Would a garden that was too nice put you off?

[BigDahliaFan]

Our garden is my pride and joy, but I think it would look hard work to some - it's not particularly big but there are trees, shrubs, perennials etc. Would that put you off buying it? Or would you just think 'I can always pave it over'.

Our back garden had paving slabs which suits us - we use it entirely as a playground area for the dcs and it's a small London garden, so we're happy not to have plants taking up more space or having to deal with muddiness. A nicely planted garden would put me off in the sense that there's a value to it that we'd be paying for but we wouldn't get any use out of. Even a low maintenance garden would put me off as time is short and we would rather spend time/money on doing other things.

A garden full of bad hard landscaping, fake grass, and composite decking etc would put me off as I'd have to rip it all out and start again. A garden full of plants would be fine, as even though I would change things a lot, I'd do it slowly and it's always fun discovering other people's plant choices as they pop up over the year.

Most of our very long garden is grass.
It really doesn't take much maintenance at all.

It wouldn't meet the standards of a lawn bowls groundkeeper I'm sure, but I don't suspect most families are aiming for that at all.
We've loved it over the years as a big space for cricket, football, rugby, badminton, paddling pools, water slides, learning to ride bikes, sledging, camping, and just sitting out in the sun with friends.

I'd love it!

The better the garden looks, the more likely it is to sell.

It certainly wouldn’t put me off, I’d love that. And I say that as someone with v young children, so not everyone with littlies wants just a square of grass… or worse, a square of astroturf 🤢

I'd love it!

There's nothing more depressing than an overlooked back garden with no plants or trees to screen you from the neighbours. It wouldn't put me off buying if the rest of the house was right but I'd have to factor in spending a minimum of another £20k for fences and planting.

So, no, a garden that's already planted wouldn't put me off.

The garden next door to us was beautiful - lots of shrubs and mature trees. I used to love looking out on it. The old chap who lived there unfortunately died and a family with 3 boys under five moved in. They straight away demolished the garden every tree and shrub was cut down and now its just wasteland. They said they wanted a low maintenance garden! We're still upset about it - feels like a bereavement. We're looking to move....

I am a very keen gardener but if I was housebuying, I'd look at the garden like the bathroom or the kitchen. If I liked what was there, I'd be prepared to pay for it. If I didn't like what was there I'd be calculating what it would cost to change it but the underlying "bones" would have to be right.

No , that wouldn’t put me off at all , it sounds lovely 🥰
Much nicer than needing to start establishing a garden from scratch 😩

This.
I'm looking for a house now and the amount of completely paved back gardens is horrifying. I
wouldn't touch one with a bargepole, so soulless and there have been some nice houses I've passed over. Digging up concrete - not an option, even if I could get a digger and a skip.

It’s like most things : there are people who will be sold on that (a gardener like me, a paved yard is soul crushing) and other people who are too lazy to water a cactus

I tend to agree with this post. A beautiful garden is like a beautiful kitchens- even if the person isn’t a chef it’s going to increase the value.

Well as long as you know all that mud is associated with stronger immune health in children (less illness, allergies)

Maybe buy some of that drinking dirt, make your dcs drink their daily mud !!

I disagree....just like beautiful bathrooms and kitchens, a garden may be beautiful of its kind but not to the purchaser's taste, and therefore just like the beautiful kitchen, the purchaser may consider what it would cost to change it. It may not be laziness but personal taste.

Totally depends on the life stage, we did discount a house that had the most wonderful garden, as with two babies we knew we would never have the time to tend it. Now we have adult children our garden is a sanctuary, DH is bloody obsessed with it, and spends £££’s on it, it’s a lot of work but he really enjoys it.

When we bought our house it had a lovely 55ft garden, lawn and shrubs. It looked beautiful. Restful to the eye. However none of it was level, it sloped away and the very ugly patio was up in the air at the end of the garden like a stage. Fast forward to small children everything we thought we wanted in a garden was wrong. We needed less mud, more level surface, grass level under climbing frame etc. we had got rid of the so called ugly patio but no patio to replace as near the house was a sharp step down and we hadn't quite worked how to fit patio into the slope 😊witgout spoiling our green view. The many roses I had planted were prickly and dangerous and the fast cover ones were a nightmare to keep control of and prune back
So, a well planned garden with a proper patio, seating dining playing, and level grass is worth its weight in gold. Pretty plants are not the thing which might really sell a house. Well they might deceive but it's the bones of the garden which adds 'value" perhaps?

Children love to toddle around in open space and ride their tricycles scooters on well planned paths too. Paths are worth their weight in gold, in the right place. Fiddly flowerbeds too many pots on display might again not really appeal to families like a few judiciously chosen shrubs, massed perennials. John Brookes garden style is very user friendly I feel as the garden is a "room".

This absolutely about the bones. When we moved into current home, over 30 years ago we spent A LOT of money putting in terracing and topsoil. The actual planting has been through several iterations since then. The grass areas have got smaller and wilder, in fact the whole garden is much wilder than we originally had it. Areas have been fenced and unfenced, even trees have died or been removed when they outgrew their space, but the bones remain. When i finally leave this house, I fully expect that the next owners will want to change aspects of the planting but still the bones will remain.

I’d still prefer a garden with roses, grass and no paths. Dc are older now but even when they were little.

@BigDahliaFan it must be hard selling with a garden you've put so much love, time and effort into. I'd worry that the buyers would come in and pave over it all