8 Garden Trends That Experts Suggest Should Guide Your 2026 Projects — What to Plant, How to Style Yours, and Ways to Help Nature Thrive

For the first two months of 2026, there was not a single rain-free day across the UK. But, as we head into spring, the tides are finally turning, and the sun is making its much-awaited return — which means it's officially time to start thinking about the garden trends that will be taking over our outdoor spaces this year.

While the great outdoors is perhaps slightly less subject to the ever-turning wheels of the trend cycle, this doesn't mean it is entirely exempt. Much like interiors, trends for modern gardens tend to reflect aspects of our cultural identity in that moment, offering us a lens through which we can understand the world. And if you were to take a cultural inventory based on this year's trends, I think you'd be left with an overwhelming sense of hope.

With a focus on wellness, sustainability, and nature-led designs, it seems we're finally happy to step off the hamster wheel and stop to smell the roses, for once. Here are the eight defining garden trends experts say will dominate our outdoor spaces in 2026.

1. Wellness-Led Design

This one should really come as no surprise, considering how the wellness movement has already seemingly taken over every avenue of our lives — from the latest home wellness trends on how we eat to how we sleep, it makes sense for it to take over our gardens, too.

A progression from the uber-popular wellness rooms we saw popping up in projects over the past few years, the same concept is applied to our gardens. And when you consider all the powerful health benefits of sunshine and being outside, it's a trend that doesn't require too much convincing.

As Molly Sedlacek, founder of ORCA, explains, "The wellness focus continues to grow, and we see homeowners wanting to bring this into their outdoor spaces with outdoor showers, cold plunges, spas, small pools, saunas, and even meditation rocks."

As Molly's list demonstrates, there are numerous ways to create wellness-centered design in your garden. With a variety of water feature ideas and landscaping styles, you can tailor this trend to best suit you and your needs.

Outdoor showers are a particularly popular option, and they don't require too much space, either, making them great for small, urban gardens. "Outdoor showers reframe how we think about usable square footage," Molly explains. "They transform overlooked exterior space, turning it into functional wellness zones, expanding the footprint of the home."

2. Creating Permanence Through Materials

The interest in indoor-outdoor living is nothing new, with luxurious garden furniture becoming increasingly easy to find, but now the trend is taking more permanent forms, specifically in the materials we're using in these outdoor spaces.

We've moved away from the time when we saw such a sharp distinction between our home and our garden, and are beginning to blur the line between the two. "Gardens are increasingly being designed as architectural extensions of the home, with natural stone playing a central role in creating permanence, texture, and understated drama," says Oliver Webb, director at Cullifords.

While natural stones have long been the most desirable material to use in outdoor designs, the specific stones we're reaching for now have shifted. "There’s growing demand for warm, earthy materials — travertines, limestones, and richly veined marbles — that bring depth and tactility to outdoor settings." In line with the general shift towards earthy color schemes, these materials appeal to our desire for tactility and texture in our homes.

Not only are these materials being used for paving and functional uses, but they are also taking on more decorative roles, with marble garden statues becoming increasingly popular.

3. Letting Light Lead the Way

When designing a home, it's not uncommon for natural light to play a leading role in how you plan the layout of your space, yet when designing a garden, where light plays arguably an even more important role, we seem to abandon this approach.

Having noticed this, Molly began designing gardens to intentionally invite as much light as possible, opting for softer, light-permeable materials and planning the layout according to the natural movement of the sun.

It can often feel like garden privacy ideas are at odds with this mission, but there are ways to work around this. "We like to use hedging that is mixed material so there is textural interest and depth, but doesn’t wall off light," Molly explains.

Prioritizing comfort and warmth is one of this year's biggest interior design trends, so embracing light in the area that is easiest to do this — the great outdoors — is one of the best ways to bring this trend to your outdoor space.

Equally, planning outdoor seating around the light, even if it's in spots you wouldn't traditionally think to include it, can help maximize the brightness of your garden. "We love putting a picnic area in a front garden or a patio lined with permeable, natural materials such as cobble or stones for morning light and coffee," says Molly.

4. Contextual Design

When it comes to designing an on-trend garden, context is key. Instead of attempting to recreate your own tropical garden in the middle of the city, lean into your surroundings and create a design that doesn't just exist within its surroundings, but actively refers back to them.

In fact, on the whole, "We are seeing a shift toward landscapes that feel inseparable from their geography," says Ryan Donohoe, founder and principal landscape designer at Donohoe Living Landscapes.

While your garden is indeed an extension of your home, it is also a part of the natural environment, and attempting to separate it from the surrounding landscape can not only make your outdoor space seem disjointed and out of place, but it can also make it more difficult to upkeep.

Explaining his approach, Ryan says, "Views are carefully framed, built edges are softened through planting, and outdoor rooms extend the interior architecture into the landscape to create seamless indoor and outdoor living." Bringing durable materials and local plants together makes for a sustainable garden design built to last.

"As environmental awareness grows and clients think more long-term, we expect this mindset to become more prevalent in 2026," Ryan says, "Designing with place in mind should not be considered a trend. It is a fundamental responsibility, and one that will only become more relevant."

5. Warm Minimalism Goes Outdoors

As we continue to blur the boundaries between our interior and exterior design, it's only natural for the furniture we use in our gardens to reflect this.

And Bo Hellberg, CMO of Grythyttan Stålmöbler, has some strong predictions for what this is going to look like this year: "In 2026, we’ll see the trend for warm minimalism extend beyond interiors and into outdoor living."

In the home, soft, curved forms and warm neutral color palettes have reigned supreme, and we expect our outdoor furniture to receive the same treatment.

This trend is all about the cross section of simplicity and coziness, building up warmth and texture through colors and materials. "Calm, pared-back spaces will be grounded in warm tones, natural materials, and layered textures, creating outdoor environments that feel serene yet soulful," comments Bo.

In contrast to the cool, sterile minimalist interior design of the early 2000s, nowadays, the trends revolve around making spaces look welcoming and lived-in, while still maintaining that sense of subdued simplicity.

"People want their terraces, balconies, and gardens to feel just as lived-in and personal as their interiors, which means texture is becoming increasingly important outdoors too." This has been made even easier thanks to the growing market for outdoor accessories and furniture. To create this look, Bo recommends using "layered outdoor rugs, cushions, tactile woods, woven textiles, patterned surfaces, and outdoor shelves on walls decorated with personal items that bring depth and character."

6. Season-Round Design

It's an accepted norm that the garden is only really used for a few months of the year, snubbed and forgotten during winter, and then embraced as soon as the sun returns. And, generally speaking, they are designed as such, with little thought given to how to make a garden more comfortable during the cooler months.

Or, at least, they were. In recent times, landscape architect Paul Sangha claims, "Clients are gravitating toward gardens they will inhabit year-round and spaces that mature, evolve, and support both ecological richness and family life over time."

Of course its only natural to want to spend more time outside once it's warm out, but with careful planning, it's more than possible to make your garden feel as inviting in January as it does in July. The key is in knowing where to hold back, as Paul says, "Creating that sense of quiet permanence requires restraint, technical precision, and a clear design framework beneath what appears effortless."

Part of this sense of permanence will come from the materials you use. Prioritizing durability and weather-resistance when searching for your garden flooring and outdoor furniture will help in creating a space that withstands the seasons. But equally, so does ensuring some areas are properly sheltered, and investing in some good outdoor heaters.

7. Supporting Nature

Last year, garden trends were dominated by the idea of regenerative and climate-resilient gardening. We began designing our gardens not solely to serve our aesthetic desires, but to actively help to support the local ecosystem.

"Gardens in 2026 are being shaped by climate realities. It’s about the right plant, right place, with purposeful planting schemes that help manage water, respond to extreme weather, and support wider ecosystem services," shares Harry Baldwin, the head gardener at The Newt in Somerset.

And while this is certainly true, people are also becoming increasingly aware that it's not just the plants in their gardens that will have an effect on the ecosystem, but the materials they use, too. As a result, people are moving towards sustainable materials that don't just look good, but also help to support the surrounding nature.

As an example, Molly says, "When sand sets, brick clay pavers are also inherently permeable, allowing rainwater to pass through to the earth beneath it to replenish the land's natural aquifers. This allows water and oxygen to reach roots, supports trees and plantlife, and reduces the heat island effect."

Ensuring your garden is designed with your local ecosystem in mind is one of the most effective approaches you can adopt in this process, and it will look different from home to home.

"Within a sensitive coastal ecosystem," Paul explains, "we structured the site around preservation and continuity by retaining mature canopy, threading circulation through existing woodland, and layering new planting into riparian systems so that nearly seventy percent of the property remains vegetated. What reads as natural is carefully composed."

8. Layered Lighting

While we've been harnessing the power of layered lighting schemes inside our homes for many years now, it seems to have taken us a touch longer to realize the same concept would apply to our outdoor areas, too.

But as of this year, the experts expect that to change. "In 2026, we’re seeing outdoor spaces treated with the same sensitivity and layering as interiors," says Jennifer Hamilton from Vawdrey House, noting, "Lighting in particular has evolved; it’s no longer about brightness, but atmosphere."

This means that we're no longer stringing up some fairy lights and calling it a day. Garden lighting ideas are becoming as thought-through as they are within our homes.

"We design gardens with different levels of illumination, incorporating dimmers and softer pools of light so spaces can transition gently from day to evening. In seating areas, especially, less is often more as too much lighting can leave a terrace feeling exposed and 'flooded' rather than intimate," says Jennifer.

We've still got some time until full-on al fresco season, so why not use it to get prepared and make sure your garden is in its absolute best shape come summertime? Plus, these garden corner ideas will help you make use of awkward spots in light of these new trends, too.

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