5 Garden Trends We Love For Spring

Your garden is a place of sanctuary where you go for comfort and serves as an outdoor living area where you welcome guests to share your green space. When you plant your garden, the seed is a metaphor for what you grow and welcome into your life, including joy and comfort with friends and family.

Your decorating aesthetic will differ from others, even outdoors, and that’s what makes your green space yours. These current garden trends will inspire a peaceful, simple ambiance in your outdoor space.

1. Cozy Seating

Outdoor living is looking more and more like an outdoor living room. Rustic porch swings are as charming as ever, but trends are moving toward comfortable and cozy outdoor seating.

Invest in a cozy wicker hanging chair or swing where you can enjoy a glass of wine and a good book, while taking in the sweet smells of your garden. Turn an old daybed into an outdoor love seat to enjoy a good chat on the patio over cocktails or add to a little nook to inspire romance.

2. Natural Materials

Natural materials are making a major comeback when it comes to style and aesthetic. Focus on combining different types of woods for a deep, rich and natural look. Mix your oaks, pines and wicker. Stain and paint furniture in natural and neutral colors.

Build DIY benches made from palettes, or hang a bamboo wood panel to divide space, create intimacy and add an artistic flare. Balance tactile materials: fill a garden path with natural pebbles and place the DIY bench along its path.

3. Minimalism

Unless you’re creating an ultra-modern garden, stay away from concrete. Don’t go overboard with your decorations. Keep it simple to create a feeling of peace and comfort in your outdoor living space.

Use the natural materials and comfortable seating elements to create warmth. A few bold patterns or colors add a pop of color. Scandinavian colors and prints are finding their way into 2017 indoor and outdoor decor palettes, with floral print rugs and beautiful yellow curtains. Choose your statement pieces wisely, focusing on form and function.

4. Ambient Lighting

Bright lights along the front door and various access points of your home are great to keep up security, but they aren’t so welcoming to the eyes at the end of a long day. There’s something about the warmth of a candle flickering, stars twinkling and fireflies flitting in a summer afternoon that brings out the joy of friends and family gathered over a meal. That’s ambient lighting for you, adding to the mood without distracting from the beauty of nature.

Use ambient lighting to curate a mood of comfort and warmth in your outdoor garden. It’s all about lanterns this season for mood lighting: antique gold lanterns are perfect focal points to make you feel like you’re in an enchanted garden, while simple silver or patterned patina lanterns add simple charm to the evening illuminating the way to an outdoor picnic.

Imagine the ethereal light from these lamps illuminating the faces of happy guests, as you set among the reds and purples of pillows and rugs, staring out into your beautiful green space.

5. Going Local

From repurposed building materials to plants, the focus is on local. Source building materials from palettes to build outdoor furniture, or use an old tire to create a beautiful pond with a little fairy house nearby to guard your herbs.

When it comes to local flora, look to the wild and to your local nursery. Most areas have wild daises and milkweeds, which are plants that butterflies and bees love. Consider keeping a wild garden of local plants to attract beneficial insects, bees and butterflies to help keep the rest of your garden happy and healthy.

As you’re cultivating your ultimate outdoor garden, pause for a moment. Go stand outside in your space and think of the good memories that have happened there and the ones you want to create.

What does the space need to help you create that mood? Think of these trends as your jumping-off point.

Happy gardening!