Staging Your Garden

It’s common to stage a home with new furniture but consider also making this

effort with the garden too, ensuring that everything is looking just right from the

outside as well.

We are all aware of the benefits of staging the inside of a home, it makes it look appealing and full of promise. Apply the same thinking when readying your garden and help enhance the street appeal and outdoor living of the property.

Take the deep clean, declutter philosophy to your garden. Bring out the mower, weed wacker and hedge trimmer and give everything a good going over. The aim is to create the image of a relaxing oasis, not a time intensive overgrown burden. Garden staging does not need to be expensive, work with what you have and enhance it with some of the cheap and cheerful options below.

Here are a few ideas on how you could stage your garden:

Replace any dead plants in the garden and give plants that look a little scruffy a good trim.

Mark any special or unique seasonal plants with markers to show buyers the promise of what will pop up. For example, if you have peonies, daffodils, or irises in the garden mark where they are. Apart from safe guarding their future so they don’t get dug up (buyers can’t see what’s under the ground) but will love seeing the potential.

Consider placing pots of colour in areas that need brightening. Pick plants that have big colourful displays, place these pots in groups of three or five and stick to one colour scheme to give a nice elegant look.

Apply new mulch to the garden, not the coloured wood chips but consider locally sourced pea-straw, cocoa-mulch or mushroom compost.

If you have a botanical garden, then consider making a hand drawn map of your garden and leave some tips for the new owner. Often a new garden is daunting for a new home owner and this is a nice touch to leave with a property. Furthermore, this is also a good tool for agents to use when reassuring potential purchasers that the upkeep is not labour intensive.

If you have a vegetable garden then consider making that area look pretty and productive. If you are selling in the winter then ensure it is mulched and tidy. Consider placing a pot or sculpture as a feature.

If you are selling in the spring or summer, place new vegetable plants in the beds, label them and give the new owners a crop to look forward to.

Keep lawns and hedges well maintained while on the market, with regular mowing and trimming.

Just like you decluttered the inside of your home, declutter your outdoor space. Pick up toys, tools or gardening equipment and put them away in the shed.

While you are in the shed, have a tidy there too. Stack things neatly and make it look big, inviting and organised. Just like you did with the linen cupboards inside.

Here are some ways to add street appeal and stand out from surrounding houses:

If your letterbox numbers are looking scruffy look to replace them. Invest in a new doormat to provide a nice entrance.

Take the time to enhance your front door. Give it a wash and add interest with plants. Flaxes and grasses always look good in pots and don’t need a lot of attention.

Consider an established topiary plant or talk to us about ideas on how we can add appeal to the entrance to your home.

Clean and stage your outdoor furniture with cushions. Consider a pot of seasonal colour as a feature. Even if you do not have a large outdoor space, a well placed

outdoor table and chair in an area of morning sun could be just the ‘morning coffee spot’ a purchaser is seeking.

Tidy up fences, replace broken or missing palings, remove moss and give the fence a paint if required. Fix gates that squeak, stick or catch. A front door or gate

needs to open easily and scream “Welcome! CHOOSE ME”.

Give your BBQ a thorough clean and place it in an inviting spot in the garden. Let people imagine the possibilities for entertaining. If the cover or tools are looking torn and scruffy consider replacements - you want buyers to imagine having friends over!

It may seem like a lot of work, but New Zealanders love outdoor spaces and doing this extra garden staging could mean your home has that extra ‘edge’ over another one that they are considering.

If you need ideas on what you can do to enhance your outdoor space, we would love to help. Similarly if you want the details of professionals who can help then we have all of these contacts available.

Important Note: Gardening is not for everyone and not everyone has the time or energy for it. If you are not going to enjoy preparing and staging your garden then consider hiring a professional for the job. They are experienced with this kind of work and are likely to have the tools and know-how to be more cost and time effective than you. Remember it’s often the small details in this part of getting the home ready that can have the biggest impact.

Hot Tip: The human eye loves seeing order, patterns and pathways and is naturally attracted to bold block colours. Look around your garden and see how you can create a symmetrical care-free oasis in your backyard.