The new year has begun and that means trade show season! Unfortunately, with the ever-evolving pandemic, there is still a lot of uncertainty about how the shows will unfold.

The first of the year is always MANTS, the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show, celebrating its 52^nd show in Baltimore. With masks on, thousands of attendees joined the hundreds of exhibitors for three days of shopping, buying, and relationship building in the horticulture industry.

Like always, MANTS did not disappoint and there was no shortage of hot new plant releases and cool new tools and products. No worries if you couldn’t make it, we’ve wrapped up a “To-Go” list of some of the most eye-catching new products from the show.

Sunny days, big smiles, and messy hands… If that’s what springtime means to your child, then it’s time to get outside and get growing! April is national Kids Garden Month, an initiative spearheaded by the youth-focused nonprofit KidsGardening to inspire and encourage kids to get into gardening.

Gardening benefits children in countless ways. From hands-on learning about science and biology to physical fitness and creative play with colors and textures, home gardening helps children steward our natural world while learning – plus it’s a “screen-free” activity!

If you’re stumped on how to get started, never fear! We’ve got three tips for getting your kids excited and inspired to garden!

Read on for the four surprising finds of the 2020 holiday season.

Here at Garden Media we are huge fans of podcasts. From How I Built This, by Guy Raz, to the true crime genre, we are hooked.

In fact, we've written a post about our favorite blogs of 2018, why you should start podcasting, and we've created a list of our favorite PR and marketing podcasts.

But today, we are going to dive into our favorite gardening podcasts. And, we want to hear from you, too! What are your favorites podcasts? What are your favorite episodes? Let's hear it!

Read on for our eight favorite gardening podcasts of 2019.

Make a Splash is the next segment of Nature’s Rx for Mental Wellness, the theme for the 2018 Garden Trends Report, we are diving deeper into.

If you missed the other deep dives, here are Breathing Rooms, Social Network and Climate Controlled. 

There’s tremendous support for water as a decorative feature and environmental tactic. Preparing the garden to embrace storms and excess rainfall will not only help save water but also help to control storm water runoff.

The growing trend of filtering water with plants helps with healthy water management, while still keeping beauty in the garden.

So, where do we begin?

Nature’s Rx for Mental Wellness, the theme for the 2018 Garden Trends Report, is all about taking a break from being connected 24/7 and getting back in the real world.

The World Health Organization predicts anxiety will be the #1 health issue, outranking obesity by 2020.

That’s right around the corner. If we don’t try to stop that now, we are going to be in major trouble.

Thankfully, there is more talk of wellness in the world more than ever.

Celebrities and Royals are talking about their mental wellness goals, which is helping demystify mental health.

The bottom line is: Happy mind = Happy body.

In this week’s Trending Thursday post, we’re reflecting a decade into the past when people started to recognize – and then alter – "reckless” habits.   

As the country started to embrace holistic, natural options when it came to products and food, people started to pay attention to what was happening below the surface of their garden.

Consumers realized that the path to healthy plants started in the ground.

Reckless gardening was out and safe gardening was in.

Continue reading to learn more about the Safe Gardening trend.

For today's Trending Thursday post, highlighting the dogscaping trend from our 2016 Garden Trends Report. 

Pets run through the lawn, roll in it, dig in it and often eat it so it’s no wonder that pet owners are thinking more and more about how to make their gardens pet friendly and pet safe.

Dogscaping is creating a safe place for pets to roll, run and roam outside.

Learn more about Dogscaping from our latest YouTube video.

Last year, we sat down with Dr. Doug Tallamy to talk biodiversity and native plants. Tallamy, professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware said that yards that truly thrive support ecosystems.    

We cited layered landscapes as a top 2016 garden trend. The trend of choosing plants with a purpose will continue to spread to the backyard and beyond. (Layered Landscape concepts can even apply to the PR industry!)

Here are some tips on how to create your own layered landscape.

Continue reading to learn how to create a layered landscape in your backyard.

The Garden Media team attended IGC East earlier this month, and with half of the team being Millennials, we looked at the show with a different perspective. We definitely ran into certain booths that caught our attention.

Many companies are shifting their focus onto the new garden consumer: Millennials, and with good reason. Millennials make up nearly 25 percent of the US population and are the most influential consumers.

One trait of Millennials is that we love to be engaged - not of the marrying kind, not yet - but of the stimulant kind. Give us something to do or something to watch. And be approachable... without being creepy. Be nice, be calm and be welcoming.  

Continue reading to see what booths stood out in the Millennial mind and why.