PHS’s Six Garden Trends for 2022

Ellen C. Wells

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society recently got into the trends-to-watch-for game with the release of its top six gardening trends for 2022. PHS’s six trends coming to a garden near you are:

1. Utilizing native and pollinator-friendly plants. This trend has been a slow, but continuously growing, trend. More and more people are understanding the importance of bees and pollen-loving insects, not just in landscapes, but in communities.

2. Turning lawns into gardens. It’s better for the environment, provides more space for those pollinator plantings and requires less maintenance over a growing season.

3. Attend a plant swap. Meet new plants and new friends. My neighborhood has been having plant swaps for years and it’s a fun way to kick off the spring gardening season. Okay, so maybe you don’t want folks to swap plants, but to buy plants. Rethink what a plant swap might look like from a sales perspective—it’s about creating community. Recreate that!

4. Try gravel, waterwise and xeriscape gardening. Inconsistent weather patterns and water restrictions make waterwise gardening a smart choice. Gravel gardening offers just one way to cut back on water and fertilizer use in the garden through eliminating the use of soil, while xeriscaping refers to landscaping and gardening in a way that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation.

5. Grow your own fruit. You don’t need a huge property to grow fruit anymore. Just one or two fruit trees (more if they’re dwarfs) can produce hundreds of pieces of fruit. And it gives you an opportunity to grow something new.

6. Cut flowers. The boutique flower business is having a moment, thanks in large part to how well cut flowers come across via Instagram and the like. How are you participating in this boom? Could you plan a cut-your-own garden at your store? That would save your customers the risks associated with growing some finicky florals. GP