Add value? Traditional cottage garden or tropical palms & decking?

Davesnave

space_rider wrote: »

I`m bit worried about the rats now!

Don't be. People had sheds for decades before decking, and nobody worried. Lots of things can live under those too!

Strapped

Personally, my vote would be cottage style, but that's because I live in an old house in the country! The garden should compliment the house style imho. This might mean more contempory is right for you.

But bear your target market in mind if you are genuine about developing with a future sale in mind - this place had an absolutely gorgeous cottage garden, owned by an older couple who were fantatical gardeners but we have had to change it to suit our needs as a family (as Davesnave said - lawn for the "harzardous outside pursuits" - and taken out a couple of beds to enlarge the patio for "trundle space" for trikes etc). If you definitely think you will move in the next couple of years, then choose a fairly bland middle-of-the-road layout with outside "year-round/patio" area plus a lwan, and liven it up with potted stuff that can travel with you.

ETA: Oh, and we have just put in a new, higher fence to screen off the annoying neighbours ;-)

Amarillo

I have decking because we live on a hill, had knackered and subsiding concrete steps and it would have cost far too much to have had a patio cost to the level of the house. I'm not keen though and wouldn't have had it by choice.

I would prefer a cottage style garden with fruit trees and bushes and an attractively arranged veg patch to show how the garden can be productive (herbs too) with careful thought as to seating areas.

I personally wouldn't pay more for a garden and have walked away from a lovely 150 foot cottage garden that I loved in favour of a better house.

GracieP

I actually would pay more for a garden I loved. If there were two otherwise identical houses but one had a bigger, better garden I'd consider paying up to £25k more for the right garden. But it would have to be good bit bigger, so that's really the land I'd be paying for.

If the gardens were identically sized but one was mature and beautiful I might consider paying a thousand more for it. But what the right garden would do is add saleability, meaning I'd definitely choose the better garden first which would mean less time on the market. Though that's just personal taste and what I'd consider more attractive could be off-putting to someone else.

gabyjane

space_rider wrote: »

I live on a new estate and anyone looking to buy here would be looking for a more modern feel. The garden was already landscaped when I moved in with the modern contemporary look which I felt looked a bit clinical. I have just added plants close to the french doors/patio which are medittaranean. This gives it a much warmer feel and I have herbs and a huge lavender. I have also added bamboos near the fence so that in a few more years it won`t look as overlooked. It has decking gravel and grass so it`s a good mixture. I`m bit worried about the rats now!

This sounds like our garden when we have got the decking! our next door neighbours have the bamboo and it looks lovely! ours is like yours a new estate and wouldn't i dont think attract older people as they are town houses so the modern easy garden is ok for me!! the grass part can be turned into a cottage style one if need be but would prob look a bit out of place! As for the rats wll i know loads of people with decking and never heard of this before..like sheds alsorts can live under those and have never had any probs in the past..

tara747

I'm with most of the posters here. I absolutely despise decking, it is the worst invention ever and just screams 'I'm an enormous chav with no taste whatsoever'. It's ugly, clunky, tacky and goes rotten in this wet climate of ours! Ugh. 'Changing Rooms' has a lot to answer for.

The cottage garden sounds delightful, I would definitely go for that. :A It will increase the chances of selling your house too as it will never go out of fashion.

hethmar

We are actually waiting for our new neighbours from hell to install decking, it just seems so them. They have already destroyed, literally, 37 mature trees as they wanted a "football pitch" and dont like wildlife

Norma_Desmond

Another vote against decking! I just think it screams 'barren new housing estate' and is so 'fashionable' that it's already outdated.
My house is very old and has a relatively small walled garden which you could call 'cottage'; it's all tangled wild flowers, ivy and mossy stone benches and people do seem to love it because it has 'character'.
VERY low maintenance too - I spend most of my time sitting in it, not working on it!

hethmar

Im with you Norma, cant see the point of all the edging and cutting lawns with nail clippers. My garden heaves with wildlife and thats how I like it. Just been out there now, wild flowers everywhere plus my cultivated ones like freesias and delphiniums growing madly and happily together and frogs hiding in the old oak water barrels as I pass - brilliant, thats how a garden should be Meanwhile new chav neighbours from hell make a wooded 400 ft garden into a barren football pitch

Davesnave

As someone with more than a passing interest in gardening, I'm pleased to see a healthy amount of disagreement on this thread, though views seem quite polarised.

It really isn't an either/or situation. You can mix styles and also create rooms within the overall garden framework, if you have the space & the inclination. If not, go for plain, clean lines and add interest with planters (which are yours, not theirs!).

Decking can form a feature in any style of garden, but the style and finish of the decking is crucial to the overall effect. As someone else has said, decking copes admirably with slopes and it is more environmentally friendly than some of the alternatives, being made from a sustainable product.

Incidentally, I think it was 'Ground Force' that popularised decking originally.;)

As for 'cottage gardening,' a plethora of different gardening types claim to engage in that, but what they mean is often very different! Lazy gardeners, whose borders are full of ground elder and mud-coloured aquilegias, try to climb into bed here with others who are following closely in the footsteps of Margery Fish, or Gertrude Jeykll. Done well, a cottage garden looks like a happy accident, but it is hard work. Done badly, it still looks better than a football pitch and trampolining centre though, and of course the wildlife doesn't care one way or the other; in fact the more nettles and bramble thickets the better!

But remember, this thread is about adding value, or at least not putting people off, so the easy answer is, as with interiors, keep it simple and roughly in tune with the style of the house. When people view, they need to see themselves living in the house, so bland may be better than a bold statement which wows a few and makes the remainder cringe.