Apart from clearing rubbish or brambles, I didn't realise people did that. Is it like painting all your rooms magnolia?
sort of. It needs to look 'manageable'. We generally moved out of the houses when they were on the market, which meant the garden had to be maintainable by someone coming in once a fortnight - lawn and hedges, essentially.
We turfed over my Mum's garden after she died, because I wasn't there enough to maintain it properly and it was getting overgrown very quickly. A lesson I learned is that a garden doesn't outlive the gardener, as a rule (unless you're a famous gardener who writes books on the subject). On the other hand, there are some pretty big clumps of her garden here in mine, that were excavated before turfing began
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
This will be be my last house purchase but I still garden it, not for me, but for the overall value of the property. I wish I could just do what pleases us but I can't help thinking about "Is this naff or increasing value? "
What a deeply depressing mindset to have. Sorry, but this is so sad. I can sort of understand if you're selling a house and therefore want to make it look nicer to prospective buyers, but if you're not selling then why would you even care about its 'overall value'?
Well put @TimmyMagic. I garden purely for my own amusement and am trying not to think about what will happen to it when and if we move or die. Last year we watched as our new neighbours who are not gardeners at all, had the lovely garden our previous neighbour had lavished love and money on for 14 years, completely bulldozed flat - literally, 400 tons were taken away (the garden was on a hillside). It was heartbreaking to watch and although I like the very modern, clean looking garden it now is as it suits the revamped house, it's not for me. I fully expect the same thing would happen here when I'm gone.
When you think what happens to your garden if you go away for a couple of weeks, it makes you realise how much work you actually do to maintain your garden. If it's your pleasure,you don't mind but if you're not interested i suppose you'd be seduced by the maintenance-free garden myth.
The previous owners put an original red telephone box in the garden. I guess as a quirky design feature or to preserve it as a lot of them were taken off the streets and disposed of in the last few years. We still don’t know if it increases or reduces the value of the house, as it can’t be removed (not easily at least). 😄 But it looks lovely, shiny red and doesn’t take much space as it is sitting in the corner.
I garden for the wildlife as much as myself. This makes it twice as hard to think about selling the house as only a very few people would want to continue how I've been maintaining this place. I've always said I feel sorry for any non-gardeners who buy this house as they'll probably want to remove all the tons of stone I've painstakingly dragged up here over the years. They'll have a surprise if they ever try to remove the pond and find the massive rocks that are hidden in the walls. They were too big to remove from the garden and took a large JCB to get them into place
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Our new neighbours have removed fences, raised beds, decking areas etc and plan to remove the flower borders too. They have two young children and a major factor in purchasing the house was a large garden for the kids to play in. They simply don't have the time at present to manage the garden as it is, so they plan to turf the whole area and probably reinstate borders once the kids are much older. There intention is for this to be their 'forever home' so I don't doubt the garden will change over time, but I very much doubt I'll be around to see it.
@B3 Well, me neither, but I suspect gardeners like @Picidae and @Hostafan1 have a lot of land and it would be a large factor in the value of the property and needs a deal of upkeep. My garden is so tiny and easy to clear that you could overhaul the overhaul / rebuild the whole thing over for under 5k, if so minded. If I had five acres I'm sure I would feel differently about resale value.
I do feel about nimby-ish about most people on my street not caring at all about their front gardens. Not re resale value, but that it's such a shame for the beautiful street to concrete over front gardens and look so unkempt and uncared for. I think cared-for properties (including gardens) speak well of their owners, on the whole.
TimmyMagic said:, but if you're not selling then why would you even care about its 'overall value'?
Well let me try to explain. My wife is Chinese and 20 years younger than me. In 2002 she gave up everything to be with me, job, friends, family, country. She became disabled 18 months ago and I am her carer as well as her husband. If nature takes its course she will outlive me by quite a long time. As she has no family here she will need to be cared for. This costs a lot of money and this house will provide that money for my wife. So it's 'overall value' is important and that's why I care about it. Everytime I add value to the property either by gardening, decorating or whatever it makes me feel happy and content that my wife will be looked after. Not sad.
I absolutely garden for myself and will do until such time as old age/infirmity forces a move to a less demanding property. I will take with me favourite plants and try not to think about someone else ripping it all out paving/turfing everything.
I do find it astonishing that people have no imagination, you see it on property porn programmes where buyers dismiss a house because they don’t like the wallpaper, so whatever you do to a house or garden someone will hate it. For that reason, if you put it on the market, make sure all is clean, tidy and well-maintained but no point in trying to garden for some mythical future buyer. Sods law dictates that if you have a low maintenance garden, someone will want a well stocked, established one.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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We turfed over my Mum's garden after she died, because I wasn't there enough to maintain it properly and it was getting overgrown very quickly. A lesson I learned is that a garden doesn't outlive the gardener, as a rule (unless you're a famous gardener who writes books on the subject). On the other hand, there are some pretty big clumps of her garden here in mine, that were excavated before turfing began
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
If it's your pleasure,you don't mind but if you're not interested i suppose you'd be seduced by the maintenance-free garden myth.
We still don’t know if it increases or reduces the value of the house, as it can’t be removed (not easily at least). 😄 But it looks lovely, shiny red and doesn’t take much space as it is sitting in the corner.
I do find it astonishing that people have no imagination, you see it on property porn programmes where buyers dismiss a house because they don’t like the wallpaper, so whatever you do to a house or garden someone will hate it. For that reason, if you put it on the market, make sure all is clean, tidy and well-maintained but no point in trying to garden for some mythical future buyer. Sods law dictates that if you have a low maintenance garden, someone will want a well stocked, established one.