Who knew that an array of purple pansies could pack such a powerful punch? You might not realize it when you see them at your local supermarket, but a flat or two of purple pansies, scarlet fuchsia, or even simple marigolds can make a strong impact when it comes to making your home stand out.
“A great garden is definitely a plus in a market with so many homes available,” says Dennis Melby, president of the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors and a Realtor with Long & Foster’s Gateway office in Bethesda.
“Great gardens mean great curb appeal,” he says.
A strategically placed splash of color may help improve the likelihood that your home will sell. Even condos sell better when there’s a garden out front.
“Color sells no matter what,” says Christopher Valenti, owner of JB Landscaping, a design and build company in Lewes, Del. “Colorful plants and a healthy lawn always attract people.”
According to the American Nursery and Landscape Association, landscaping and gardening can add 7 percent to 15 percent to a home’s value. The National Gardening Association notes that 99 percent of real estate appraisers asserted that landscaping enhances the sales value of real estate.
Also, a recent NGA survey found that 10 percent to 19 percent of homeowners believed a well-landscaped yard increased the value of their homes.
“That’s not just a lawn with a few trees and shrubs,” says Charlie Nardozzi, senior horticulturalist for the NGA. “That might have been the definition 20 or 30 years ago, but not now. People are looking for a lot more variety.”
Landscaping and gardens have come a long way since the mid-19th century, when no less a personage than Emily Dickinson posed with a bunch of pansies — she called them “heartsease” — in an early daguerreotype. In those days, flowers constituted a separate language of their own, so the kind of flowers you grew in your garden let passers-by know where you stood, at least on certain emotional issues.
Azaleas meant moderation. Yellow tulips: hopeless love. Clematis: poverty. And pansies? Those now-ubiquitous blooms meant “you occupy my thoughts,” at least according to James McCabe, author of “The Language and Sentiment of Flowers,” a Victorian-era flower guide reprinted by Applewood Books.
All that, of course, was before the advent of the monoculture lawn in the mid-20th century, when swaths of single-variety green replaced flowers in the statement-making department. In the 21st century, green is not enough.
“People want to sit out in their yards and enjoy the space,” Mr. Melby says. “They see the value of growing their own vegetables.”
So these days, many homeowners are cutting back the green to provide space for flower beds and ornamental grasses.
“The trend today is toward outdoor rooms,” says Stephen Wlodarczyk, a landscape architect with Botanical Decorators in Olney. “People want gathering spaces to entertain or just relax.” They also want a space to remember.
“People have very strong connections to the gardens they remember from when they were 6 to 12 years old,” Mr. Valenti says. “Gardens are more than a plant or design — they’re an emotional attachment that people don’t always recognize.”
That geranium or hydrangea you remember from long ago may well have been in your grandmother’s garden, a legacy from the late 19th and early 20th century when a gardening craze allowed homeowners to take advantage of new seed companies and catalogs, new plants imported from overseas, and a host of specialized magazines geared to gardeners.
It’s not all that different today, where a veritable flurry of garden-oriented television shows has viewers trooping into design and garden centers demanding the latest in exotic species and color effects.
“We try not to get too far into trendy things,” Mr. Wlodarczyk says. “We don’t always know how well these things are going to do.”
Still, there are a few durable trends in today’s gardening scene. One has to do with the ready availability of species — like today’s popular knockout roses — that would have been unheard of just a decade or two ago.
Companies generate new colors and varieties every year, and many plants are easier to grow than ever before.
People are also more interested in the local environment.
“People are using more regional plants,” Mr. Nardozzi says. “Stop in at your local arboretum or public garden and see what grows well there.”
Unlike those gardeners of yesteryear who carefully separated the beauty garden from its kitchen counterpart, today’s gardeners easily mix blooms and edible varieties in the same space.
“Edible landscaping is very popular,” Mr. Nardozzi says. “In that place where you thought of planting a burning bush, which gives you lots of fall color, you might want to put blueberries. It’s about the same size; you’ll get plenty of fall color; and you can eat it.”
Time is an issue for the 21st-century gardener. Even children have better things to do with their time than putter about the garden. So today’s gardens include many low-maintenance varieties that allow homeowners to do minimum labor while enjoying maximum effect.
Non-native roses that grow in pure sand, for example, are popular choices for beachfront properties. Incorporating organic matter requires less intervention later on.
“We are all aware of the need to be good stewards of the environment,” Mr. Valenti says. “No one wants to waste resources, whether you are talking about energy, land or water.”
Above all, the renewed emphasis on the natural and local environment has led to careful attempts to shape the existing space to the lay of the land. Today’s gardens work in concert, rather than in competition, with nature.
“We wanted to make it look the way it did before the house was even there,” says Mr. Valenti, who has spent the past few weeks working for a homeowner in Bethany, Del., who wanted to improve the outside appearance of his property before putting it up for sale. “It’s a spectacular home that is set off by the natural beauty of the environment.”
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the weeding, though. Even nature abhors a mess.
Today’s garden trends are also mindful of the built environment. Garden designers take great pains to ensure that a home’s architecture is reflected in the landscaping that surrounds it.
“A house that’s contemporary, you’d expect the landscape to follow from that,” Mr. Wlodarczyk says. “With a center-hall Colonial, you have a little more freedom.”
However, suppose you don’t have the time, or the funds, to hire a garden designer. You have to ready your home for the market now. Is there a chance for a quick fix? Yes indeed, garden experts say. Just be sure to follow a few simple tips.
• Try to appeal to as many people as possible. Decorating with window boxes can make just about everyone smile.
• Mow, edge and fertilize and don’t forget to mulch.
• Prune where needed, especially your evergreens. Forget the little lollipops. You just want things to look neat and healthy.
• Deadhead flowers and sweep walks, paths and driveways. What does the route to your front door look like? There’s nothing like adding pots of annuals or ornamental grasses to make your entrance — and that of the potential home buyer — a grand one.
• Put away hoses and tools.
• Keep in mind the color of your home when you are planning your color scheme. Even the boldest crimson bush will look washed out if backed up against a brick wall. Variegated bushes tend to fade if placed near light-colored walls. Substitute a plant or bush with dark-green foliage in place of those variegated leaves, and the front of your home will pop.
Yellows and blues tend to do well together. So do purples and pinks.
Here are a few more don’ts if you are looking to increase the possibility of a successful sale.
• Don’t take the “more-color-the-better” approach. Too much color can be as off-putting as not enough. Consider complementary colors or colors within the same spectrum.
• Don’t plant too close to the foundation. DIY-television savvy viewers know that this increases the probability of structural issues in years ahead. Plus, that nice bush beneath the living room window may end up obscuring it in a few years, so you need to consider how high — and how broad — your plantings will become.
• Don’t add elements, like raised flower beds or other features, without considering whether they will be wide enough or deep enough to support what you want to plant.
• If you want to try trendy, don’t go overboard.
“Carve out an area of landscape for a testing zone,” Mr. Wlodarczyk says. “Put a few things here and there, and if they die they can be replaced.”
If you have the time, it’s always helpful to consult a garden professional, who can give your plans the once-over and help you develop a workable budget.
“We know what grows well, what works, and what it takes to maintain,” Mr. Wlodarczyk says. “We go to trade shows and see the newest varieties.”
Given all the advice and all the plant and flower varieties on the market today, a bright, colorful and low-maintenance garden is a pretty good bet.
As Emily Dickinson would say, “The grass so little has to do.”
That’s true even if you don’t know your coreopsis (cheerfulness) from your ivy (friendship).
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