Feature: The UK Towns and Cities Leading the Way with Garden Design

vegetables in garden

By Flogas

Home decorating is a popular pastime for many across the UK, with countless Brits taking special care to ensure that their home is in tip-top condition. While home design is important, looking after your garden is a step you can’t afford to skip. Some methods of garden improvement are timeless, with a OnePoll survey showing that vegetable patches and garden gnomes are still trendy items to include in a garden. But challenging the classics is a part of life too. Tradition can make way for innovation.

In recent years, homeowners have been finding fresh ways to spruce up their gardens. New data reveals which cities are searching for garden improvements the most on Google. The data includes the average number of searches, how the number of searches has changed between November 2020 and December 2021, and the top searches for specific garden improvements.

Here, we’ll be looking at the towns and cities across the UK that are going above and beyond in these categories to see which places are leading the way in innovative garden design.

London

In terms of sheer volume of searches, it’s unsurprising that London is leading the way. With an average search volume of 252,390, far higher than any other city, Londoners are looking for garden improvement tips en masse. This is to be expected, of course, since London has a far larger population than the other entries on our list.

In terms of average searches per 100,000 people, London is fairly unimpressive in how many searches there are for garden improvements – there are other, smaller cities where the craze has been felt harder. London’s top search term may reflect the cosmopolitan tastes of inhabitants of the capital, since ‘pizza ovens’ saw more searches than any other, with a whopping 6,600 searches.

So if you’re hoping to set up a stone-baked pizza parlour somewhere in the South, you might find yourself stuck against some pretty stiff homemade competition.

Milton Keynes

The East Midlands has seen an explosion in interest in garden improvements. In particular, this interest has picked up in Milton Keynes. Though a much smaller settlement than other entries on our lists, Milton Keynes has seen searches shoot up between 2020 and 2021.

With searches for garden improvement rising from 3,236 to 4,383 in the space of 13 months, interest increased by a staggering 35%. This increase makes Milton Keynes a country with an outstanding investment in its gardens, with an increase higher than any other city.

Although scenic, English towns and cities are hardly famous for their sunny weather. This might explain why homeowners in Milton Keynes are searching for ‘patio heaters’ more than anything else. On those days where the sun is shining, but there might be a chilly wind blowing past, few things work better to warm a garden than outdoor heaters.

Warrington

If you’re looking for a city that is steaming ahead in its commitment to garden décor, Warrington is the place to go. Although small, this Cheshire city located between Liverpool and Manchester has a mighty fixation with gardens.

For the average number of searches per 100,000 people, Warrington ranks higher than any other city – three times as many as the average number in London. Warrington’s interest remained consistent throughout 2020 and 2021, so if you’re looking for inspiration for your own garden, you might fancy taking a trip to the North West to have a little snoop around this city.

While other cities have been largely set on one particular improvement, Warrington sees a fair spread of search terms. ‘Patio heaters’, ‘pizza ovens’, and ‘outdoor lighting’ all rank high in searches, so residents aren’t just following trends, they’re choosing unique and personalised ways to improve their garden. If you’re making improvements to your garden, you might want to consider which features would benefit you the most, instead of simply choosing the trendiest – as tempting as that might be!

And that’s our list of cities looking for garden improvements on Google. Warrington takes the top spot for the amount of interest relative to the population size. However, Milton Keynes’ interest has skyrocketed recently, so if you’re hoping to get inspiration from the cutting edge of garden improvements, you might want to look there! We hope this list can help inspire you on what features will give your garden a new lease of life.