How A Garden Can Add Value To Your Home

10 tips on how a garden can add value to you property.

Gardens have become a lot more than places to grow plants and vegetables. They have become spaces for rest and relaxation; an oasis or retreat from the pleasures or everyday life. They now act as an extension to the living environment of our homes, where plants now take a back seat or may not exist at all.

As land prices increase, houses get larger are gardens are becoming smaller. Now the average suburban courtyard in no bigger than the typical drawing room. One should invest the same amount of thought and expense on decorating their outside space as any inside one, if they wish to maximise the value of their property.

1) A well designed terrace extends the living environment of the house to the outside. Invest in good quality paving as you would with any flooring material inside the home.

2) Invest in good quality Rattan, timber or metalwork outside furniture. Sofas and Armchairs are now common place and can provide an outside sitting room for entertaining just as they would inside so don’t buy cheap.

3) A Paved Dining area can now be furnished with beautiful wood, metal and stone dining furniture to provide not just practical eating space but as a sculptural element to be admired 12 months of the year.

4) Outside kitchens provide and extension of the cooking environment of the home. Gone are the days when a portable BBQ will suffice. A separate building containing kitchen and dining space sited away from the house are now becoming more popular. Often sited adjacent to a pool or tennis court they provide a fabulous extension to the home and save long treks backwards and forwards to the house with food and crockery.

5) A well designed front garden will act as a setting for the house and be an important first impression for arriving guests.

6) A mini terrace outside the front door will act as a welcome and greeting space so allowing guests to spread out on arrival, rather than lined up crocodile fashion down a single path.

7) Tennis courts can add value were as an outside swimming pool in small gardens can have the opposite effect. Badly sited swimming pools that dominate a small garden can devalue a property by restricting the number of potential buyers. They are seen as high maintenance costly to run so take advice before installing and outside pool

8) Give as much consideration to choosing your boundary fence as you would, choosing the wall paper for your home. Not only should it provide privacy but should look beautiful all year round. Consider also outside art and sculpture to hank on the boundary. Anything from outside waterproof photography to stone or metal installations.

9) In smaller urban gardens consider an arbour over your sitting space. This gives the feeling of privacy and enclosure which is so important to those living in built up areas.

10) Consider the sound of running water to help mask background noise. Traffic or even a nearby school can create unwanted background noise which can be masked by the sound of trickling water. This doesn’t have to be an open pond, as there are many artist and sculptors working on outside installations that are worth considering.