Love Your Garden To Sell Your House
By Anna Blackwood of Blackwood Gardens
Purchasing a new home is an emotional affair as it is often our largest financial commitment so getting it right is a big deal. Sound purchase decisions are needed to make sure it meets all your criteria – is in the right location and within your budget. Get that all right and it may still not be the right house for you, you want to fall in love with it.
Falling in love with your future home starts before you even enter the house and the garden is a big part of that all-important first impression. Here are some tips and advice to make best use of your garden when selling your home.
What do you see when you look out of the window?
Stand back and look out the window- what do you see? Have you created an attractive view from your window? Or are you looking onto garden clutter? Do you see wheelie bins, plastic toys or the back of a shed? Tidy up, put bins in a discreet place or screen it with a trellis and evergreen climber. A well-appointed shrub, sculpture or water feature can provide added interest acting as a focal point to direct your eye and enhance the view from the window.
Don’t reveal everything at once
Secret spaces in gardens are great. They can be playful and can reveal themselves gradually. A potential buyer wandering around your garden would be delighted to discover a garden room, hidden vegetable plot or a secluded seat.
Work your boundaries
Garden boundaries are a key part of the garden. Try softening hard landscaping such as walls and fences with climbers which can help blend it in with the surrounding landscape rather than creating a hard edge which can feel like an abrupt finish to the space.
If you have hedges make sure they are neatly trimmed. Overgrown shrubs and hedges can take up a lot of space and make your garden feel smaller, so give them a good cut back and show the garden is loved.
Tidy up
The same goes for the garden as the house, cut your grass (unless it is an intentional meadow), edge your borders – it makes a big difference. Weed your plant borders and if you have any gaps you can always fill them with some extra plants (summer annuals are great way to do this quickly and cheaply), you don’t want to be able to see the soil. Weed gravel areas, sweep paths, lift leaves from paths and lawns, remove moss and algae from paths patios and decks so they are not slippery. Cut hedges, prune shrubs – especially evergreen structural shrubs as these are the back bone to other planting schemes.
Think about colour and scent
The type and style of garden you have will depend on the type of planting you have selected. For example a bright colourful garden is welcoming, where as an evergreen garden is calming, try to stick to one style of planting and think about the impression you want to give.
Scent evokes memories – so choose plants that provide pleasant smells to keep your garden front of mind. Lavender, nepetia or salvia are all good at path edges as they release the scent as your brush past. Jasmine, honeysuckle or a climbing rose is good on a trellis which can be enjoyed without having to bend down.
Pots – less is more
My golden rule with pots is less is more, go big and keep to a limited style and colour. Lots of little pots of all different styles looks cluttered. Pots on either side of a path is a formal look which can leads you in that direction, it often works well at the top of steps. One single pot at the end of the path acts as a focal point and a group of three pots works well as a collection in an area of hard landscaping. If you need to buy new pots remember you can take always take them with you to your new house.
Last thing
If you really aren’t a gardener and your garden is a blank canvas – then keep it that way, keep it clean and tidy and if the potential new buyer is a gardener they will see the potential of all that lovely space!
Happy house selling.
Blackwood Gardens is a Garden Design studio specialising in garden design, planting design and garden advice.
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www.instagram.com/blackwood_gardens/
Photos by Anna Blackwood
