How does your garden grow your house price?

Kirsty Mcluckie on the profits to be made by planting your patch

Of all the ways to earn money, aside from your main job, improving your own home must be one of the most lucrative.

Owners added an estimated average of £40,000 in value to their properties by carrying out home improvements in the past five years, with an average spend of £14,015, according to Post Office Money – a rate of return which would lead to hearty congratulations were it to apply to any other investment strategy.

Garden landscaping is the most likely way to boost the sale price. It has been estimated that a well laid-out garden can add up to 20 per cent of the value of a property.

Presumably this represents the difference between having the sort of garden which harbours a mattress rather than a clematis, compared to one looking like a Chelsea Flower Show contender.

Unfortunately, for someone like me who has come to the pleasures of gardening late in life, it is not an overnight task to transform an unloved scrubland into the kind of place that will make a potential buyer fall in love with it.

Perhaps it is only now that I appreciate the patience required for gardening. My newfound enthusiasm means I can hardly wait for the first appearance of seedlings potted up on the windowsill, so cannot imagine the foresight required by the kinds of landscapers planting avenues of heritage oaks, only fully appreciated decades later.

While we have no thoughts of moving yet, I am canny enough to consider that every hole dug, tree planted or border weeded could eventually count for something.

I don’t want dreams of avarice to invade my hobby, but it is there in the back of my head.

However, being a novice

gardener, I may well end up detracting from the value with ill-chosen colour schemes or vulgar plant choices.

Applying the same principles as you would to the inside of a property, the key perhaps is to let as many different buyers as possible see themselves using your garden. Whether it’s for entertaining, a kids’ play area or growing veg, being specific and making bold statements of your own taste will likely put some buyers off, so instead I am trying to keep things neutral.

Adding year-round colour with shrubs means – I hope – that we aren’t giving ourselves an unrealistically short window with the garden in full bloom to show it at its best. The horror of being pressed to accept an offer before the autumn when the garden droops is something I’m hoping to avoid.

As we have a limited budget, most of the more expensive purchases are going in the front garden, as first impressions are likely to count more.

The terrace at the back could do with the attention of a professional landscaper but, in the absence of that, I’m considering adding subtle lighting to try to give the impression of an extra outside room.

I have read, however, that the most important improvements that you can make in your garden to add value is making sure it is private and not overlooked.

This is unfortunate. The beech hedge that separates us from a popular footpath is growing pitifully slowly. After nearly a decade, its screening effect is only waist high.

By the time that it has reached the height to be of use, I may have invested so much time and money in the garden that I will refuse to move.