Creating kerb appeal
Garden designers Jenny Harper and Linda Shaw Stewart share some of their expertise to help create "kerb appeal"
When buying or selling our home, we tend to focus on the interior - decluttering, fresh flowers, pleasant fragrances. The garden, which gives that vital first impression, is often forgotten.
The simplest piece of advice and the one that is easiest to achieve is to tidy up. Trim hedges, cut grass and weed borders so that potential purchasers see a neat, manageable garden rather than a wilderness which they will have to tame. If your garden has become too much, £500 will buy two men for two days to do the job for you, knocking the garden into shape so that it appears attractive to buyers.
Another cost effective tactic is a consultation with a garden designer who will bring a fresh eye and recommend some changes you can make which will improve the look and help you to achieve your sale. This need not cost a lot and is particularly helpful to the inexperienced gardener or the "middle of the road" property where an attractive garden will make your house stand out from the rest.
Be imaginative - tailor the garden to the house type to market it more effectively but don't embark on a radical full makeover - it's a waste of money if you end up with something not to the taste of most prospective buyers.
If you are planning something a bit more ambitious than a tidy up: pre-plan. Book a design consultation about six weeks before you put your house on the market and plant about a month before to give your plants a chance to bed in before anyone comes to view. If time and funds are limited, concentrate your planting along the path to your front door, using shrubs to soften edges and create a route for the eye to follow. Although you may always have yearned for a Japanese water garden, or an avant -garde sculpture court outside your Georgian house, remember that, when you are selling, you should aim to appeal to the maximum number of people. It is good to be creative, but best to steer clear of outré design in favour of something a bit more in keeping with your property and the expectations of buyers.
A garden changes with its occupants - a bungalow with a low maintenance, smallish garden is likely to be attractive to an older buyer, so design the garden accordingly. A large family house with a big garden might be
crying out for a tree house - a relatively small investment which could tip the balance in your favour. Be imaginative - tailor the garden to the house type to market it more effectively but don't embark on a radical full makeover - it's a waste of money if you end up with something not to the taste of most prospective buyers.
Identify your property clearly - particularly if you are selling part of a once larger house - indicate which is your front door with, for example, a box shrub in an attractive pot on either side. You know which is your front door because you live there - people driving past who are considering buying do not!
Jenny and Linda have some good advice for buyers too. Anyone moving into a house with a mature garden should live with it for a year before making any changes. Only after seeing the garden in every season and at all times of the day can you be sure of making the right decision to take things out or put new things in.
Many people who buy houses to renovate never budget for the garden and are caught out because the ground has no topsoil. It is a combination of rubble and turf and very difficult to plant. Treat the garden like another room and look at spending as much on the garden as the bathroom or kitchen - a properly designed and planted garden is almost another room, particularly in the summer months.
Deal with the garden first and look at it as an evolving project, not a quick fix of fashionable but unsuitable plants that soon lose their initial attractiveness. Sympathy with the landscape, particularly in town gardens, is important and any work that requires access through your house ought to be done before the interior and not spoil the time and effort that has gone into cream carpets and expensive decor.
Negotiate with your neighbours before starting work on a major project and be aware of the regulations which govern things like tree felling if you live in a Conservation Area. If your trees have a diameter of seven inches or more, then you must have local authority permission before removing them. That said, don't feel that you have to retain large, well-established trees just because they are large and well-established. Take advice and be ruthless.
If you do nothing else, whether buying or selling, get a "second opinion" on your garden - it might just make your house the one that everyone wants to buy or the one that you want to stay in for years to come because it exactly suits your needs.
Jenny Harper and Linda Shaw Stewart started their business, Growing Gardens, nine years ago. Based in East Lothian, their clients are spread throughout Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders. They offer everything from a one-off consultation to a full garden design service, providing advice on landscaping and planting. They will also provide labour to facilitate a garden tidy up. Although they do not offer ongoing maintenance they can provide a garden "spring clean" prior to a property going on sale. They consult on soil composition and appropriate planting and will supply and deliver plants and shrubs.
Contact
Jenny on 01368 850210
or Linda on 01368 850358.
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