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It's become an annual tradition to feature garden trends for the new year, based on information provided by the Garden Media Group, a company that specializes in providing innovative PR campaigns for home, garden, horticulture, outdoor living, lawn and landscape industries.

In the past, the Garden Media Group has issued a column dedicated to annual trends. Its approach to 2014 trends impressed me so much I'll be presenting a three-part series touching on highlights from their 119-page report.

Entitled "Finding Balance in the Garden" the report begins with the news that four in 10 women are the primary or sole breadwinners in the family and that 24 per cent of wives earn more than their husbands. Single women now account for 20 per cent of sales in the new home market. The number of stay-at-home dads has doubled in the past decade and this is reflected in the decor, with stronger, bolder interiors.

The Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X. They are known as the "fix-it" generation and want every room in their home to be personal. They use their dining room as a home office, nearly half of them want the living room to be a home theater and prefer a TV in the kitchen instead of a second oven.

The Garden Media Group has labeled 2014 as the Year of Happiness, with unplugging and finding bliss in the garden set as priorities.

Sustainability is a key word in consumerism this year. More people want to shrink their environmental footprint and are drawn to brands that help them live healthfully and sustainably. Organic farms are increasing 9 per cent annually and sales of organic products are increasing at double-digit rates.

The global garden market is continuing to grow and was up 3 per cent. Lawn and garden sales ($58 billion) rank third in how we spend our money, with Christmas ($586.1 billion) and weight loss methods ($61 billion) number one and two.

Pets are in fourth place at $53 billion.

Bedding/garden plants compose 53.9 per cent of all sales, but foliage plants now rank second with 17.7 per cent or $641.8 million. The popularity of lower maintenance perennials shows in a rise of 10 per cent in the last decade, while annuals have dropped the same percentage.

Pansy, viola, begonia and New Guinea impatiens sales are all up but vegetative geraniums, vegetables, marigold and seed geranium sales have all dropped.