Getting Your Garden Market Ready

Selling your house can be challenging, but you can be pro-active to get a quick sale for the best price. One step you can take is to enhance and add value to your outside space be it a small urban garden space in Skibbereen or an acre in Goleen. To help you on your way, we are working with Maddie Dineen of Maddie Dineen Garden Design, a finalist RTE’s Super Garden, 2017 and one of Ireland’s top garden designers.

Here she gives us her tips for sprucing up your garden and making it attractive to all potential buyers. Over to you Maddie!

Maddie Dineen’s Top Tips for Your Garden

Charm is what people should feel when entering your garden. Here are my top tips for creating a more charming outdoor space to add value to your home! Tips for your garden before putting it on the market.

1. Hide Offending Objects – Your garden should be clean and uncluttered. You can declutter your garden on a low budget by putting up a trellis and planting some climbers to hide offending object like boilers, oil tanks or bins. Put sports goals, trampolines, and bikes in temporary storage until the house is sold. Clothesline should be removable or placed out of sight. 

Maddie Dineen Garden Design Portfolio Slide 1

2. Dress Up Your Shed – If you have a shed, paint it a bright colour. This instantly makes your garden more inviting. Add a pretty planter with some summer annuals (Trailing Surfinia, Bacopa, Ivy, and Lobelia) on either side of your shed to add interest. By doing this, you can turn something functional into something with a homely, casually elegant feel.

3. Add Light – You can paint your fence or wall a contrasting colour to the shed to brighten your garden. Another big trend over the last few years is good garden lighting, to enhance your lovely plants at night. This can be done cheaply with solar lighting, which is particularly good if showing your property in the early evening in winter.

4. Freshen Up with Plants – Draw the eye down to the garden with lush plants and cheerful flowers. Plant in-season, colourful potted plants near your French door or back door to make entering the garden more inviting. Invest in some grasses and prairie-style planting to give the impression of maturity.

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5. Introduce a Small Patio – It is very on trend to entertain at home, and gardens have become a much stronger feature in homes all over Ireland. Therefore it is very important that the first impression of your garden is a good one. Have a place to sit down and relax, and place your table and chairs in the sunniest part of the garden. You can create a patio on a low-budget with pebble-edging and some outdoor furniture. I encourage clients to use the same style of décor in their garden as in their homes. Dress your patio furniture with a pretty tablecloth, cushions for chairs and add a vase of flowers (weighted down by stones).

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6. Always Mow Your Lawn – This one explains itself!

Biggest Trend 2018

Outdoor rooms are very on trend at the moment. Creating a covered space over your existing patio is increasingly popular, and allows you to enjoy and use your outside space. I always encourage clients to get rid of the step outside their back door or French door and bring it to the same level as the house. This brings the outside in, and vice-versa, while also being very user friendly, and good for children. It makes the garden become part of the house. Outdoor rooms are my speciality, so don’t hesitate to get in contact!

I offer full consultations, garden design, garden-build and project management, and workshops to help you get the most out of your garden. Click here to contact me today!