As you all know I run my own gardening gift company designing products for the UK and Europe, this means that I receive every catalogue for every new gardening product on sale to the buyers of garden centres. So I thought I would share with you all this week the trends, designs and new products that may or may not be wowing you this summer in your local shops. Companies are continually innovating and in this financial climate, products have to work even harder for your money. So here is my pick of the most innovative.
The garden is now becoming your outdoor living room, this now seen by designers is something you can accessorize and enjoy all year round. As with your home, outdoor audio is very much a trend this year, outdoor wireless speakers, floating waterproof speakers are all solar powered and designed to play music via your iPod, phone, mp3 or other multimedia device. Lighting again is a trend that seems to have taken off, solar panelled designs with mirrors and floating bubbles extend your time spent in your garden and up light your trees and shrubs. As with your home gardens now have pictures to hang on fence panels that are water resistant and give you all round interest, so if you couldn’t recreate the planting scheme from Chatsworth in your borders you can now have it hung up on your fence. Baubles, ornaments and Globes are now seen interplanted in our pots with our bedding to give extra colour and design to our gardens. Tree ornaments are again popular with the designers and can give you sound and movement in the garden. However all these products are great but in Great Britain with a maritime climate we are very cold and wet so outdoor living does need two constants if we are going to maximise our space, heat and shelter from the wind and rain. So the clever product designers have taken the designs from ships and produced large sails we can suspend over our area to protect us, these sails come in a variety of sizes and shapes and colours. Heat now can be found from our stoves, chimeras, patio heaters (wood) and fire baskets; these ensure that we do not need us to dress like polar explorers to enjoy our garden in the winter. Ponds are now aqua creations, and ornaments are mesmerising optical illusions that will captivate you, (honestly) so hold on to your seats 2012 in your garden will be stunning Enjoy
