16 Landscape Design Trends For 2023

All of us here at Willow Green Acres love what we do. Providing beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers plus one-of-a-kind vintage treasures for your home and landscape makes every day rewarding. We thought we’d share some of the newest trends for 2023 that those of us in the industry are excited about!

1. Back to nature

Folks in the Ozarks have been ahead of the curve with this trend. Modern yards are becoming spaces carefully planned to create a casual, relaxed feeling, melding designed and naturalistic elements to meet the needs of both people and wildlife. The goal is to become a low-maintenance, eco-conscious oasis.

2. Multiseason Landscaping

Getting the most out of your landscape means enjoying it in no matter the weather. Adding elements like outdoor heaters, pergolas, and awnings lessen the extremes of the temperatures in our area. Consider plant material that offer multiseason interest. Examples being serviceberry, dogwood, and panicle hydrangea—all excellent choices providing beauty and low-maintenance structure around your patio or deck.

3. Blue Will Be Everywhere

Classic Blue is the 2023 Pantone Color of the year. Blue will not only inspire color schemes inside your home, but will also influence the hues of your garden. Consider the silver spotted leaves and blue flowers of lungwort for shady locations, and blue sun lovers like hyssop, blue star, catmint and May Night salvia.

4. Foodie Gardening

One of the hottest trends unites two types of gardening purposes–Productivity and Beauty. With so many options, vegetable gardeners are venturing outside the traditional varieties and planting unique vegetables that appeal to both the eye and the taste buds. Don’t exclude your vegetable garden in your overall design. Create a vegetable patch to be tasty and charming, with careful thought to placement and plant composition.

5. Native Plants

This trend has been near and dear to those of us who live in the Ozarks. Our customers have always been interested in native plants, and natural landscapes that require less maintenance. We carry plants that are adapted to our area like Liatris, Asters, and Goldenrod.

6. Year of the Lavender

The National Garden Bureau, a nonprofit organization providing garden tips and inspiration, named 2023 The Year of Lavender. We supply several varieties for you to use this versatile plant in a dry, sunny border, container arrangements, or mixed in with other sun loving plants. Plus, many additional ways to use lavender in your home.

7. Drought Tolerant Plants

Ever conscious of our challenging growing conditions or maybe you just don’t want to water see our selection of water sipping plants, like Russian Sage, Lantana, and colorful succulents.

8. Pollinator Gardens

Planting flowers, shrubs, and trees that attract helpful pollinators has many benefits, and the plant choices today offer long bloom times, textures and plenty of color. Willow Green Acres carry many pollinator species: Milkweed (Monarch Butterfly), Coneflower, Joe Pye Weed, Bee balm and several varieties of Butterfly Bush.

9. Space and Access

Small spaces and mobility issues aren’t stopping people from installing, caring for and enjoying outdoor spaces. Vertical gardening using trellising and wall-mounted containers add beautiful landscaping opportunities to even the smallest areas. Need to get started? We have a large selection of artisan planters, trellises, and plant hangers.

Willow Green Acres also have experts in Therapeutic Gardening. We can help design landscapes that will allow you or your family members with mobility challenges to enjoy gardening. Thoughtful planning using hard surfaces such as pavers along with a variety of raised beds, wall seating and planters can be beautiful while providing life changing access.

10. Hardscape Patterns

Speaking of hardscapes, people are thinking beyond the shape, size and location of their patios and walkways. The newest trend is to incorporate more sophisticated, intricate design. Pavers and bricks laid in chevron, basket-weave, or lattice patterns are turning up in residential yards. These intricate configurations, once seen primarily indoors, are now warming up and softening the hardscaping of outdoor living spaces. Our designers and installation crews have extensive experience with these popular designs.

11. Smart Irrigation

Gone are the days of seeing sprinkler systems running during a downpour. Smart, programmable irrigation controllers are now more capable and affordable than ever before. Often connected to weather stations to input real life climate conditions, these controllers conserve water and provide healthier growing conditions for your lawn and plant material. Some systems provide the convenience of access through your Smart Phone. Willow Green installs and maintains these state of the art systems for you.

12. Modern Plant Varieties

Growers are combining the genetic material of related plants to produce new plants with desirable traits like increased flowering, improved disease resistance, and adaptability for a wider variety of growing conditions. We love plants, so when we hear about a new variety with beneficial qualities, we are excited to bring it our customers.

13. Discrete Lighting

Most of these modern trends are all about getting more from your outdoor living spaces. Once the day is over, what good is an outdoor living space without light? The proper lighting provides ambience while you are in the space while highlighting features of your home and landscape to provide stunning curb appeal. We strive plan your landscape to transition from day to night without overwhelming or detracting from the design of the space.

When planning a landscape, the Designers at Willow Green Acres give careful thought to the spaces they are creating. Outdoor lighting is an important part of any landscape design.

14. Planting to discourage Wildlife

As gardeners, we understand the frustration and expense of having to replace plants that rabbits and deer have eaten or damaged. To help you cut down on these losses, we carry plants that wildlife often passes up. Some examples are Daffodils, Russian Sage, Lilac, Lavender and woody shrubs such as Barberry. But, living in the Ozarks, we know no plant is ever safe from a hungry deer.

15. Virtual Landscaping

Homeowners and gardeners are downloading free landscaping apps to guide them through a design or redesign of an existing yard. These apps will provide you with layouts based on your property’s measurements. The experts at Willow Green Acres can take your plan and help you pick out and plant the perfect plants to make your plan a reality. We also have professional crews with experience to install the patio and walkways you have designed.

16. Outdoor Furniture That Lasts

We all know, you get what you pay for. Homeowners are becoming more willing to pay more up front for quality that lasts. Willow Green Acres is proud to feature one-of-a-kind vintage garden furniture and accessories. Check out the Willow Green Acre Antique Mall for your unique vintage or midcentury landscape centerpiece. As we enter the 2023 Landscape Season, there are many unknowns. Now more than ever, a beautiful, peaceful landscape will provide a comforting oasis. Willow Green Acres will be honored to partner with you to create your safe space.

We hope to see you soon!