Every year, the biggest and the best garden designers get together to create the Chelsea Flower Show, providing inspiration, trendsetting ideas and a glimpse of how our gardens might look next year.
On Trend: Green garden
Sustainable gardens have become a big trend in our towns and cities. Joe Swift inspired gardeners with his gold-winning design for the Homebase Teenage Cancer Trust that featured drought-buster (治理) architectural planting.
It could cope with even the driest conditions typically found in places where water is precious. His large pools of water had a cooling effect on people and plants.
On Trend: Space-saving Herbs
The Brewin Dolphin garden designed by Cleve West and Steve Swatton followed the Arts and Craft tradition，showing the beautiful strong lines of neatly beech (山毛榉) among its soft herbs planting. It proved to be a style that has never gone out of fashion.
You don't need a large garden to have a piece of topiary (树木造型). These evergreens, which can be boxed or grown in pots, are easy to cut into shapes, such as balls, cubes and pyramids.
On Trend: Rhododendrons (杜鹃花) Woodland
Chris Beardshaw's gold-winning design was packed with rhododendrons woodland bushes. It paid tribute (致敬) to Furzey Gardens in Hampshire, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year．
Rhododendrons might not be the trendiest choice but they deserve a comeback.
On Trend: Drought Buster
The Herbert Smith garden for Water Aid was inspired by the work of the charity and the transforming power of clean water.
Using water wisely is today's issue, so invest in water butts (积水桶) to collect rainwater and gather waste water from baths, sinks and washing machines.
