I enjoy garden design - not that I carry it out ! Cottage: A popular look everywhere it seems Links below I noticed it in Sunset magazine (out of California) too Cozy comforting and safe A garden hug Although casual in appearance, it is surprisingly high maintenance in order to give it that happy disheveled look (like beach hair for your garden?!) Your Guide to Growing an English Cottage Garden in the West - Sunset And ttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2021/apr/05/cottagecore-garden-trend-bees-biodiversity
Good morning Georgia, just saw this thread and wanted to say that there is a lot of interest in the wildflower and cottage garden styles arround where I live. I wonder if the pandemic has changed peoples views on how they live and bio diversity? But perhaps it's because more people have spent more time in their own gardens over the past year and also had time to think about what they can do to help wildlife etc etc. Hope it's not just a trend, that in a few years time we look back and say, "Do you remember 2021 and those garden styles, how old fashioned".
It wasn't that long ago - 1980s to early 2000s that gardening became an extremely popular pasttime as evidenced by the availability of garden books, magazines, stores, clubs, TV and radio shows, tours, sales, you name it, as more and more people decided to take up gardening. Then, many discovered how much time and effort and money it required to create that certain vision that had inspired them and interest waned. I can only observe locally how many magazines are defunct, stores and garden centres closed and the mean age of garden club members trending ever upward.
That is so sad to hear Margot, especially after what I see coming from your beautiful country on the forum. But perhaps now things will return to how it was. Let's be positive and say, 'YES' it will.
I think that things have largely returned to the way they were pre-1980s. The surge in gardening popularity during the late-20th century led to the success of supporting businesses which came into existence as a response but was ultimately not sustainable. There have always been people who love gardening, not just gardens, and realize how much work is involved. Who knows, maybe articles like, "Your Guide to Growing an English Cottage Garden in the West" will lead to another revival of unrealistic gardening enthusiasm. Some will be hooked for life but many will become frustrated. Gardening is work, no 2 ways about it.
Can't sleep. Still thinking about who and why people in this part of the world garden and what they choose to grow . . . a huge factor is that few young people can only afford to live in anything but condo or townhouse. The average price of a house in Vancouver is now about $1,400,000 and it's also very expensive even outside the city. Bernie Dinter, owner of Dinter's Nursery in Duncan, gave a talk a couple of years ago about changing trends in garden centre customers. Among other things, he mentioned that millennials are very environmentally conscious and are more likely to want to grow food - if they can grow anything at all in the space they have available.
It is getting ridiculous, thats around £810,000. That's why we must take a step back sometimes and say to ourselves 'how lucky we are'. But back to garden design that Georgia's thread is about. Perhaps we will see a surge in vegetable gardening by the millenials as it was during the 1940's, when it was essential over here to use a garden to grow food for the table. But I hope they also think about mental health and not just stomachs. Where would so many of us have been mentally over the last year without our gardens, 'big or small'.
I just wanted to show this thread on here by way of a link. I really think this shows exactly what @Margot and @Georgia Strait are talking about. British Columbia: - fruit trees in balcony containers
