A couple of months back I was chatting with a new garden friend when she openly wondered what the next big garden trend will be.  I have to admit — while I look for design trends all the time…I hadn’t thought much about the big arcs of our collective garden specific tastes.  I think it is fair to say that vertical gardening isn’t the new kid on the block anymore.  It’s here to stay, but you can’t be new forever.  So what next?

I think that the answer to her question might be a twist on the idea of vertical gardens — Shelved Gardens.   They are kind of like vertical gardens (in that the point is to fill a vertical space with plants) but different.  Admittedly, the idea of putting plants on shelves is not new…but doing it outside of the retail environment or for any other reason than purely for the sake of necessity is (at least a little) an original twist.

Will we soon be combining the succulent trend with ever more interesting containers and then combining the containers to create ever more  vertical visual appeal?

Tiered plant stands had a moment when I was kid (I remember seeing them in many friends homes in the 70’s) – but like all good fashion…they went out at some point but I think are now on their way back in but with new and refreshed style.

The variation and style choices are endless.   The shelves, the containers, the plant choices and how you mix and match them together, provide infinite options for self-expression.  These are just a few that have caught my eye recently.  The one above perhaps being my favorite — it looks like it takes some inspiration from a library…and the idea of having a library of potted plants sounds good to me.

So, do we have the making of a big new garden trend?  Shelved Gardens?  What do you think?

images: top to bottom – rochelle greayer, littleyard, fabulous minds, and AT casa.