In/Out Report: Gardening Trends

By Emily Hsieh
May 18, 2010

Gardening season is in full swing, which leaves us wondering what accessories we should be focusing on help accentuate our efforts. We tapped a trio of professional green thumbs in the Bay Area—floral designer Natalie Bowen, landscape designer Megan Van Linda, and landscape architects Ive Haugeland and Tyler Fishman Manchuck—to clue us on their most (and least!) favorite accoutrements to beautify any backyard.

Natalie Bowen,

Natalie Bowen Designs

IN: New Floraframe Vertical Garden Wall Panel (buy it now price, $195) “This is a fabulous way to create a hanging garden. It is great against a fence or in a small area such as patio where you want to bring the garden off the ground and to eye level. Very hip and very green!”

New Liberty of London Target Garden Gloves (winning bid, $10) “Liberty prints are everywhere right now. Gardening is so much more fun with cute gloves. When they get dirty, you just have to buy more!”

OUT: Tall Fescue Grass Seeds “Lawns take a lot of water and California is getting out of a drought. What is much better is to look for native plants, groundcovers or pavers.”

Southwest Terra Cotta Planters “I’m so tired of seeing terra cotta when there are so many other great ways to display plants and flowers. The pot should be as beautiful or interesting as the plant itself.”

Megan Van Linda,

Megan Van Linda Design

IN: Set of Three Giant Gigas Clam Shells (buy it now price, $1,200) “These would look great even empty set in garden beds or can also be used as planters on a deck. They have a sculptural, organic, found object kind of feel.”

Outdoor Wicker Daybed Lounger (winning bid, $1,299) “This represents an outdoor furniture trend going pretty full throttle that encourages lounging in groups or pairs in more relaxed and flexible ways than just straight up lounge chairs and couches.”

OUT: Kissing Cherub Garden Yard Art Statues “A bad attempt at a fabulous Roman antiquity.”

Lion Garden Water Fountain “We use so many kinds of water features, but thankfully people are finally starting to move away from the fake Roman stuff that was all over. This style feels really fussy unless you have the right kind of fabulous Mediterranean house.”

Tyler Fishman Manchuck
and Ive Haugeland,

Shades of Green

IN: 1950’s Patio Lawn Chair Set (buy it now price, $265) “We love designing gardens for midcentury modern houses! They have a great indoor – outdoor relationship with the garden, and these lawn chairs are cool and fun and go well with a contemporary house.”

Aloe Succulent Drought Tolerant Groundcover (starting bid, $0.99) “We love succulents—they’re pretty and have such interesting shapes and colors. They’re also easy to grow and don’t need much of water, which in California is an especially important feature. We often combine them with grasses, natives, and other Mediterranean plants.”

OUT: Solar Garden Lawn LED Spot Light Rock “We’re not into things that try to look like something else. A light inside a fake rock is never a good thing, even if it’s LED and solar.”

Outdoor Boy/Girl Water Fountain “There are a lot of bad-looking fountains for sale. We find that we almost always design fountains that are integrated with the garden design.”

** Images of designers provided by subjects. Additional images from eBay. **

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