What will your growing space look like in 2025? Every year, the Garden Media Group (GMG) lists trends it predicts will take over in our gardens. We’re all for being unique and doing your own thing, but we also like where the next 12 months are going! GMG predicts we’ll go through a ‘natural renaissance,’ with people recognizing the need for sustainable green spaces everywhere. Indoors, outdoors, in cities, and along roadsides, nature is taking its rightful place at the top of the food chain.
Prediction Track Record
Garden Media Group knows what’s up. Here are a few trends they were bang on about over the years:
So, what do we have on tap for the next year? Here’s what GMG is predicting for our 2025 gardening season.
Reclaiming Urban Spaces
Out with the concrete jungles, we want green rooftops, tiny urban forests, and community garden spaces. The benefits of greening our cities are clear: plants clean the air, help absorb stormwater runoff, and reduce the heat island effect. Growing fruits and veggies in cities reduces food miles and our carbon footprint! We’re especially keen on the tiny forests, also known as Miyawaki forests. This method involves densely planting fast-growing native shrubs and trees in spaces as small as 100 meters squared. The forest matures within about a decade, and despite its small size, it has an enormous impact on the community around it.
Plant Tunes
Check Spotify, and you’ll find hundreds of playlists curated for gardens and houseplants. Studies show that music promotes plant growth, and we can use the help to get the most out of our green little friends. Music also helps humans slow down and relax, so listening to tunes you love in the garden may help you enhance your personal space and mood and better connect with nature.
AI-Generated Gardens
GMG touts artificial intelligence as a way for people to escape the boundaries of reality and experience dreamlike, colorful, and safe environments. People are drawn to unreal gardens, which may result in plant enthusiasts trying to replicate what they’re seeing on a screen in real life. Check out Hitachi Seaside Park’s nemophilia installation as an example. GMG says AI-generated relaxation videos featuring plants are getting millions of views, too.
Lived-In Gardens
We won’t be sad to say goodbye to manicured garden spaces. Today, people want to create gardens that look like they’ve been around for decades. Chaos gardening offers the opportunity to do just that by crowding plants and allowing nature to take its course. Creating layered spaces with perennials and annuals is pleasing to the eye and is exactly what Mother Nature has always intended. Look to a forest for inspiration! Long-blooming, fast-growing native plants are attractive to people and pollinators, along with plant varieties that climb up an archway, trellis, or side of a house. Moss lawns are expected to rise in popularity this year because they offer that ‘established’ look people crave and plenty of environmental benefits, too!
Living Fences
Need some privacy from your neighbors? Looking to block out something ugly next door? GMG predicts people will continue to invest in their outdoor spaces this year and will pay particular attention to creating functional, living fences. These barriers are beautiful and offer all the perks associated with plants. We’re not talking about traditional hedges here. Think layered, biodiverse plantings of native flowers and shrubs. Selecting plants appropriate for your region will ensure longevity, year-round interest, and a safe environment for insects and other critters seeking refuge. If you live in an urban area or rent your space, you can achieve the same effect with a living fence made with a container garden!
Foraging
Amateur foragers build their bouquets with flowers from the gardens, using unlikely combinations of blooms to create stunning designs. I recently created a vase of flowers that includes dried hydrangea, blueberry branches, and plumes of Karl Foerster grasses. It looks incredible, and it’s unique to my landscape! Boutique flower farms are on the rise, and more U-Pick options are available as people look to engage with their local communities and the environment to boost their well-being. People also want to source wild foods like mushrooms, dandelions, and other edible weeds. Expect more classes and resources on forging safely, ethically, and responsibly.
Eclectic Houseplants
Like fashion, houseplants come in and out of style. In 2025, GMG predicts that plants with cutouts in their foliage will continue to do well. The report says searches for Monstera have jumped 600% on Google Trends as people look to make a statement in their interior living spaces with something unique. Other interesting houseplant choices may include philodendrons, pothos, and umbrella trees.
Color of the Year
Finally, GMG says teal will be the year’s color to reflect gorgeous skies, Caribbean seas, and relaxing moods. Gardeners may brighten their spaces with teal plants like Blue Chalk Stick succulents, Beyond Blue fescue grasses, Allium ceasium Zamin, Brunnera Jack Frost, and more.
There you have it! What trends can you get on board with for 2025?