9 trends for '09

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - It's January, one of the grimmest months, and you're probably wondering two things: Where you left the gardening catalogs that get you through the dreary season, and what you can do to give your house a blast of post-holiday color.

We scoped out nine trends for 2009 just in time for winter reading and spring planning.

1. Who are you calling yellow?

Pantone, the global big wheel in color-trending, announced in December that the color of the year for 2009 is "mimosa." But you can call it by whatever synonym you like best for yellow: butter, sunflower, gold, illuminated vanilla, orangey-champagney.

Beth Harper, Lexington, Ky.'s Lone Rearranger, says that using wall color _ "not neutrals, but more reds, greens, gold and pumpkin" _ can quickly change the look of the room. Says Harper: Paint your ceiling the same color as the walls, which "can change a room's look completely."

2. Grow some incredible edible ornamentals

While you're planning your fantasy garden indoors and out, Marcia Farris, director of The Arboretum in Lexington, Ky., suggests that edible ornamental flowers might be in vogue. Edibles include pansies, nasturtiums and some varieties of lavender.

Says Farris: "Asparagus is beautiful. Swiss chard, lettuces and many other vegetables and herbs can add great texture to flower gardens."

Another plant trend is the use of succulents, which are low-maintenance and drought-tolerant: "Echeverias were very attractive and drew a lot of comment in The Arboretum garden last summer," Farris says. "Sedums and sempervivums (hens and chicks) are also showing up in containers and beds."

3. Farewell, big ol' house: Hello, little house, fully wired with all the amenities

Bob Weiss, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Kentucky, says builders are seeing a trend "toward smaller homes with the amenities still built in."

"What we've found is that people don't need all the space they think they need. ... Wiring the home for electronics and computers has become an art in itself."

What homebuyers want: computer access throughout the house and top-end bathrooms and kitchens: "Both of those tend to add value to the home," Weiss says.

4. Get in sync with rain

Whenever the deluge comes, it's easier to deal with it if you plan your gardening around the incoming precipitation.

Get a rain barrel, says Amy Sohner of the environmental organization Bluegrass PRIDE (Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment).

In fact, plant a rain garden. A rain garden _ a depressed area usually planted with native plants _ is a great way to deal with storm runoff from impervious areas such as parking lots and driveways. Runoff can be a huge issue in some areas.

5. Give a garden for your kids or for yourself

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Who doesn't have fond memories of planting those big sunflower and nasturtium seeds as a child? Pumpkins also have big seeds that yield a big, showy display that quickly teaches the lessons that a garden is a pleasure that not only feeds you but sustains the landscape.

Susie Quick of Midway, Ky.'s Honest Farm says that a kids' garden could include flowers that attract beneficial insects, small tomatoes of all colors, mini peppers, French beans and bush varieties of vegetables. Such gardens even can be cultivated in containers.

One caution: "Parents of very small children will want to check out a list of toxic garden plants to avoid ... like castor beans and certain ornamentals a child might pluck and eat," Quick says.

Fayette County, Ky., extension agent Jamie Dockery says that when you grow your own garden, be it child-based or not, "You know exactly what's being sprayed on or what's coming in contact with your food."

6. 'Refresh' your front entrance _ all of them

Harper of The Lone Rearranger suggests: "Update the outside of the house by buying or painting a front door and shutters. Replacing the lights at your front-door entrance, and the post (if you have one) can really change the look of your house."

She also suggests spiffing up the entrance door from the garage to your house: Make it look like a real entrance, not the back door where you sneak in groceries.

7. Keep your garden real: Ditch fake plants

Fake ficus, fake topiary, fake palm, fake vines: If it doesn't require water but does require a synthetic dust-dispersing spray, it's neither "green" nor even "green-ish."

Harper, the Lexington organizer/decorator, said: "No more ivy at the top of bookcases or cabinets."

8. Declutter: Make your accessories count

Holiday season decorating detritus tends to overstay its welcome. Says Harper: "Get rid of accessories that might be sitting all over the place. Why have seven things on a table when three will do?"

9. 'Green' up your house _ and your lawn, too

That doesn't mean you have to abandon the mimosa paint, but strive instead to live in a style that's kinder to the environment: Find better-looking bins for your recycling, ditch the wall-to-wall carpet, and if you're building a house, make sure you have a design with higher energy standards than your old drafty box.

Says Weiss of the Kentucky Homebuilders: "People are trying to save money wherever they can, building to higher energy standards and building green to save water and electricity."

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Extension agent Dockery sees a trend toward "anything sustainable _ it's the whole hippie theory gone mainstream."

He suggests that homeowners wean themselves away from the idea that a lawn has to be an outdoor carpet that's uniform and neatly edged. Learn to live with a few weeds, love the clover (it provides nitrogen to the grass) and get over the idea that you have to feed your lawn all the time. There are two reasons: first, you're being kinder to area waterways by not leaking your lawn runoff into them; and two, because if you feed your lawn all the time, "you're trying to force things to grow when it's not practical for them to be growing."

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© 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).