Garden Settings Make Strong Statements for Summer 2017

    CHICAGO, IL, May 24, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- After a frigid winter, spring is here. Topiarius, a leading urban gardening and landscape design firm, has revealed its top summer garden and landscaping trends for 2017. Leading the way is free-form decks, tech for the garden, and miniature plants.

Garden is Second Nature
After years of modern and clean looking gardens, people are beginning to lean toward creating more natural looking spaces. Rather than clean, sharp lines throughout the garden, the trend is now more authentic and a more lived-in look. Things like rope swing seating and free-form decks (decks of random shapes rather than traditional squares and rectangles) are now the talk of the town. Essentially a DIY look to the garden with more natural materials like wood and stone rather than concrete.

Hyperlocal
Hyperlocal marketing, news reporting, and weather forecasts have been a trend for the past couple of years. Fast-forward to 2017 and hyperlocal evolves to include locally grown food. Whether it is growing fruits, vegetables and herbs yourself, or turning to a farmers market, greenhouse or roadside stand, consumers are interested in supporting their local economy. Locally grown food offers a safer food supply chain, are full of flavor and contain high nutrient values. Rather than buy flowers or foods from other regions, why not buy locally grown goods?

Garden Recycling
Repurposing home items for garden decorations and garden art reflects today's trend on saving the environment and eco-friendly designs. Use old knitting needles and scrap yarn to provide temporary fencing around a newly-seeded area, paint tin cans or old tool boxes to use as planters. Make a hole in a plastic bottle, hook it up to a hose and use it as a sprinkler. You can even put old colanders to use as a hanging basket. For those who enjoy composting, household items like food scraps, leaves, grass clippings, garden waste and newspaper create a beneficial soil additive for fertilizer.

Perfect Playrooms
Who said you need a big green lawn just because you're an adult? Rather than having a huge lawn that requires weeding and mowing, wouldn't it be fun to have a volleyball sand court, bocce ball pit, a backyard putting green or sports court? Make your yard a backyard play space for adults that's fun, but promotes well-being. According to research, outdoor play helps adults improves relationships, creativity, and productivity. And, if you have a dog, why not try a fun doggy obstacle course?

Back to the Future
Millennials continue to embrace gardening, sustainability and wellness. Use plants decoratively to create a harmonious, tranquil environment. While container gardening has been popular for a while, millennials want to grow edibles year-round. Herbs like bay, oregano, basil, chives, sage, and rosemary do well in summer weather and will continue to grow near a sunny windowsill. Another trend is using tabletop build kits, indoor lighting, and home hydroponics systems to produce microgreens, medicinal herbs and herbal tea gardens.

Companion Planting
Companion plant combinations, where two or more plants are grown together, have extraordinary powers to help each other grow. While the concept has been around for centuries, companion planting is making a comeback. While some combinations may deter pests, others help gardeners use their space more efficiently. For example, vining plants cover the ground, upright plants grow up, allowing for two plants in the same area. Tall plants provide shade for sun-sensitive shorter plants, while some vegetables are repellent to caterpillars that chew large holes in plant leaves.

Size Isn't Everything
Whether you have a balcony or front porch, miniature gardens are ideal for small areas. Best of all, you don't need to have gardening experience. Plus, you can enjoy them - no matter the season. Miniature gardens typically combine a shallow container with petite plants or dwarf varieties. Miniature gardens can also be themed such as a Southwest, Japanese rock garden or English country garden. Unlike a full-sized garden that can take months of planning and planting, a miniature garden can be assembled in 15 minutes. And, miniature plants are not only great in containers or trays, but dwarf shrubs are perfect for small backyards and gardens. Shrubs like the Little Ragu Bay, dwarf boxwoods or the dwarf lilac tree are perfect for small yards that could use a splash of color.

Fire and Ice
Fire and water features are the most popular outdoor design elements of the season. Fire pits and fireplace holds countless benefits. Frist, they are a catalyst for good conversation, an excuse to step away from technology and provide an opportunity to cook up treats like s'mores. Waterfalls, water walls, ponds, and fountains also make nice focal points in the garden. Water features help balance outdoor spaces, creating an organic, aesthetic, feel to any landscape.

For more 2017 garden and landscaping trends visit http://www.topiarius.com or @topiarius. To receive tips and best practices, subscribe to Topiarius' newsletter at http://www.topiarius.com/press/newsletters.

About Topiarius
Founded in 2003, Topiariusis a Chicago-based urban gardening and landscape design firm that offers landscape design and care from the construction of hardscapes and planting of softscapes, to regular maintenance, urban farming, and exterior and interior seasonal decorating/planting. Topiarius alsoprovides regularly scheduled floral arrangements and interior plant rotations. For more from Topiarius, follow them on Instagram,TwitterandPinterest, like their page on Facebook.

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