At the beginning of every year, I spend countless hours reading and researching the newest trends in outdoor living. Usually, as I read through my array of resources, I see a huge variety of suggestions for luscious new additions to and modification of outdoor spaces. Each source often has their own take on what are the leading trends of the year. This year was different. Instead of an assortment of vastly different ideas, there seemed to be a common thread running through the vast majority of articles I read. The overall theme for 2025 outdoor living trends seemed to focus on creating a personal connection to nature that permeates your daily life.
Over the last ten years there has been an impressive body of research that connects both physical and mental health to time spent in nature. According to articles from the Mayo Clinic, studies consistently show that spending just 2 hours a week immersed in nature lowers blood pressure, reduces risks of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and, for some, lowers the risk of dementia later in life. Time spent in nature helps fight stress and depression, improves attention and memory, improves sleep patterns, encourages creativity and can be a coping strategy for individuals with PTSD. For kids with ADHD (attention deficit activity disorder), time in nature can be a lifesaver as it not only helps calm them but also builds their ability to focus.
Knowing the benefits that spending time in nature brings, I was encouraged by this year’s priority of connecting to nature in your own space and in your own way. Since not everyone connects to nature in the same way, l was glad that I saw a wide range of options to experience the outdoors in your own home. On one end of the spectrum, Zen-inspired minimalist gardens designed to “foster calm and mindfulness” were top upcoming trends. On the other end was the totally opposite call for “chaos gardening,” which highlights the joys that releasing control and letting Mother Nature run wild can bring. To suit those more in the middle, adding places like outdoor kitchens and living rooms to gather together outdoors were a top priority.
A trend that particularly hit home with me, however, was the call to add a nostalgia garden to your landscape design. Webster’s dictionary defines nostalgia as a wistful or sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.” A nostalgia garden then, can be a garden that takes you back to a beloved place of your own past, or it can take you to a time or place you simply imagine in your daydreams. But a nostalgia garden doesn’t stop there. It is meant not only to invoke comforting memories of a time gone by, but also to connect you with the present by creating new memories. It calls you to slow down and remember while also allowing yourself to cherish the beauty of the environment that surrounds you.
Memories, the heart of the nostalgia garden, are triggered by our senses.
The sense of smell is the most powerful in awakening memories because it is most closely related to the hippocampus, which is the brain’s storage container for memories, and to the limbic system where our emotions rest. Taking in the waft of a remembered scent immediately triggers a memory and its connected emotion.
Including the right fragrances is the most important step in building a nostalgia garden. As you design your garden, make sure that you include blooming plants with the scents that bring you back to special people, places or pastimes. The heady scent of lilacs, for example, is often a spring favorite for nostalgia gardens, transporting people back to a simpler, less complex time. Roses, lavender, heliotrope and sweet peas are other fragrant blossoms that often carry us back in time.
The sense of sight is also crucial when planning a nostalgia garden. A glimpse of something from the past in a matter of milliseconds causes our brains to trigger memories. Incorporating plants from special times in your past can bring a sense of comfort to your nostalgia garden as you remember the people and places associated with them. Classic plants like peonies, hollyhocks, hydrangeas, phlox and bleeding hearts are making a comeback as people yearn for the familiar.
Even the sense of touch generates long-lasting memories. Scientists have found that touching an object, even briefly, stores information deep within our brains. Handling even a similar item can trigger the memories stored from a first encounter. Adding representations of items from the past, perhaps a harvest basket or a watering can doesn’t just add visual interest, it also takes us back to the days we first held them.
For many, the sense of taste is important. Tasting the first strawberry of the season or the first ripe tomato brings back fond memories of time spent in the garden. Nostalgia gardens often incorporate patches of food crops – vegetables, fruit, herbs – alongside narrow, windy paths overgrown by flowers, shrubs and gnarled trees perfect for climbing.
Researchers have learned that the sense of hearing not only unlocks emotional memories but also influences our physical response. The sound of slowly flowing water, for example, tends to be a calming, stress-relieving sound. Bird song or gently rustling leaves can be a reminder of the long, lazy summer days of childhood. The old-fashioned Love-In-A-Mist flowers can add a gentle rustle to today's nostalgia garden.
When you think about it, our memories are part of the legacy we have received and that we leave behind. Some of my fondest memories center around spending time as a very young child with my grandmother in her garden. Today, in my own nostalgia garden, the dark purple bloom of an iris or the spicy smells of freshly harvested parsley and dill immediately transports me to that sunny patch in her backyard where she showed me how to decide which stems to pick. Loving a garden is the legacy she left me. Perhaps someday, my grandchildren will someday spend time in their own nostalgia gardens, harvesting memories from the seeds we planted together. That’s a legacy worth leaving.
