Our garden is not the cause for the lack of sale

[maoiBYRD]

Neighbours have just blamed me because our garden is a mess. That’s why they can’t get their sale for the flat upstairs.

They are selling for 10 grand over the asking price. You can get a three bed in the next road for 5 grand less, they are going with an online estate agent and you have to do viewings yourself. We are in the middle of a pandemic and no one is buying at the moment.

I’m currently clearing the flower bed of the “jungle” of wild flowers, potatoes and garlic that I created with my little girl, and trying to find a scrap man to take away the bikes and scooters and wondering how how I “shape” a bush that we really want to keep because my mother planted it.

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Im digging up the unsightly veg bushes. I will clear the garden. We don’t have any rotting cars or rat nests. It was just a bit overgrown with wild flowers and veg. :(

There are some very defensive (messy) posters on this thread.

When you are actually living somewhere, you can judge your actual neighbours by their personalities and behaviour. In that case, most of us would be happy living next to someone whose garden is a bit messy if they are friendly and helpful. We would prefer that to people with immaculate gardens who exhibit antisocial behaviour.

But the whole point of the op wasn't whether the state of a garden can affect relationships between neighbours; it was whether the state of a neighbour's garden can affect the saleability of a property.

When you are looking to buy, you have to use every clue you can find to decide whether it is somewhere you would be happy to live. Many posters gave said that an overgrown garden would put them off because it would be unpleasant to look at (and in the op's example, people buying the 1st floor flat would presumably be overlooking her garden) or because it would suggest (in the absence of any personal knowledge and experience) that the neighbours don't care about the property which in turn could suggest a general lack of consideration.

Virtually everybody has said that they would be put off by a neighbour's garden which contained enough old bikes etc to warrant a call to a scrap collector.

Whether some people consider this judgemental or not, the answer to the op is clearly yes, the state of your garden is something which could make it harder for your neighbours to sell their flat

Posted that using the mobile app. There were definitely paragraphs when I wrote it!

Junkyard bikes requiring a scrap collector would definitely put me off.

The messy garden would put me off massively because I would have no control. I'm not buying it, I just have to look at it, and if OP never tidies it is a permanent eyesore.

Really messy garden would probably put me off especialy in a flat. Lovely, if a bit overgrown garden with wild flowers and home grown veg would make me think the downstairs neighbours were lovely and would encourage me to buy!

If someone said "oh your garden is a jungle" I'd tell them we had hedgehogs, frogs, toads, a breeding newt population, dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, swallows, sparrows, nesting jackdaws, finches, and altogether too many kinds of bugs and beasties to count. And right now they are of more ecological significance than the sort of tidy but nature-sterile environment that's contributed towards the decline of many native species

This is just so Illogical it made me cringe. Our garden is tidy and we have all these things and more. Deer, rabbits, squirrels, woodpeckers, etc. Your garden doesn’t need to be a mess to have wildlife. Being tidy doesn’t make a garden sterile

I agree with a pp, some very defensive posters on here, but trying to argue your garden needs to be a mess to attract wildlife is something else entirely.

I agree Bluntness

Yup would put me off for sure.

@Bluntness100

If someone said "oh your garden is a jungle" I'd tell them we had hedgehogs, frogs, toads, a breeding newt population, dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, swallows, sparrows, nesting jackdaws, finches, and altogether too many kinds of bugs and beasties to count. And right now they are of more ecological significance than the sort of tidy but nature-sterile environment that's contributed towards the decline of many native species

This is just so Illogical it made me cringe. Our garden is tidy and we have all these things and more. Deer, rabbits, squirrels, woodpeckers, etc. Your garden doesn’t need to be a mess to have wildlife. Being tidy doesn’t make a garden sterile

I agree with a pp, some very defensive posters on here, but trying to argue your garden needs to be a mess to attract wildlife is something else entirely.

I think that's a little unfair. Because this poster doesn't have a messy garden. She has deliberately re-wilded I think.

The OP's is, by the sounds of it, just messy. There is definitely a difference and the former is considered quite admirable. The latter is, well, just a mess.

My garden isn't re-wilded or messy, so no defensiveness here! I'm just able to appreciate both sides of the argument.

Why do people get so bloody tribal on here? "Someone slightly disagrees with me in a very subtle nuanced way, you say? Waaaaar!!!! You must be FILTHY and DEFENSIVE". Then it becomes "you sound awfully invested" or "take a chill pill". If they argue back. So much weird bully boy (girl) behaviour on here sometimes 🤷‍♀️. It's only a garden. And not even one you've ever laid eyes on. take a chill pill guys (joking)!

You actually do need 'untidiness' to support biodiversity. The less disturbance the better. Wildlife needs a varied and rich habitat of rotting wood, leafmould, water, mycelium, etc. Hard landscaping is a desert in terms of wildlife. A lawn can be described as green concrete, if manicured, treated and frequently mowed it can be closer to monoculture than a rich wildlife habitat. Digging, herbicides, pesticides, mowing, strimming etc all disturb the balance of interwoven habitats.

What I do, fwiw, is leave as much as possible to rewild entirely and put in a few borders or paths or edges to introduce a bit of visual order. I favour bee and bird friendly and native plants and trees. I mow about twice a year to allow wildflowers to grow and pollinators and insects to live and feed in the grass. Cut edges and paths through what is effectively a meadow.

I rejoice in a bit of wildness as I know it is supporting wildlife, and worldwide habitats are shrinking and shrinking. This is partly why hedgehogs are endangered species, butterflies and bees are vanishing, birds are in decline We have to get over our obsession with tidiness if wildlife is to have any chance of recovery.

But it is possible to have a tidy lawn and still have wildlife attracting borders.

Depends how bad it is. It's not so much the garden but it what it suggests about you as a neighbour that's off putting. If they're over priced that won't help either.

Because this poster doesn't have a messy garden. She has deliberately re-wilded I think

What is re wilded did you just make that up? 🤣 it’s not even grammatically correct.

And no you don’t need untidyness to support bio diversity, that’s such nonsense, we have A very large garden, as said, three acres, it’s tidy, the lawn Kept mowed, the bushes and hedges trimmed, the weeds kept on top of, the banks of the stream strimmed, the trees left as is, the log pile is stacked neatly.

And the bees, the butterflies, the toads, the dragon flies, the bugs, the insects, the deer, the squirrels, the rabbits, the birds, all come. We even have Birds nesting in the Eve’s of the house. Some nesting in a little bird box on one of the trees. Gold finches in the wisteria. Starlings in the car port. A toad that Apparantly lives in the green house. Rabbits that live by the compost heap. A family of Deer who sleep at the bottom of The garden and like to eat the flowers. Squirrels who live in the trees. Birds in the hedges. Badgers who live in the ground in the wooded area. Loads of little field mice who like to come into the house. And a shit ton of bats in the attic.

You need plants, things like clover in your grass, flowers, trees. But you sure as hell don’t need mess.

You must have a massive garden for that level of rewinding to be fine. In a small suburban garden it would just look neglected and the neighbours would despair of your encroaching nettles.

We are in the middle of a pandemic and no one is buying at the moment

Not true. I work in conveyancing and we are extremely busy.

We have a tidy lawn, in that it is mowed, green, and in a neat rectangle, but we never use weed killer, so there is a patch of clover and sometimes dandelions. All our plants are in pots and we weed those, but don't use any chemicals. We also have wildflowers from bee bombs, again in big pots and a bee hotel.

If we lived somewhere in the country with a big garden, I'd definitely want to encourage more wildlife, but this is our compromise until we win the lottery and leave Little Whingeing-upon-Thneedville!

It might put me off, tbh, and I'm far from houseproud (or gardenproud, if that's a thing).

Properties with overgrown gardens and old toys lying about may lead people to make assumptions about the neighbours, or think what next? and possibly imagine old sofas, beds and washing machines to be added to the mix, followed by people sitting out with Special Brew and smoking weed!

It can look a bit "Benefit Street", tbh.

@Bluntness100

Because this poster doesn't have a messy garden. She has deliberately re-wilded I think

What is re wilded did you just make that up? 🤣 it’s not even grammatically correct.

And no you don’t need untidyness to support bio diversity, that’s such nonsense, we have A very large garden, as said, three acres, it’s tidy, the lawn Kept mowed, the bushes and hedges trimmed, the weeds kept on top of, the banks of the stream strimmed, the trees left as is, the log pile is stacked neatly.

And the bees, the butterflies, the toads, the dragon flies, the bugs, the insects, the deer, the squirrels, the rabbits, the birds, all come. We even have Birds nesting in the Eve’s of the house. Some nesting in a little bird box on one of the trees. Gold finches in the wisteria. Starlings in the car port. A toad that Apparantly lives in the green house. Rabbits that live by the compost heap. A family of Deer who sleep at the bottom of The garden and like to eat the flowers. Squirrels who live in the trees. Birds in the hedges. Badgers who live in the ground in the wooded area. Loads of little field mice who like to come into the house. And a shit ton of bats in the attic.

You need plants, things like clover in your grass, flowers, trees. But you sure as hell don’t need mess.

With a three acre garden and room for a pony family of deer, I'm sure you can afford a device which has Google. Perhaps use that to look up re-wilding a garden .

They are selling for 10 grand over the asking price.

This makes no sense?

Yes it would. There are plenty of properties on the market, why would you bother with the ones that look more likely to give you problems?

At the far end of my road there is one house (semi-det) which is an absolute state; the house looks neglected, damp and dirty, the garden is so overgrown I don't know how the postman gets to the letterbox. I feel really sorry for the neighbour whose house attached to it. They must have to work harder to keep their own property looking decent.

We are clearing bikes. They are in one corner. The teens have been told that since they haven’t ridden them, they are going. The majority of the garden is flat grass, with an old but functional garden table/chairs. (Not broken, faded, but in working order and used every day) The grass isn’t overgrown in the main area (80% of the garden). You would have to open the upstairs window and lean out to see the “junk“. No rats, no vermin wandering about.

The unkempt bit was actually contained in a strip of flower bed. I am currently bringing it back to soil, only keeping cultivated flowers. The big bush has been shaped, but it’s been there for 40 years, it’s contained, it’s staying.

We had to dig up the veg because it was intermingled with the wild flowers that we planted(they would have died in late September). Some flowers self seeded (ladies thumb being the main one).

We don’t want to get rid of the tomatoes because we have a good crop of them. I’ve tied them back. I won’t plant anymore next year.

I really didn’t think I was doing any harm creating a “jungle” but I have taken on board every one and will get rid of it.
I can’t really create a bug hotel (sounds fab) because I don’t really want to cause anymore friction

The flat had been on the market for 3 months and hasn’t sold “because of me”. I was being passive aggressive when I mentioned about other properties going for less.I admit that. There is a 3 bed upstairs Flat in the next road for 5 thousand less. And 2 bed ground floor for 8 thousand less, that is a fact.

@ArabellaScott your garden sounds like what I'm aiming for. Can I pick your brains and ask when do you mow? I'm thinking around now is a good time as the farmer has mowed the fields opposite?

I can't tell from the OP if her garden is a little bit messy or a lot, I get the impression she may have been exagerrating a bit as some wild flowers, veg and an untamed bush doesn't sound very bad and if there were only a couple of bikes/scooters then meh, imo.

Typical! Cross posted with the OP

I can’t really create a bug hotel

You can buy nice bug hotels that hang on your fence that don't look messy at all

Both our neighbours have nice gardens and both are dickheads so no a messy garden means jack all to me.

In my experience, people who don't give a shit about the state of their property don't give a shit about being a decent neighbour, either.

True but our neighbours have a beautiful and immaculate garden but are loud and obnoxious so you really can’t judge.