Every February the same thing happens.
Magazines publish “the colours of the year.”
Garden centres announce the “must-have plant.”
Instagram fills with identical patios, identical raised beds, identical hydrangea hedges, identical modern black planters lined up like a showroom display.
And every year, a whole group of gardeners quietly feel like they’re failing.
Because they tried to recreate it…
…and their garden still doesn’t feel right.
So let me say something very clearly:
My recommendation for 2026 is that you should avoid all garden trends.
Not just some of them.
All of them.
Not because trends are evil.
Because they're generic.
And a garden can't be generic and meaningful at the same time.
A Garden Might Have "Rooms," But It Isn’t a Room
Interior design trends work because houses are controlled environments.
A living room in Toronto is fundamentally the same as a living room in Vancouver.
Same basic temperature.
Same basic lighting.
Same basic flooring.
A garden is the exact opposite.
Your garden has:
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a specific soil type
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a specific drainage pattern
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a specific wind exposure
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a specific light pattern across the day
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a specific winter freeze pattern
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a specific amount of time you actually have to care for it
And one more thing most people forget:
Your garden also has a specific life rhythm.
You have a work schedule.
You have children, aging parents, travel seasons, busy months, exhausted months, and months when you barely step outside.
Trends don't consider that.
A trend assumes you have infinite time, ideal sun, perfect soil, and identical emotional needs to a stranger online.
Maybe you do...but I'm betting you don’t.
Trends Don’t Fail Because You Did Them Wrong
Here's the part almost no one tells beginner gardeners:
When a trend doesn’t work, it isn’t because you lack skill.
It’s because trends are designed to photograph well — not necessarily to live well.
A trend garden is built for:
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a single season
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a single moment of peak bloom
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a controlled maintenance schedule
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professional upkeep
Your garden has to function in April mud, July heat, August burnout, October exhaustion, and November regret.
A real garden must carry you through your actual life.
A trend only carries you through a photo.
The Copy-Paste Garden Problem
What trends actually do is create what I call a copy-paste garden.
You saw:
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a row of ornamental grasses
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white hydrangeas
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black mulch
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perfectly spaced shrubs
So you recreated it.
But what you recreated was the appearance, not the system behind it.
You didn’t copy:
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the irrigation system
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the soil amendments
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the mature spacing plan
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the maintenance labour
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the climate zone
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the gardener’s daily availability
You copied the costume.
And while I'm all-in on costumes at Halloween, they don’t behave like ecosystems.
Which is what your garden is.
The Emotional Cost of Trends
This is the part I care about most.
Most women don’t come to gardening because they want a perfect yard.
They come to gardening because they want:
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quiet
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grounding
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reconnection with identity
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something that belongs to them
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a place where they're not performing for anyone
And then trends quietly re-introduce performance.
Suddenly you’re asking:
“Does this look right?”
“Is this what a good garden should be?”
“Why doesn’t mine look like theirs?”
Your garden stops being a relationship and becomes a comparison.
A personal space becomes a public evaluation.
And that's the exact opposite of what a garden is supposed to give you.
A Real Garden Is Built Around You
A meaningful garden is not designed around fashion.
It is designed around three things:
1. Your Conditions
What actually grows easily in your soil and light.
Not what survives.
What thrives.
2. Your Capacity
How much maintenance you can do in:
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May (optimistic)
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July (hot)
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September (busy)
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October (tired)
This matters more than plant selection.
3. Your Emotional Use
How you need to use the space.
Do you drink coffee outside?
Do you come home overstimulated and need calm?
Do you need colour and energy or quiet and green?
No trend can answer that for you.
Why Trends Feel So Tempting
Trends promise something incredibly seductive:
certainty.
They say:
“Plant this and your garden will be successful.”
But gardens are not recipes.
They are relationships.
You don’t build a relationship by copying someone else’s marriage.
You don’t build a meaningful garden by copying someone else’s yard.
The Garden That Actually Lasts
Here is the quiet truth I see every year as a garden coach:
The gardens that last 10+ years are never trendy.
They are coherent.
They have:
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plants chosen for a reason
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repetition
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restraint
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realistic maintenance
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a clear feeling
Most importantly:
They reflect the person who tends them.
When you walk into those gardens, you don’t think,
“Nice landscaping.”
You think,
“Someone lives here.”
What To Do Instead
Instead of asking:
What is popular this year?
Ask:
What kind of space do I need this year of my life?
A new mother needs a different garden than an empty nester.
Someone caring for a parent needs a different garden than someone rediscovering themselves after a career change.
Your garden should evolve with you — not with Pinterest.
Because a garden is not décor.
It is a place where you put your nervous system down for a while.
And that cannot be copied.
If you want help figuring out what your garden should actually be — not what the internet says it should be — start with the Beginner Garden Audit.
It helps you see your garden in a new way, so you can create something that feels like a place you belong in, not a project you’re trying to keep up with.
