In this edition
- Gardening Trends for 2025
- World Art Day 2025
- Gardens for Nutrition
- Health Benefits of Gardening and Sunshine Salad Recipe
About the Newsletter
Happy Spring! In this newsletter, read about the Gardening trends for 2025 and how gardening can benefit you and your health. If you receive SNAP, you can also read about how SNAP can help you with your gardening purchases. We even included a yummy salad recipe.
Gardening Trends for 2025
By: Susan Lloyd
Plants are optimists! If you walk by a bare tree in a parking lot, you’re sure to see buds that will become leaves and flowers and maybe even fruit in a few weeks or months. Gardeners are optimists, too! Do you think you aren’t gardener material? Too many aches and pains? Too little yard space or money? The gardening industry has been watching gardens, gardeners and gardening trends - here is what they offer to help you engage in the garden of your dreams.
Celebrate trends and heritage. 2025 is the Year of the
Snake in the lunar calendar or Chinese zodiac. And not-so-coincidentally, the national florist 1-800-Flowers has named the snake plant as their 2025 Plant of the Year. You may know it by its nickname, mother-in-law’s tongue. It loves growing indoors, although there are a few cautions around pets or small children (it’s not a snack). The closer to sunlight, the more color you’ll see in the leaves.
Pick a color! Do you watch a lot of TV? Notice the background colors on your favorite shows: walls, wardrobe, backgrounds. That lovely shade of teal is the 2025 Color of the Year chosen by Garden Media. Teal is a popular tint in succulents, those plants that resemble cacti. They make beautiful accent plants and come in many different sizes.
Get a lived-in look. Is your yard dotted with lonely plants? Small plants can be used as filler around larger ones. Use seasonal (what the nurseries have now) annuals and you can replace them next year if you didn’t love them! Smaller plants are less expensive and let you try something trendy without committing to big plants or big dollars. Indulge your fantasies!
Holey cow! Well, not actual cows. But think about the holey jeans your younger family member’s wear. You can get the same trend in your garden, indoors or out.Madagascar lace leaf, Swiss cheese plants or split-leaf philodendrons are supposed to have holes in the leaves!
Indulge your fantasy! Artificial intelligence can help you design changes to your yard from the comfort of your computer. Don’t own a house or a big yard? Design your happy place and print it out.
Get up! Get out! One of the trends followed by Garden Media is the decline of social media. It’s being replaced by actual social activity. Rather than join every gardening group’s page on social media, get picky about your
experiences. Websites are becoming less about big names (Martha Stewart) and more about the local garden gurus (like our Master Gardener page).
Water-wise plants. We’re increasingly concerned about water conservation here in Nevada. Saving water also means saving money! Extension’s Botanic Garden has a native plant wash featuring native plants that require less water. In 2020, besides Covid keeping gardeners out of the garden, there was no rain for a record 240 days. The plants didn’t look great, but they bounced back. Even with our rainless days, plants are going strong this year. Seeds from our Botanic Garden are harvested after anything blooms and packaged up for you to come get and plant. Call the Master Gardener Help Desk at 702-257-5556 to see what’s in stock - and they’re free (limit of two packages).
Raised beds. This is a great idea when gardening in Nevadafor many reasons. It brings the garden up higher, which is easier on backs and knees. Raised beds are usually of a more manageable size, you can cover them to protect young plants from rabbits or other destructive pests and can easily place a sunshade over it in the middle of our summer heat. Fill the raised beds with garden soil and your favorite plants. Our Extension Publications include a great article on how Raised Beds can Make Gardening Easier – check out our website for lots of gardening ideas using raised beds.
To learn more about University of Nevada, Reno Extension’s Master Gardener program or to become a volunteer, visit:
Extension's Master Gardeners
World Art Day 2025
World Art Day 2025 will take place on Tuesday, April 15. The International Association of Art (IAA/AIAP) organizes the global event in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The theme for 2025 is "A Garden of Expression: Cultivating Community Through Art".
World Art Day UNESCO
Gardens for Nutrition
Researchers have found that aging and medication can bring physiological changes that may affect appetite, the sense of taste, or even the ability to chew and swallow foods. With those changes, new food presentation and preparation approaches are needed to stimulate appetite and interest in food. The gardening and harvesting of varied garden-fresh food may be one step that creates new enthusiasm for eating and can help adapt to these changes.
Elder-Accessible Gardening
Happy Earth Day!
Did you know?
Gardening is a great way to grow your own food and SNAP benefits can be used to purchase the food seeds. This
gives an option to increase the fruits and vegetables that are available for your diet.
SNAP-Ed in the Garden
Health Benefits of Gardening
Five Health Benefits of Gardening ~ In addition to providing nutritious veggies and fruits for your dinner table with beautiful flowers to decorate it, gardening offers a variety of health benefits:
- Exposure to vitamin D
- Decrease dementia risk
- Mood boosting benefits
- Enjoyable aerobic exercise
- Helps combat loneliness
Adapted from AARP Healthy Living
BENEFITS OF GARDENING by AARP
Sunshine Salad
Any way you can toss it; oranges help brighten up this tasty veggie salad. Celebrate National Salad Week with a quick and easy spinach salad. Top it off with your favorite vinaigrette dressing and delicious salad toppings.
Ingredients:
- 5 cups spinach leaves, packed, washed and dried well
- ½ red onion, sliced thin
- ½ red pepper sliced
- 1 cucumber, whole, sliced
- 2 oranges, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces?
- cup vinaigrette “lite” dressing,
15 calories or less per tablespoon.
Directions:
- Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add dressing and toss again.
- Serve immediately.
Visit extension.unr.edu/healthy-eating for more nutritional topics and other tasty summer recipes.
