Every New Year, there are new trends for DIY gardening and landscaping. And 2024 is no different.

Climate change is on everyone’s mind, especially after the USDA’s growing map has changed. This year, eco-anxiety and eco-optimism are two new words you may hear.

For example, Zoomers, ages 18 to 23, experience eco-anxiety, which is a chronic fear of an environmental apocalypse. However, gardeners and DIY homeowners can reframe that fear into eco-optimism, where you commit to doing your part to avoid ecological collapse.

In this blog, you’ll learn more about eco-optimism through

• Sustainable landscaping
• Edimentals in the landscape
• Low-maintenance gardening
• Outdoor living.

Eco-Optimism in Sustainable Landscaping

According to Garden Media’s 2024 Garden Trends Report: Eco-Optimism, 2023 was one of the 10 warmest years, while climate disasters have increased by 50% since 2000.

However, the Garden Trends Report also noted that many Zoomers want to impact the climate positively. Plus, if the world stops releasing greenhouse gases now, in three years, global temperatures will flatten.

While the news sounds dire, you can also have eco-optimism by taking care of your property using sustainable landscaping practices.

According to Landscaping Network, you can employ sustainable landscaping using these ideas:

• Steward water and other natural resources on your property by grouping plants based on their light and watering needs, installing drip irrigation, and building a rain garden to filter excess water.

 

• Take care of the soil in your garden and landscape: compacted soil can lead to erosion and water pollution; compost and other soil amendments relieve compaction.
• Evaluate the plants in your landscape: if you’re looking for a change, keep all native plants, pull out invasive, non-native plants, and replace them with natives and their allies.
• Ensure you aerate your lawn and loosen garden soil with compost and mulch to reduce soil compaction
• Employ electric mowers to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas you emit with each mow
• Reduce landscape and hardscape waste by recycling construction waste, buying the right plants for the right places on your property, and buying local if you can when it comes to hardscaping materials.

Low-Maintenance Gardens Save You Time

Low-maintenance gardens can still be ecologically friendly while saving you time and water. While this may sound counterintuitive, consider having larger garden beds instead of small ones. More extensive beds allow low-maintenance plants to mature and spread out, resulting in less weeding and watering.

FineGardening.com says to allow mature plants to become a benefit rather than trying to control nature by severely pruning or removing the plant from its site.

You’ll find you’ll have less pruning, weeding, and feeding with mature gardens if you use a variety of plants that do well in your region regarding soil and climate adaptability. Plus, you should install only native plants and others that do well in your climate.

You can also have a sustainable garden when you compost dead plant parts, leaves, and grass clippings in a compost bin or chop them into mulch to apply in your vegetable gardens.

While you don’t want to eliminate lawns, you can add more gardens and landscaped beds when you transform a narrow strip of turf into a kitchen garden or a landscaped area with ornamental trees.

Adding Edimentals to Your Landscape: Blending Beauty with Practicality

Did you know you can include edimentals in hanging baskets, planters, and flower beds? Edimentals are herbs, vegetables, and fruits that look great in a landscape but can also be used as food.

Here are popular edimentals from a Google search for “popular edimentals for landscaping”:

• Asparagus develops lacy fernlike leaves after the vegetable is cut
• Blackberries and blueberries provide colorful foliage in the spring, summer, and fall. Plus, the blossoms and fruit add texture and easy snacking

• Chard, as in Swiss Chard, has colorful stems in bright red and yellow with yellow-green foliage. Chard does well in spring and fall when temperatures are cooler. You can cook chard or add it to salads
• Fruit trees, including apple, cherry, citrus, and peach trees, add colorful blossoms, invite pollinators, and provide joy in growing your fruit
• Herbs, such as lavender, lovage, and rosemary, add color and texture to your landscaped beds or flower gardens and invite pollinators.

Outdoor Living Spaces – What’s Trending in 2024

Even though the Covid pandemic ended in 2023, people still want their outdoor space to be their go-to place for relaxing and entertaining. While inflation may be softening, homeowners are still taking staycations and even celebrating life milestones in their backyards, including

• Baby and bridal showers
• Family reunions
• Graduation parties
• Retirement parties
• Weddings.

The 2024 season will also see more trends supporting the outdoor destination space and maximizing backyard living.  

The National Association for Landscape Professionals (NALP) is one of the best places to learn about 2024 landscaping trends. Here’s what the article, Landscape Design Trends for 2024,reported about this year’s outdoor spaces:

• Designing and building outdoor kitchens with appliances, fire pits, gathering spaces, and pergolas will continue in 2024.
• Adding spa and pool combinations will continue to be popular.
• Building roofed structures so homeowners can use their outdoor destination for most of the year.
• Designing long-term projects that won’t be used regularly except for special occasions, such as family reunions, graduations, retirement parties, and weddings. These designs might not be built immediately but are part of the master landscape plan.
• Installing health and wellness spaces for yoga, cold plunge areas, and other wellness practices.
• Incorporating healing gardens to reduce depression and anxiety.
• Replacing turf with fake grass for putting greens, low-maintenance play areas, and shady areas where natural turf doesn’t grow well.
• Renovating dated landscapes, especially those gardens and beds designed in the 1980s.

Go Green to Save Green and Incorporate 2024 Landscaping Trends

This year will see much of the same as 2023, with continued sustainable gardening and landscaping, incorporating eco-optimism rather than giving into eco-anxiety.

New gardening trends include pulling up non-native plants and replacing them with more native plants and their allies, adding edimentals in your gardens and landscapes, and creating designs for special occasion events in your master landscape plan.

K-Rain Sprinkler Systems Help You Reduce Water Usage and Save Money on Water Bills

If you want to reduce your water consumption to follow your municipality’s water rules and save money on your water bills, you need K-Rain Sprinkler Systems.

Our sprinklers, drip irrigation, and tree bubblers conserve water by efficiently irrigating your lawn, landscapes, and gardens. Our Pro-S sprays with pressure regulation are EPA WaterSense certified for homeowners with water restrictions and meet state regulations.

Need irrigation around your shrubs and trees or in your garden? Then, you need K-Rain’s drip irrigation kit and tree bubblers to reduce water waste and provide moisture at the roots where it’s needed most.

Get your K-Rain sprinklers at our online store, or buy K-Rain products at The Home Depot and Lowe's for easy shopping.

Would you prefer a landscape contractor to design and install your sprinkler system? Find a contractor in your area on our website.

For assistance with K-Rain irrigation products, contact our customer service team at 800-735-7246 or email us at customerservice@krain.com.

Sources:
ArborDayBlog.org, Top 10 Fruit Trees to Add to Your Yard in 2023.
Blog.LandscapeProfessionals.org, Landscape Design Trends for 2024.
FineGardening.com, Creating a Low-Maintenance Garden.
GardenDesign.com, 2024 Trends in Garden Design.
Garden Media, 2024 Garden Trends Report: Eco-Optimism.
LandscapingNetwork.com, Principles of Sustainable Landscaping.
PlantHardiness.ars.usda.gov, 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.