If you want to create the garden of your dreams, you can use your imagination and an examination of the space you have to work with to come up with a plan. However, most people find that they’re inspired and pushed to greater things in their designs by checking out what others are doing around the world.

Keeping up to date on trends helps you to think differently and develop ideas you might not have otherwise imagined. Here are some of the year’s top landscaping trends to consider.

Calming Areas for Mindfulness Activities

With most people incredibly stressed and busy these days, there has been more of a focus on finding ways at home to relax and escape. This is being seen in outdoor spaces, too, not just inside houses. For example, Zen gardens are becoming increasingly popular. These areas help people to slow down, unwind, and change their mindset. They often feature calming water features (e.g., fountains and reflecting pools), bonsai trees, sculptures, and fire pits.

If you want to build a relaxation zone like this for yourself, make sure you include seating areas in shaded spots so you can spend enough time chilling out in your mindfulness space. Alternatively, if a Zen garden isn’t quite your cup of tea, consider including one or more specific spaces in your yard to complete yoga, tai chi, meditation, and the like.

Separate Outdoor Entertaining Areas

Another noticeable trend is that of people putting alfresco entertaining areas well away from their house. It’s becoming more common for people to set up entertaining spaces that require a stroll to get to. These alfresco spots are pushed well out into gardens or even paddocks if people live on large plots of land.

The idea behind this development is that by building retreats in the backyard further away from the house and more immersed within nature, you can get a true feeling of escape and peace. When set apart from main buildings, these spaces allow people to see more of the creatures living in the yard, and get a sense of being at one with nature. Outdoor entertaining areas can either be left as simple open-air, pavilions or turned into more permanent options with the addition of covers, flooring, lighting, and furniture.

Yards Planned around Busy Homeowner Lifestyles

As mentioned previously, with most people leading busy lives now, there’s typically less time to spend on gardening and related outdoor tasks. As such, a trend to investigate is one of creating more easy-care yards planned around the lifestyles of busy homeowners.

People are cutting back on the amount of lawn they have, or outsourcing mowing and other jobs to specialists like TruGreen lawn care and other gardening and landscaping firms. Increasingly, people take up considerable space in their yard with paving, concrete, pebbles, or other options that don’t need to be looked after constantly, too.

They’re also choosing multipurpose features such as curb edging that can be used as seating or planters, and fire pits can that provide heating and style essentials. Basically, anything that reduces the amount of work people have to do in their yards, including the use of synthetic turf and drought-resistant native plants, is seen favorably.

Consideration of the Environment and Animals

When it comes to landscaping, those in the industry are noticing that homeowners want to have less of a negative impact on the environment and animals. People are taking steps to try to restore habitats and to support local wildlife, and they’re reducing water usage, and thinking about soil and air quality.

If this is close to your heart, too, start by planting things in your yard that will attract wildlife, especially endangered creatures, and provide homes for those in decline due to habitat loss and other issues. The vulnerable list includes butterflies, bees, turtles, birds, frogs, and more. Also popular at the moment are outdoor products (e.g., pots, seats, tools, etc.) made from sustainable materials and using more eco-friendly practices.

Plus, many people are looking for ways to use far fewer chemicals in their yard, especially in pesticides and fertilizers. They’re also choosing to grow their own produce rather than buy sprayed options from shops that come in packaging and lead to wastage.

With the variety of landscaping trends having an impact right now, no matter the size of your yard, interests, or abilities, you should be able to find something that appeals to you and that you can bring into your outdoor spaces this year.

Author Bio: Tiffani is a leader in marketing authority, she prides herself in her ability to create and provide high quality content that audiences find valuable. She also enjoys connecting with other bloggers and collaborating for exclusive content in various niches. With many years of experience, Tiffani has found herself more passionate than ever to continue developing content and relationship across multiple platforms and audiences. When Tiffani is not researching, editing or submitting content you can find her doing Yoga, photography, D.I.Y crafting and dog training.