What buyers are looking for in London gardens
As Spring progresses and we’re spending more time outside, we caught up with Ben Skinner and Andrew Eden from Town and Country Gardens to find out what London buyers are looking for in gardens and some top tips you can follow to get your garden ready for sale. Town and Country gardens have become the first port of call for those seeking to find a seamless approach to finding a one-stop shop for garden design, construction, planting and ongoing maintenance.
What are the top three things that buyers are looking for in a London garden?
This is a tricky question as it depends on the needs of the buyers, their age group and taste, but to cover all bases, we’d say;
A family and/or entertainment focused space – gardens have become additional rooms post lockdown
Ease of Maintenance – a carefully designed garden can keep maintenance to a minimum
Privacy
What are the key garden trends right now?
1. Perennial planting blocks
2. Multi-stem trees
3. Irrigation
4. Artificial grass
What are the key things a vendor should do to prepare their garden for sale?
1. Conduct a thorough clean and tidy, remove all dead, dying or misshapen shrubs or plants.
2. Conduct a sensitive and if necessary hard prune of shrubs, climbers and plants to show the garden off to best effect.
3. If the garden is heavily shaded employ a tree surgeon to thin out overhanging growth to let more light into the garden, this may require planning consent in Conservation areas and may take up to 6 weeks to be granted.
4. Perhaps add a little shrub or perennial interplanting to fill out the beds.
5. Repair trellis or fencing.
6. Remove any broken materials and empty storage areas of all redundant items.
7. Pressure wash all hard surfaces.
8. Repaint or apply stain to any tired rendered blockwork beds or timber.
What’s more popular - paving, artificial grass or real grass?
This is an entirely subjective question as the choice is dependent on the needs of the owner. Even though I cannot praise a fine natural lawn enough, I do appreciate that for many homes this can be more time consuming than can be afforded, can be damaged too easily and the maintenance falls outside the skill sets of our clients. Generally, we find that the vast majority of smaller gardens in London we maintain will have a mixture of paving and or lawn and some have artificial lawn.
Any advice on colour palettes for a London garden?
1. Blues/purple and white
2. Singular shade or monochrome plantings are still very popular.
3. Shades of green with white and a little dark purple
4. Irish Pub (every colour on mass) Yup, not to everyone taste but it can be inviting and cheery.
Please can you share some ideas for beautiful looking but low maintenance plants?
1. Rosa Banksia alba plena/Lutea
2. Trachelospermum Jasminoides
3. Fatsia Green fingers
4. Mahonia soft caress
5. Osmanthus Burkwoodii
6. Kirengeshoma Palmata
7. Pleached Trees
How do you make a roof terrace/balcony look like a garden without investing thousands?
Less is more. The careful use of several feature pots with carefully chosen architectural plants, underplanting and furniture will make an area inviting and usable. Generally, we try to keep the palette of plants narrow as too many varieties can make an area appear claustrophobic and ill thought through. Keep in mind that terraces and balconies are often windswept, hot and dry so irrigation is a must if you want to keep everything happy. Lastly choose plants that can survive these conditions. Avoid Bamboo unless you want to be cleaning the balcony every week.