The new year has arrived with new opportunities and new adventures. With all of us staying home more often and looking for more localized ways to entertain and enjoy our free time, maybe this year is the time to focus on your outdoor landscape. If you’re looking for an exciting and refreshing way to upgrade your Fort Dodge area landscape, read on as we dive into some of this year’s top landscaping trends.
Taking the Indoors Outside![](https://realgreen-master.flywheelsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/backyard-pergola-400.jpg)
In 2020 and 2021, many of us discovered our need to be outside. And in doing so, we started creating outdoor enclosures and spaces where we could work, spend time and play outside the confined space of our homes but still remain socially distanced. This trend continues. In Fort Dodge, Iowa, and throughout the country, many homeowners will continue to add on outside living rooms and kitchens, install overhead awnings, closed-in patios, screened-in porches, and pergolas to capture living and kitchen spaces. The more elaborate styles come equipped with stoves, grills, bars, and mini-fridges. And if you really want to create the perfect at-home getaway, you can upgrade your patio furniture into a more comfortable style and include padded couches, loves seats, and loungers.
Maximize the Space You Have
Another trend for 2022 is to include a garden regardless of how little space you have. Gone are the days where living in an apartment or condo means you can’t have a nice yard. Using a container or raised bed is a great way to add plants without permanently changing your Fort Dodge area property. Most containers and beds are moveable and can be spaced according to your areas’ size. If you have plenty of wall space, try attaching planter to walls or fences or utilize vertical gardening. Vertical gardening is a technique where plants are grown on a vertically suspended panel using hydroponics. It will not only provide a pop of color to your small landscape, but you can use it for growing vegetables. With just a little work you can create a vibrant, colorful scene for hosting that garden party or cocktail hour.
Growing Wild Natural Gardens
One of the biggest trends landscapers throughout Iowa have been seeing is the use of wild or broken gardens, areas where nature is permitted to take charge. Post pandemic, the actual lawn is beginning to lose its place. And “broken gardens” and garden rooms are taking over. People opt for a more natural look and want that connection with nature rather than a flat, well-manicured lawn. There has also been a considerable uptick in the sale of birdhouses, bird feeders, bee hotels, and salt licks to attract wildlife and pollinators to our backyards. You can utilize the wild garden look in any size space. Simply plant only native plants, especially those that attract pollinators, and fill in borders and edges with perennial blooms and ornamental grasses. Plant in clumps rather than in single rows, and use a variety of different plants, sizes, and colors. Then sit back, relax and watch nature unfold around you.
Edible Yards
One thing the pandemic has taught us is how to be more self-sustainable. People in Fort Dodge are doing this by growing their own food for consumption. According to the National Gardening Association, food gardening has been at its highest levels in more than a decade. No longer content to grow just a patch of vegetables in raised beds, homeowners are now converting their entire yard, patio, balcony, or whatever space they have available into year-round edibles.