More and more young people are choosing to invest in their gardens to provide a place where friends and family can spend quality time together,” says Craig Corbett, product director at Alfresia. “Young people are increasingly eager to cultivate their own creative and social space.”
And as with most trends, celebrities are leading – or should that be paving? – the way. Actresses such as Zooey Deschanel and Mindy Kaling regularly use Instagram to show off their horticultural efforts (check out Deschanel’s impressive marrows). Kaling even tweeted the rather cute quip: “Gardening is so fun, it is fashion for your dirt patches.” And this summer Taylor Swift was spotted tending to her window boxes in New York with her supermodel pal Karlie Kloss.
So why are young professionals trying to recreate The Good Life all of a sudden? Hugo Bugg, who at 27 years old is the youngest person to be awarded a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show for 20 years, suggests that we are going back to more homely activities as a way of fighting against our fast-paced, modern society. “So many people’s jobs are really stressful and so they find it nice to spend some of their downtime outside,” says Bugg. “Gardening is going back to nature and getting away from technology and those sorts of things. Hectic lifestyles have pushed people to appreciate the outdoors; they want to be close to nature again.”
Cultivating vegetables and herbs at home is also just an extension of the modern foodie culture, in which visiting farmers’ markets, home-brewing, and splurging £4.50 on a loaf of artisanal bread is increasingly the norm among urban-dwelling twenty- and thirtysomethings.
“Growing your own vegetables is now seen as quite cool, there’s a charm to it,” says Harry Rich, 26, who along with his brother David runs a landscape architect company and exhibited at Chelsea this year. “It’s great to be able to sustain yourself. It’s also an inexpensive way to be creative.”