Plants that help sell your house.

There are some plants in your garden that might put viewers off.

These include thouse with a terrible reputation such as Leylandii, which can cause neighbour disputes over their fast growth rate, and ability to block out neighbours light. As well as blocking neighbours light they can become too tall to easily clip and get out of hand. Such fast growing plants have no place in a small garden, or near a house.

Ivy also gets a bad rap for it's ability to destroy brickwork. There are cases where ivy roots have got into the mortar and damaged it, at the same time as an opposing view that a soundly mortared wall is impenetrable to the roots of ivy and will not be damaged, and is also protected from further weathering by the ivy keeping rain off the mortar.

Pampas grass - once favoured years ago, it's now seen as something rather tacky and best avoided. It is a nasty plant to get hold of and can scratch your skin very easily.

Privet hedges may get a bad reputation from their heavy maintenance schedule. You'll normally need to clip them a couple of times a year, perhaps three in total. This can be onerous giving up a day three times a year to be outside doing some essential trimming but they provide a great barrier for the garden and offer refuge for birds and insects.

There's so many plants that come in and out of favour that you can easily include many you might have in your garden as being unfashionable. Magnolias, geraniums, carnations, even bamboo can be disliked.

So how do you keep your garden lovely and attractive to buyers?

If you're aiming at a family market then make sure you have a lawned area. Kids love to run about on grass.
Patio areas add an extra dimension to the garden allowing you to easily present a seating area for outdoor dining which will appeal to virtually everyone.
Make low maintenance gardens if you're aiming for an urban couple to buy the house - who won't have time to mow the lawn because of their lifestyle, but would still love a nice place

If you don't want to spend money on the garden you're going to have to leave behind then use pots and tubs and hanging baskets to create colour. Take them with you when you move, or negoitate with the buyer for them to pay for them.