vegetable varieties to choose from, as well.
Even for those with larger gardens to tend to, containers are an increasingly-popular way to dress up porches, patios, window boxes and entryways – or to create a low-commitment color combination that be changed up from year to year (or even from season to season). We?re excited to see what unique and fun container gardens come to life in 2018.

See more at American Meadows