Trend setting

John Gabriele marks the ongoing and upcoming trends in Australian landscaping.

- John Gabriele

Every new year brings fresh opportunities, a sense of renewal, and the promise of prosperity. The landscape industry, like many others, is influenced by societal trends. In 2025, rapid changes are expected, and landscape contractors and designers will need to be agile and adapt quickly to the dynamic shifts that will shape the sector.

Extreme landscapes

If there's one thing front and centre in the eyes of the industry and the population at large, it's the ever-present threat of climate change impacting our everyday lives. The good news is that out of adversity opportunity rises. Extreme weather events have plagued us over the past few years, from fires to floods and every weather extreme in between. Many of these impacts often occur at the local level and landscape contractors have had to pivot on short notice, not to just to save their inventory, but to ensure the welfare of their employees and the integrity of the sites they have been developing. Having a plan 'B' is paramount to ensure ongoing business success, but thinking ahead of the curve is also necessary in uncertain times.

Resilience and reuse

One thing landscapers are good at is designing landscapes that provide solutions to help combat the environmental issues we are all faced with. To that end the trends that have driven design concepts in the past three years will remain relevant in 2025. Sustainable, low-carbon, environmentally sympathetic design will remain at the forefront of the industry. An emphasis of good landscape design in the future will be the ability to build resilience in projects, noting increasingly frequent severe weather events and natural hazards as a major consideration.