It’s been a long, hard winter and now many of us are getting ready to get out in the garden and get our hands dirty. Kimberly Lacy from HGTV’s “Curb Appeal – The Block” is with us this evening with some gardening tips.
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If you’re selling your property in the Spring or Summer seasons, one thing that buyers will be looking for in the sun is a garden.
Your own private patch of grass out the back may not seem like a priority, especially with work and other commitments taking up your time, but a garden can be a big factor in your property’s appeal. For a family, for example, it could be the one big difference between clicking on a listing and scrolling down to the next.
But how can make sure people fall in love with your lawn? Sell My Property offers eight steps to get the most from your garden:
Get your timing right
If you have a garden, Spring is the best time to sell your home. The warm weather and positive vibes will be encouraging buyers to start their house hunt afresh – so you should be ready for them. Choosing bulbs that will flower in succession are a great way to maximise the colour from your garden.
But even if you’re not in the hot summer’s sun, don’t fret: just plant something else. Bedding plants will appear attractive in autumn, ensuring your back yard boosts your property’s appeal all year round.
Get the right flowers…
Flowers, great. But which ones? The right flowers can make a big difference to house hunters. Indeed, according a recent Homebase survey, roses are the most attractive flower to potential home buyers. If roses aren’t your thing, the survey’s other most popular flowers include: lavender, fuchsia, tulips, sweet peas, lilies, jasmine, geraniums, hydrangea and sunflowers.
… or grow your own veg
Vegetable gardens are increasingly popular among homeowners – it’s no coincidence that demand for allotments in the UK is on the up. So if you already have a vegetable patch in place, the chance to grow your own greens could appeal to the some of the more health-conscious, or cost-conscious, buyers.
Trim, snip and clip
Nobody likes a messy garden, so make sure yours is tidy. A quick trim around the garden, cutting the grass to a short length, will go a long way to keepings things smart. Snipping unruly hedges and clipping any wild branches will complete the effect.
Do-it-yourself
As well as the garden, don’t forget to pay attention to the things around it: fences, gates, chairs, doors. If anything needs to be fixed or oiled, a bit of DIY will create the best possible impression – and stop that annoying squeak that’s been driving you mad for years.
If it’s not green, give it a clean
Why stop at DIY? If your chairs are dirty, give them a wipe. If the patio door windows are grubby, give them a spray. Cleanliness on the inside is what counts when taking photos for a listing or organising a viewing: but it’s just as important outside.
Shed responsibility
If you have a shed, take responsibility for it: clear out any leaves, tidy any cables. If you want someone to love your home, it needs to feel loved. A tidy shed, complete with working door and clean windows, will avoid your garden looking ignored or neglected.
Keep it simple
All the above is very well and good, but remember what we said about time? No one wants to take on a huge responsibility. Extravagant borders or high-maintenance flower arrangements may deter as many people as they impress. So make sure your garden is simple as well as stunning.
For expert advice on how to sell your home and information on listing your property online, visit www.sellmyproperty.org
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He offers the following design tips to gardeners who want their garden to look good, whatever the weather:
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:: Keep the overall design simple. When you’re making a plan, use a few sweeping lines to lead the eye from the viewing point, which is often the kitchen window, right down to the back of your plot.
:: Turn your lawn into a welcoming green wide pathway, which almost acts as an arrow, drawing the eye or the visitor on a journey.
:: Keep the planting simple. Mass plant low-growing shrubs such as dwarf purple berberis for colour or clouds of Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’.
:: If your garden is extremely small, shaded or just damp, give up on a lawn altogether. It’s not going to repay any maintenance and you will spend years and fortunes bemoaning the brown patches and invasion of weeds and moss. Dig it up and replace it with a top quality artificial turf. This can be wonderful, a green carpet which always looks good, can be easily cleaned, allows rainwater and snow to drain away and doesn’t need cutting or feeding. For a top-of-the-range brand, try Easigrass.
:: Consider what your specimens will look like all year round, not only when covered in foliage or flower. If you’re planting a tree, why not try a multi-stemmed birch? When bare from October to April it still has a lovely sculptural shape. Enhance this through the evening by uplighting through the use of a spotlight at its base.
:: Pay attention to a few detailed areas. Surprise and delight by framing your front door with a wonderful display of massed colour in pots. For instance, a mass of flowering cyclamen crammed into a ‘long Tom’ terracotta urn looks special and draws attention from less well tended parts of the garden.
The London College of Garden Design has announced that it is creating a design clinic in conjunction with the Royal Horticultural Society at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
The show feature will form part of the newly redesigned show and allow visitors to get design inspiration from professional graduates of the College. Andrew Wilson, Director of Garden Design Studies said “This is a great opportunity for visitors to find out how a designer might be able to help them and in short half hour design sessions they will get some inspirational ideas. They may only want a few planting ideas but it is also a great opportunity for our graduates to meet potential clients and of course suppliers”.
Wilson added “we always want to display the talents and achievements of our students and graduates and ensure they get value for the investment that they have made with us. This is a great way of doing just that.” The design clinic comes just after the College announced plans to be the first specialist garden design college to provide graduates with free continuing professional development after they have completed their Garden Design Diploma.
-ENDS-
About the London College of Garden Design
The London College of Garden Design aims to offer the best professional garden design courses available in the UK. The College is one of Europe’s leading specialist design colleges and offers professional level courses including the one year Garden Design Diploma which is taught from the Orangery Conference facilities at the world famous Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and Regents College in central London. The college also has a partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society offering short courses at RHS Garden Wisley.
The London College of Garden Design’s short course programme is available at a number of locations. To find out more visit http://www.lcgd.org.uk/
For more information please contact
Andrew Fisher Tomlin on 01276 855977 or 07957 855457
email: andrewft@lcgd.org.uk
This press release was distributed by SourceWire News Distribution on behalf of e-Zone UK in the following categories:
Education Human Resources, Retail Fashion, Construction Property, Men’s Interest, Leisure Hobbies, Home Garden, Women’s Interest, Environment Nature.
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As the ever-changing weather proves a constant challenge to us all, gardening maverick Diarmuid Gavin contemplates his own plot and offers tips on how to make the most of your garden, whatever the weather.
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You would have thought that when he moved to a new house in Wicklow, Diarmuid Gavin, would have wasted no time hauling in the diggers, landscaping materials, amazing plants and architectural altars.
Think again. The TV gardening maverick admits that it’s easy to talk about garden design, to lecture on it and write books about it, but he developed a fear of it when it came to his own plot.
“I bought a new home, a show house, with a perfectly simple garden – wooden fences, sloped lawn, some scalloped shaped beds to the sides and that was it. But for the life of me, I couldn’t decide on a good design which would satisfy the family,” he says.
“I made the terrible mistake of ripping out everything that was here in the misguided belief that a clean sweep would provide some clarity. And then I did… nothing… for ages.”
The situation became so dire that his local estate agent sheepishly approached and said Gavin was making his job selling properties very difficult because of the state of the garden.
“The ignominy! So, something needed doing. Even then I ran away from the issue. I started work indoors, knocking down walls, repainting and disposing of heavy black curtains.”
Ever distracted with other projects, the TV gardener says that his own plot has progressed slowly.
“After some years I developed a plan and commissioned a beautiful illustration. Now at least we know what the garden will look like.
“The heavy building work started – a beautiful two storey veranda now crosses the back of the house allowing for outdoor living on two levels. Freshly planted wisterias are beginning to climb towards the sky, wrapped around reclaimed cast iron pillars. The foundation is in for a small summer house.
“Over Easter I shifted five tonnes of sieved topsoil in readiness for new raised vegetable beds. The big plan is to terrace – lawns, beds and borders.
“However, the big lesson is – don’t do it my way. Just do as I say.”
Gavin and his family live minutes from the coast. Their garden enjoys a sunny aspect but, like the rest of the country, there is plenty of rain. However, he has ploughed on and has achieved some measure of success in his choice of planting.
“The difficulty in the last few years has been the either freezing or just plain cold winters. I like to battle against the elements and the echiums that are growing up against the sitting room window are testament to that – they have been burnt by frost but even now stand at a majestic 10ft high. If you are a gardener you roll with the weather.”
When Leslie Doyle and her husband, Ronnie, first moved to their new home in December, she missed the sounds of birds.
The Doyles were downsizing, with their children away in college, and the backyard of the new home was something of a blank slate, not enough there yet to draw bird life.
“But, my husband and I had a vision,” Leslie Doyle said.
Just five months later, the birds are a presence in the Doyles’ yard in the Lakeshore Gardens subdivision off Bluebonnet Boulevard.
In the evenings, there’s the comfortable sound of frogs chanting, too.
The Doyles transformed their backyard with a waterfall and pond and an outdoor kitchen. On one side of the yard, new flowering vines are growing up trellises and will cover the wooden fence in time.
On the other side of the yard, the Doyles planted a type of bamboo that’s supposed to be more manageable than the regular type. They’ll keep an eye on it as it obscures the other fence wall.
Soon the peaceful setting will seem even more of an oasis.
The Doyles’ home will be on this year’s Pond Garden Tour for Charity from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Dozens of homes throughout the Baton Rouge area with private ponds will be open for the tour, presented by the Deep South Koi Pond Society.
This year’s event will benefit two organizations: Brave Heart — Children in Need works to improve the quality of life for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and/or neglect.
The second beneficiary, Yelp!BR, provides shelter and adoption services for dogs.
Leslie Doyle said that a helpful feature of her new yard was a rise in the ground, a sloping bank of several feet in height, built-up against a sound-barrier wall across the back of her property.
It turned out to be the perfect place for her waterfall and other landscaping.
The exterior of the Doyles’ house was transformed, as well, the red brick painted white, and the ceiling of the back porch painted a pale, tranquil blue.
“It’s a very Southern ceiling,” said Leslie Doyle, who has had her own interior design business.
The custom-designed, old-fashioned screen door hung at the home’s back door is Southern, too.
From the back porch, a walking area of flagstones, highlighted with geraniums, impatiens and snapdragons leads to the large, outdoor kitchen.
Anchored by antique pine beams, the kitchen features a granite counter, small refrigerator and big, built-in barbecue pit.
A sitting area nearby makes the outdoors like home, with a wood-burning fireplace, comfortable sectional sofa and other seating and a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall.
Beyond the outdoor kitchen is the waterfall, tumbling continuously over three tiers of rock and splashing into a pool with water lilies and goldfish.
Around the pond are palms, Indian hawthorn and azaleas.
Gardenias, a young magnolia tree and colorful annuals are a treat for the eye throughout the yard.
At the front of the house, Doyle has created a charming entrance with a large, handsome fountain, flowers and a small herb garden that she actively uses when she cooks.
The Doyles turned to local business Harb’s Oasis for installation of the pond and help with landscaping.
Of the upcoming tour, Doyle said, “This is all about raising money” for good causes “and for families to get ideas to create their visions.”
“You don’t need a huge space to create an oasis,” she said.
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May 13 — To the Editor:
As someone who attended the forum on downtown parking last week, I was surprised to read in the Saturday paper that the meeting had yielded a “clear consensus” that the city should immediately build a parking garage in the Worth lot.
Consensus usually means unanimous or near-unanimous agreement; but in fact, there was significant disagreement.
City Councilor Ken Smith, who is chairman of the city’s traffic and safety committee, said the Worth lot is a poor choice because it’s too close to the existing garage and would overload downtown streets. Councilor Jack Thorsen gently but frankly told the Worth lot supporters that they don’t have the votes, including his own. Former City Councilor and state Sen. Jim Splaine suggested alternatives that should be investigated, including a state-city partnership.
By my estimate, about a third of the people who spoke had reservations. This is notable, since the forum was sponsored by the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, whose leadership favors a Worth lot parking garage.
What struck me most about the session, however, was that innovative alternatives or supplements to a parking garage were simply not on the table. There was talk about creativity and Portsmouth’s ability to solve problems. But many seemed to have made up their minds that a Worth parking garage is the one and only solution.
For example, walking was given short shrift. The chamber president wrote recently it is “silly” to think people will walk more than five to seven minutes. How far, though, do families walk when they come to Children’s Day? Or Market Square Day? Or when Judy Collins plays at Prescott Park?
Properly motivated and aided by signs (“Last free parking next five blocks”), landscaping and lighting, and the knowledge that downtown parking will be difficult, people will park a short distance away and walk to where they want to go.
There are other options, too, such as public transportation. The city’s parking validation program has been a big success for retailers. What if the city started a Friday and Saturday night “Foodie Shuttle” that’s free with validation, or a “Prescott Park Shuttle” that’s just free?
These are not Gov. Moonbeam ideas. Similar ones are already incorporated in the city of Portsmouth’s master plan, in a 10-page section titled “Towards a Walkable Portsmouth.”
I think what the city needs is not so much a new parking garage as a broader vision of what makes a great, small city, and the will to make it happen.
Doug Roberts
Portsmouth
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A long-lost public sculpture is now back where it belongs, in North Philadelphia.
“El Gran Teatro de la Luna,” by celebrated artist Rafael Ferrer, was installed in Fairhill Square at Fifth and Lehigh streets in 1982. It was removed in 1999 and languished in a municipal storage facility.
“Folklore says that, in American history, there are no second acts,” said Ferrer. “The truth of the matter is, the second act is infinitely better.”
Ferrer originally installed “El Gran Teatro de la Luna,” or “The Great Theater of the Moon,” at a time when Fairhill Square was going through a rough patch. Drugs were a problem, homeless people commandeered the park at night, and crimes were committed openly. Vandals regularly struck the sculpture, even though it was mounted on the roof of a small building in the park.
“The intent of the piece was to be a place where people will come and play music, or talk, or whatever,” said Ferrer in the lobby of Sofitel Hotel in Center City. “It’s a place offering itself as a site for the public to use however they want — public activities of a civilized nature.”
The sculpture is a joyous piece of work: a parade of flat, cut-metal figures twisting, flipping, and contorting as brightly colored circus performers. They are roughly shaped, with snaking arms and legs like a child’s drawing. The piece has buoyancy.
Eventually, the building it was mounted on became a blind for drug dealers. The city tore it down, and the sculpture came down with it.
Last year, the city’s Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy secured a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to reinstall the sculpture on top of an open trellis, making the sculpture more accessible. You can walk underneath and around it.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s an old work. It seems new,” said Ferrer, who with his wife repainted all of the figures. “The shapes were the same, but the individual images you see are totally different. I came at it with great energy because I had new ideas in those shapes.”
In addition to the sculpture, a new stage are has been built in Fairhill Square park, with new landscaping. A nearby commercial corridor also has garnered attention — most visibly in the form of metal palm trees installed in the sidewalk — to revive the neighborhood.
Mediterranean homes have always fascinated us. They look beautiful and grand, especially when the house comes with such majestic pillars, a stately front entrance, high balconies framed with wrought-iron and dome ceilings. The striking combination of whites and bold hues of blue, mustard, copper and red is always eye-catching.
As you probably know, when working on the landscape of a house we must take into consideration a lot of things. At first, it seems that working on a house is a simple job to accomplish because the area is smaller than that of commercial spaces. However, in creating a home garden we have to study certain details since home gardens tend to be much closer to the structure of the house. Hence, we must choose plants that can complement the style of the house.
We certainly had a lot of fun when we recently did the gardens of two Mediterranean houses. The first project was a house in Pasig City, which is finished in alabaster white and brick-red. We chose plants that can blend perfectly with this type of finish. The Dates Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), which is as tall as the second level of the house, has long, graceful fronds and textured trunks. We used a few of these trees to reflect the grandness of this house. The trees also effectively showcase the architecture, especially when they’re planted on both sides of the house.
In landscaping, we use variations of height in plants and levels of planting. This is done to create the appearance of a voluminous garden. It is also a good way of maximizing space, especially when the space allotment for a garden is rather small. The plant boxes at the front garden are made of copper-colored bricks which are complemented by the Eugenia (Syzigium oleina) and Picarra (Excoecaria cochinchinensis) shrubs. The shrubs have red and tangerine leaves mixed with different shades of green. Ensconced in one of the plant boxes is a grouping of Forget-Me-Not (Plumbago auriculata) flowers. Behind these blue flowers stands a mosaic wall composed of blue tiles.
Bordering the plant boxes on the ground are a line of Santan shrubs. The Dwarf Santan variety produces bigger-shaped flowers and the leaves are elongated. To complement the copper-look of the bricks, we opted for orange and golden types of the Dwarf Santan (Ixora).
The back lawn is filled with lush tropical plants. You might wonder about this sudden change from Mediterranean to tropical, but the truth is most tropical flora can survive in the Mediterranean setting too. And given the expanse of the house and the lawn, it is only fitting to incorporate plants that create a voluminous look. For this particular arrangement, we placed Foxtail Palms (Wodyetia bifurcata), Madagascar Palms (Dypsis madagascariensis), and Traveller’s Palms (Ravenala madagascariensis) to create a hedge of tall plants that also serves as a buffer to air and noise pollution. At the base of these palms are a variety of plants such as the Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata), Parrot’s Flower (Heliconia psittacorum), Tobacco plants (Calathea lutea) and Silver Pandakaki (Tabernaemontana pandacaqui). These plants effectively add to the lushness of the landscape.
The second Mediterranean house we worked on is located in Punta Fuego in Nasugbu, Batangas. This residence has an atrium garden between the main house and the guest cottage. The path that connects them is covered with stone slates and gray-coloured pebbles. On either side are plantings of Selloum (Philodendron selloum), Bangkok Schefflera (Schefflera arboricola), Rhapis palms (Rhapis excelsa), and Golden Lilies (Crinum xanthophyllum). With the exception of the Golden Lilies, which are widely used in resort landscapes, these types of plants are shade or indoor plants. At the end of this wall stands a Vietnamese jar, which serves as a quaint accent in this small intimate garden.
In my coffee table book titled “Philippine Gardens by Shirley Sanders: Silver Edition,” we dedicated an entire chapter to garden accents. One of which is the jar, into which can contain bouquets of flowers and even whole plants. Depending on the size, we can just about place anything in a jar.
Thus for this house, we placed large jars containing brightly-colored crinums. Golden Crinums (Crinum xanthophyllum) and Green Crinums (Crinum asiaticum) spread their flowing leaves as if to welcome guests. They stand opposite a Terracotta brick wall whose attractive color and texture complement the plant arrangement we did. Meanwhile, the flooring is made of kudo stones embedded in cement, which resembles a ground mosaic.
The path continues to the rear garden which has an infinity pool and a view of the Punta Fuego golf course and the sea beyond. Thailand Bamboos (Thyrsostachys siamensis) are ensconced on one side of the pool. The bamboo’s fresh green leaves are a perfect match to the pool’s deep blue water. Planted at the base of the bamboos are Yellow Irish (Iris pseudacorus) shrubs that blossom into bright yellow flowers.
For your questions on gardens and landscaping, email me at gardensbysanders@gmail.com. You may also visit our website at www.gardensbysandersinc.com