Selling your garden

As the weather seems to be getting warmer each year and there are more products from lighting to heating units to get us outside at any time of the day the potential for gardening grows. Over 40% of people believe that gardening is their main hobby!

I'm often asked what impact a new garden can have when selling a property. It may seem at the moment that just about any bricks and mortar will sell within minutes of being put on the market but a good garden can help get a great selling price even when there's a shortage of properties to go around. We are already designing and building gardens for attractive homes to put the icing on the cake and help clients obtain a premium price for their property.

It may seem that putting good money into a garden just as you are about to leave is a little pointless. But you don't need to spend too much to vastly improve a selling price. A good clear up of the borders, a frequent cut of the lawn and a few well placed planters and furniture can do a world of good. You can even take the pots and chairs with you when you move!

Programmes such as 'House Doctors' have shown that homes with a spruced up garden will sell quickly. There are even more good homes for rental at the moment as the 'buy to let' market has grown rapidly over the past few years. Ruth Gray, lettings agent for Knight Frank in Wimbledon Village says that "customers are increasingly interested in having a smart and easily manageable garden at the top of their list when looking for a rental property".

Low maintenance, large patios for entertaining and good family facilities such as lawns and playgyms for children are often the key elements to attract interested buyers. As designers we have also found that the quality of materials counts as well, with reclaimed York stone patios, simple, safe water features and well stocked borders and smart pots being the extras which make or break a garden.

So when you are next thinking of moving or letting your house take a look outside. As well as spring cleaning the house give the garden a good tidy and look forward to the offers coming in!

Get some instant impact

• You don't need to spend a fortune to sort out your garden. Try some of the following.
  Buy some large ceramic pots and plants - larger pots will have much more impact even in the tiniest of gardens.
• Invest in a few instant border plants to provide some extra flower colour.
• If you do nothing else weed and water to get good growth and lots of colour and tidy borders.
• Mow the lawn and make sure you do it every week to keep out the weeds
• Install a lighting system - a simple system to light just a few key features such as trees and ponds can cost as little as £200.
• Add a leaky pipe irrigation system to make maintenance easy.
• And if you really want to make it easy install a robot lawnmower that will do all the work for you while you can get on with the BBQ!