It’s midsummer: a great time to assess how the major lawn and garden trends, forecast early this year, are playing out. By and large, the year is shaping up much as the trend watchers expected.

 

Here’s a roundup of gardening trends for 2006 and early 2007, as reported by lifestyle and gardening resources:

 

Versatile outdoor living. A love of the outdoors has continued to stimulate people’s desires to transform outdoor spaces into personal places. These places double as retreats and additional living areas; and people are demanding multi-functionality from them. Being outdoors is not just about gardening anymore: it’s also about entertainment and personal style. Homeowners are taking their living outside, and they are buying into trend items to make their outdoor spaces comfortable, personal, and unique.

 

Livable gardens. Homeowners want simple, low maintenance gardens that are easy to intall. They want lots of color; but rather than random riots of different colors, they have gravitated toward groups of similar shades, clustered together.

 

Enhancements. Consumers are buying items that add to the outdoor lifestyle and make it more versatile; like outdoor TV’s, Viking grills, durable furniture, and sophisticated weather-proof audio systems.

 

Smaller spaces. Many new lot sizes are smaller than in years past, and the boom in condo developments means that many gardeners have less space available for their creativity. Many of these small-space and urban homeowners are turning to containers and vertical planning to stretch growing opportunities.

 

Container gardening, 2006-style. Containers are now showing up in beds and borders, as well as on the back porch and patio. Clusters of pots allow homeowners to add splashes of color throughout a landscape. Varied, colorful containers, each planted with a single type of colored or textured plant, are grouped together for interest.

 

Subsurface irrigation. These systems use drip tubes installed below the soil to water plants’ roots. They diminish water waste.

 

More trial and experimentation. Experts advise bold colors against simple, even stark, backgrounds. Vibrant colors—red, purple, gold—are jazzing up the yard. Also, consumers are using plants with great texture and shape.

 

Beautiful-leaf plants. For busy gardeners, plants that are beautiful and easy to grow include those with big, striking, and colorful leaves. These high impact selections bring season-long color to sunny or shady spots.

 

Conscious gardening. Consumers are looking for sustainable gardening principles. They are trying new preventive, rather then chemical, measures. In other countries, like Australia, re-use of “grey” water is more common that in the U.S., but that trend is expected to grow. Water wise landscapes are achieved through plant selection, optimal irrigation, and design: this trend is expected to continue for some years, having outgrown “faddishness.”

 

Fountains. Water gardening declined in 2005, but now is popping up in containers as fountains. Fountains provide sound, motion and water…simply and with less effort and maintenance.

 

Annuals. This year sees a great resurgence of annuals. They are so much more interesting than they used to be.