Hot Gardening Trends for 2016: January Resolutions, February Forecasts

Summary: Hot gardening trends for 2016 rely upon follow-through on January resolutions and attention to February forecasts to achieve backyard boldness.

Popular with foodies, 'Little Gem' lettuce numbers among 2016's hot gardening trends and flourishes in gardens, from in-ground to in-container; 'Little Gem' lettuce from Redwood Roots Farm, Bayside, California: Bob Doran, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Hot gardening trends advise greener shrubs, longer blooms, pluckier succulents, shadier trees, smaller vegetables and warmer grasses in drier, hotter 2016.

February acts as the last chance in the winter season for gardeners to adjust to hot gardening trends for 2016 the New Year’s resolutions that are made at the beginning of January.

The phrase “hot gardening trends” becomes a prescient play on words in an article published way back on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, in The Vancouver Sun. Steve Whysall, In the Garden columnist for The Vancouver Sun in British Columbia, Canada, considers plants that endear themselves to gardeners and that endure environmental stress. Plants that meet the requirements of deer resistance, drought tolerance, heat sturdiness and low maintenance drive selection of edibles, grasses, herbs, ornamentals, shrubs, succulents and trees.

Chemical-free, children-safe, organic, people-friendly, pet-safe, wildlife-friendly “back-to-the-earth” functionality, backyard boldness, edible gardening and “syncing” NaTECHure explain 2016’s trends.

Hot gardening trends toward artificial turf, succulent mats and plants and warm-season grasses follow predictions of dry summers, persistent droughts, prolonged heat waves and water restrictions.

Drought and rationed water get in the way of microscopic, moisture-loving nematodes controlling chafer grubs whose tastiness inspires crows, raccoons and skunks to rip up lawns. Succulent mats handle “hot spots” that get attention and heat while functioning as carpets on green roofs, frames on living walls and low-lying covers on grounds. Succulents that are expected to “see a bump in sales” along with warm-season grasses include container-friendly aeonium and echeveria as well as windmill palms and yuccas.

Artificial turf joins gravel and pavement to offer no-maintenance, pathogen-free, pest-free alternatives to chafer grub-, crow-, raccoon- and skunk-riddled lawns.

Dwarf conifers, evergreen shrubs and shade trees keep suburban and urban ecosystems healthy by reducing soil erosion, regulating evapotranspiration losses, releasing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide.

Vancouver officials look forward to governing “one of the world’s greenest cities” by requiring “homeowners to join the quest by planting more trees on their property.” But “young trees during their early months in the ground” must be “carefully protected and watered to allow them to get their roots well-established” by summertime.

Formal evergreen planting schemes with azaleas, boxwood, choisya, rhododendrons, sarcococca and skimmia need to accommodate equally elegant, equally formal French-style potage vegetable gardens with wattle fencing.

Hot gardening trends also organize nesting boxes for bats, bees, birds and butterflies and for planter boxes with water reservoirs.

Hot gardening trends predict high-volume sales of bright-colored, midsummer- through autumn-flowering dahlias and deer-resistant, drought-tolerant ‘Bowl of Beauty,’ ‘Coral Sunset,’ ‘Gay Paree’ and ‘Rubra Plena’ peonies. Container-grown fruits, miniature vegetables such as Little Gem lettuce and upside-down-grown herbs in hang-baskets qualify with heat-loving cucumbers, eggplants, peppers and tomatoes as edible gardening’s big-sellers.

Susan McCoy, president of the trend-spotting Garden Media Group in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, reveals that hot gardening trends turn 2016 into the year of “back-to-the-earth” functionality. Her group’s annual Trend Reports suggest that hot gardening trends “sync” nature and technology into biodegradable brown-scapes, multi-layered landscapes and screened-in catio-scapes through one-home one-app-connected greenery.

It turns out that nature-guided, technology-driven NaTECHure works even better for gardeners on Earth than for Mark Watney on Mars.

photo by Allen McInnis/Montreal Gazette: Chris James @ChrisJamesLands via Twitter Jan. 9, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

'Little Gem' lettuce: Bob Doran, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/humblog/4936086275

photo by Allen McInnis/Montreal Gazette: Chris James @ChrisJamesLands via Twitter Jan. 9, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/ChrisJamesLands/status/685909918029709312

For further information:

Chris James @ChrisJamesLands. 9 January 2016. "#landscaping In the Garden: Top trends for 2016: Planting more trees, ripping out . . ." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ChrisJamesLands/status/685909918029709312

Scott, Ridley. 2015. The Martian. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

“Syncing with Nature.” Garden Media Group > Images > Trends.
Available @ http://www.gardenmediagroup.com/images/Trends/2016%20Trends%20-%20Cultivate%20Version.pdf

Weir, Andy. 2014. The Martian: A Novel. New York NY: Crown Publishing Group.

Whysall, Steve. “Hot Gardening Trends for 2016.” The Vancouver Sun Opinion > Life > Gardening > IN THE GARDEN.
Available @ http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2016/01/01/hot-gardening-trends-for-2016/