Garden and Outdoor Living Trends 2025

Guest Blog: Melanie Taylor from Hazelwood Plantscapes

 

Newmarket-based garden designer Melanie Taylor is a gardening columnist for Velvet Magazine – the regional magazine of the year at the National Newspaper Awards 2024. She is an RHS qualified horticulturalist and built her debut show garden, a Countryside Border at the Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show in 2023 based on the native flora and fauna of the Vale of Belvoir. Reach out to Melanie via the contact form on her website, www.hazelwoodplantscapes.co.uk

 

As Autumn arrives and temperatures drop, we turn our thoughts to next year’s garden and outdoor living trends, some of which will translate from the ‘en vogue’ ideas seen at this year’s RHS Chelsea into domestic gardens next Spring.

 

Bold injections of colour

Caption: RHS Chelsea 2024 – RHS Britain in Bloom 60th Anniversary - The Friendship Garden by Jon and James Wheatley. Credit: Melanie Taylor Hazelwood Plantscapes. 

 

Scanning the interiors look books for 2025, it’s clear our indoor spaces are getting a bold colour makeover, which is likely to be replicated outside. Today 10th September, Dulux have announced their Colour of the Year for 2025 and it’s True Joy – an energetic, uplifting yellow which provides ample opportunities for co-ordinating furniture, awnings, soft furnishings, and planting. Gardeners will be thinking about colour, and the mood they want to evoke in different parts of the garden. A ‘hot border’ of vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows using plants like Kniphofia (red hot pokers) alongside Crocosmia and Rudbeckia stimulates the senses and can feel like a warm welcome or instant ‘pick me up.’ Sunflowers are the very essence of sunshine distilled into a seed. The perennial sunflower, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ is a good choice for long-lasting sunny borders - a great way to incorporate some ‘True Joy’ in the garden itself.

 

And in 2025 we’ll be seeing more colour in hardscaping as well as planting. For inspiration, gardeners can look back to Manoj Malde’s RHS and Eastern Eye Garden of Unity at Chelsea 2023. Manoj’s vibrant orange and pink colour palette was inspired by his Indian heritage and used on the fences, pergola, and Indian artisan soft furnishings to unify the scheme and signify the inclusivity of gardening being for everyone.

 

Caption: RHS Chelsea 2023 - The RHS and Eastern Eye Garden of Unity designed by Manoj Malde. Credit: RHS / Tim Sandall

 

Biophilic design and curated houseplant collections providing ecotherapy indoors and out

Caption: RHS Chelsea 2024 – The Ecotherapy Garden by Tom Bannister Studio. Credit: Melanie Taylor Hazelwood Plantscapes.

Having originated in the 1980’s, the concept of biophilic design isn’t new, but we’re continuing to bring the outdoors in to increase our connections with the natural world and satisfy our innate desire to surround ourselves with greenery and nature. Celebrated US journalist and author, Richard Louv has long espoused the need to get more Vitamin N (for nature) into our lives. Since Covid-19, greater awareness of the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening, green spaces, and the calming power of plants has led to a surge in people gardening. According to mental health charity Mind, more than 7 million people have taken up gardening since the pandemic – a surge of new consumers for the horticultural and leisure industry. At Chelsea this year, Tom Bannister’s Ecotherapy Garden was designed as a ‘calming, nature-wrapped retreat.’ This trend for plants and shrubs that create a cocooning effect of wellness can be replicated indoors through curating our houseplants into collections rather than single specimens to give a sense of being enveloped in a big green hug. The Houseplant Studios at Chelsea this year were stunning. The design team from In the Garden showcased their design titled ‘Maximalist Verdure – Indoor Gardening in Small Spaces’ that was ‘influenced by Victorian trendsetters to create a maximalist layered indoor landscape, reusing past and treasured vessels such as cabinets to create indoor container gardens.’ In 2023, the Garden Museum’s Cabinet Cultures exhibition of houseplants in Ikea cabinets repurposed as indoor greenhouses, explored the value of the relationship between people and houseplants. Tapping into social media hacks, this is a trend that is easy to upcycle and recreate at home. Consumers want to celebrate the beauty of houseplants and are choosing those with unusual foliage like the bold leaves on one of the Proven Winners 2025 Top Picks, Space Age ‘Europa’ Begonia rex whose striking black and purple rimmed leaves provide interest all season.

 

Resilient design and smart solutions to mitigate climate change

Being increasingly concerned about climate change, consumers are looking for ways to incorporate clever water saving solutions into domestic gardens. The Water Saving Garden sponsored by Affinity Water, showcased innovative sustainable ideas for rainwater harvesting and efficient watering. The sleek blue water butts and fibreglass planters contained smart technology rainwater sensors which switched off the automated flow of water into the planter reservoirs preventing overflow and giving homeowners an efficient yet stylish solution.

Caption: Stylish contemporary water butt and rain chains in the RHS Chelsea 2024 – The Water Saving Garden designed by Sam Proctor and sponsored by Affinity Water. Credit: Melanie Taylor Hazelwood Plantscapes

Caption: RHS Chelsea 2024 – The Flood Re Flood Resilient Garden by Naomi Slade and Dr Ed Barsley. Credit: Melanie Taylor Hazelwood Plantscapes

 

Another popular RHS Chelsea garden was ‘The Flood Re – Flood Resilient Garden’ by Naomi Slade and Dr Ed Barsley, designed to showcase how a garden can adapt to the challenges of heavy rainfall and surface water flooding. It featured a swale that channelled rainwater into a feature pond and innovative tanks doubling as ornamental pools, using smart technology to discharge the reserved water ahead of more rainfall. Dense planting throughout the garden also slowed the flow of rainwater.

 

 

The rise of smart tech

Many consumers are already enjoying smart home technology and the natural extension of this is to take it out into the garden. Consumers expect app-controlled technology to be available for audio, heating, lighting, irrigation, monitors, sensors and even tech integrated furniture to enhance their outdoor experience. With people enjoying the labour-saving benefits of robotic vacuum cleaners indoors, they will turn to robotic lawnmowers like Gardena’s Sileno models to maximise the efficient use of their time outdoors.

 

Caption: RHS Chelsea 2024 – Armadillo Sun trade stand. Credit: Melanie Taylor Hazelwood Plantscapes

Living outside – the growth of outdoor rooms Since the pandemic, the popularity of outdoor rooms continues to rise with more people entertaining and hosting outside. BBQ areas have turned into fully functioning outdoor kitchens and this trend for outdoor living looks set to increase in 2025 with more internal features – including outdoor showers, being built outside. Consumers increasingly want modular furniture and multi-functional pieces to satisfy their needs for greater flexibility, comfort, and value from their outdoor furniture. For many their gardens are a reflection of their personal style and taste. With more customers opting to purchase garden furniture online, the ability to further customize their options such as choosing fabrics and finishes will increasingly become a differentiator for manufacturers and suppliers in 2025.   Eco-consciousness drives sustainable purchasing decisions Outside of the shows, I’m seeing a lot of sustainable materials in the gardens I write about. A sense of eco-consciousness is driving design choices with the use of natural, sustainable, environmentally friendly materials rather than synthetic ones. Take this Arts and Crafts inspired, hand-crafted bench in the Four Seasons Garden at Newnham College, Cambridge. Those companies which can demonstrate sustainable sourcing, eco-friendly processes and working practices will be top of mind when it comes to consumer and organisational purchasing decisions in future.