Diarmuid Gavin says trends are increasingly heading towards a return to traditional gardens, with plants the stars.

He’s pleased that the age of stainless steel, bright blue fences and decking has ended.

Having launched the Ideal Home Show’s first garden design competition to celebrate the best of sustainable practice in garden design and support young and emerging UK students in the field, he’s expecting a rush of eco-awareness.

“There will be a generation of students who grew up in a time when gardening was manic on television, he says. “I’m expecting big eco-awareness. That generation will know how important it is in terms of sourcing materials, saving water and making compost. I would hope for a refinement of all the madder ideas.

“The wheel is turning back to the craft of gardening. People’s first love is plants, understanding the soil and the environment. That’s the very trendy thing, which is healthy.”

Fruit and vegetable-growing will continue this year and in the longer-term future, he predicts.

“The big trend will remain ‘grow-it-yourself’. Companies will come out with kit forms of raised beds made from wood, compost mixes and seed mixes, along with manuals on how to grow basic vegetables to educate your children and feed your family.

“In terms of materials and planting schemes, it’s back to the style of garden from our childhood; the grander, more old-fashioned style and colour in terms of herbaceous plants and appreciation of tradition.

“A lot of natural stone will be used and salvage material will be appreciated. There will be less concrete.”

Gavin says he is commissioned to design more traditional gardens in general.

“People want to be comforted and indulged. They want to see the qualities of tradition for which Britain is so well-known. They want to embrace tradition in a realistic way.”

For people with smaller town gardens and not much time for maintenance, minimalist will stay in vogue, he says, while the popularity of low-maintenance plants is surging.

“Ornamental plants such as grasses, mass planting of lavender and Buxus sempervirens in a more contemporary way works very well, so keep it simple. For most gardens, the palette of plants is relatively limited because you have to acknowledge how people live.

“There will be more evergreens and people will appreciate grasses like carex. If you planted bronze carex a few years ago, people thought you were planting something dead.

“Now there’s a more naturalistic feel through an appreciation of foliage and different hues, supplemented with bulbs.”