Check out some of our favourites!

(HINT: Click on the photos for more info!)

Magical Fairy Gardens

“It can be really fun to create a fairy garden and you can include the kids in the project too. They’ll enjoy coming up with ideas and creating this little universe.”

Literally anything green!

Green is Pantone’s color of the year for 2017!

Butterflies are a must!

“Want more butterflies in your flower garden? Here are twelve easy-to-grow perennials that butterflies can’t resist.”

Creating Livable and Modern Outdoor Spaces

Like This…

Try an ipe swing bench!

Or try your hand at a vertical garden!

Want to read about more 2017 trends?

Check them out here.

The post What’s Trending in Gardening for 2017? appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

Here’s a sneak peak of what they had to say:

1. Peak Season – With new technology, growing 365 days is now possible, affordable and convenient.
2. Wellness Hotspots – Things like garden therapy, forest bathing, to soundscaping and workplace culture are very popular! Healthy is the new wealthy!
3. Tidy Gardens – Simplicity is best! Find joy in less by keeping what you love and discard the rest!
4. Clean Gardening – Consumers are demanding clean products and clean food, so they’re turning more and more to growing without the use of synthetic chemicals and even growing indoors without dirt!
5. Uber-izing Gardening – With everything just at our fingertips, it only makes sense that buying plants would be just as easy! Gardening Subscriptions where plants will be delivered right to your door are growing drastically in popularity.
6. Buzz Off! – Using nature to help keep your yard insect free is economical, educational, fun and it doesn’t harm the environment!
7. Golden Age – Gold is the “metal of the moment.” Metallic materials and textures have been trending in home décor for years, but in 2017 we will see them melting into the outdoors as well!
8. Gardening Love – The goal is to cultivate a passion and appreciation for plants and in doing so, increase the demand for gardening and everyone!

Download the full report here.

The post 2017 Garden Trends appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting

The electricity that runs into your home holds potentially dangerous 120 volts. To create a lower voltage outdoor lighting, you will need to install one or more transformers. This will reduce the voltage of your outdoor landscape lighting to a tame 12 volts. This is very important because if you’re wiring gets exposed by the weather and the abuse of the elements, this voltage will not pose any danger to you, your family or your pets.

There is a downside to having a lower voltage… The further the light fixture is from the transformer, the dimmer the light becomes. If this becomes a problem, there are a number of easy solutions such as upgrading to a higher-rated transformer or a heavier-gauge cable. You can use multiple transformers or you can simply reduce the number or wattage of your light fixtures. Moving the transformer or rearranging the layout of the lighting system can reduce the cable length to each fixture might also fix the problem. If none of these things seem appealing, you could also consider using the dimming as an intentional effect. This is popular in path lighting, where each light fixture gets stronger as you move closer to your home.

Design and Installation

Deciding what you want your lighting to do is the first step when choosing and designing your lighting system. You will need to consider the convenience and safety of entering your home at night, adding night time curb appeal to your home and simply creating a romantic mood for your landscaping. There are three main categories to lighting, but many different lighting designs – some even use a combination of all three.

Path Lighting

This category focuses on using fixtures to light your paths and walkways. The primary goal is safety but this lighting is still aesthetically pleasing.

Accent Lighting

This category focuses on lighting a specific object or landscaping feature. It still allows for peripheral lighting and dim illumination of surrounding areas. This design allows for curb appeal but emphasizes individual areas like a tree or garden.

Spread Lighting

This category focuses on spreading light among your outdoor landscape and creates a more general mood. Certain areas will still be emphasized but generally it isn’t focused around a single feature like the first two lighting categories.

What type of lighting do you use in your landscaping?

The post Designing Your Outdoor Landscape Lighting appeared first on Landscape Edging Blog.

1. Connected Greenery:

In this day and age, our phones are always with us… We eat, sleep, walk, and talk with our phones. With more and more people becoming plugged in outside, it is not a surprise that they are syncing their garden habits with their technology! People want to have beautiful outdoors without having to put in a lot of work. And this is why turning to technology to help grow plans both indoors and out is so common! There are now modern systems that allow you to remotely control what happens in your home and garden.

2. NaTECHure:

NaTECHure is a combination of two of the hottest trends in education: technology and nature. This concept combines virtual and augmented reality to engage kids with gardening, health and fitness in fun, new ways. It will get people off the couch and into the great outdoors, something that is vital to children – and their parents. Whether its playing tag, shoveling in a sandbox, swinging on swings or even geocaching, NaTECHure has the potential to mobilize new generation of nature lovers.

3. Welltality:

This concept tells us that Horticulture is inherently tied to health and wellness. People are putting their health first, which changes what we eat, what we use on our bodies and the environment. Welltality is a trend in the hospitality industry which allows hotels to become destination locations by having living walls, indoor forests and serving locally grown food. Greenery is incorporated throughout the guest experience to help people heal quicker, concentrate easier and even increase mental health!

4. The Makers Lifestyle:

This trend shifts people from the doing in the DIY movement to the making. People want to experience the outdoors in a way that makes them feel at home, but is personalized to their tastes. The concept behind this is that people aren’t just making things… they are making experiences. Many people attempt to capture their childhood in their outdoor set ups… Adapting their landscaping to include porch swings like the one you sat on with your grandmother or with a fire pit that captures your summers at summer camp.

5. Backyard Boldness:

This trend is one we cannot help but adore! This approach has people turning to “new customizations, lighting and movement to add a sense of whimsicality to their backyards.” Homeowners are moving away from subtle and minimalistic to things much bolder that increase sensory appeal. Nightscaping is a big part of this and is “drawing record breaking crowds to the gardens [of the Longwood Gardens’ Nightscape exhibit] after dark. Your outdoor spaces are becoming a destination – a place where you want to go and spend time in, rather than a place where you have to do chores or work.

6. Layered Landscapes:

Layered Landscapes is exactly what it sounds like! It starts with trees and is layered underneath with shrubs and flowers. The thought behind this is that it will bring your yard back to its natural habitat, allowing for more natural ecosystems, pollination systems and other wildlife. People are looking less for long fields of perennials and more for a combination of trees, conifers, shrubs and perennials. People are making more educated decisions when purchasing plants by focusing on their function as well as their beauty. These landscapes will last much longer than just the year, in fact most will be around for years to come.

7. Dogscaping:

Do you have pets at home? Then this trend is for you. The mindset behind this is that pets play outdoors in the lawn, rolling, digging and possibly even eating it, so it makes perfect sense to make sure your outdoor experiences are pet friendly and free from poisonous plants and harmful chemicals. This trend also focusses on the importance of protecting your precious plants from your pets!

Which one of these trends are you going to partake in? Which one is your favorite? Tell us in the comments below!

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