The priority for most homeowners when it comes to home improvements tends to be the interior of your property. But it may pay off to head outside to do some work in terms of boosting the value of your home. There are simple things that even the least green-fingered home owners can do, and on a small budget too.
Picking your plants
It’s tempting to head to the garden centre and chose what you like, but the bill can rack up and many flowering plants only last a short time. Get the most value for money whilst cultivating a low-maintenance garden by being pickier about the plants you select for your garden. For example, perennial plants like delphinium, clematis, aster, geranium and lavender last all year long and for a few years if well-maintained. Same goes for evergreen varieties, which keep their leafy, green appearance all year round such as conifers, holly and other shrubs, helping to breathe life into a garden year-round. Self-seeders are good value for money for the casual gardener too, with poppies, cornflower and marigolds all dropping their own seeds, which will sprout up next year.
DIY pond
If you’re feeling slightly more adventurous than a simple bit of planting, it’s actually easier than you think to create your own pond, providing a special feature to your garden. Choose your location and shape, dig a hole of about 30cm, line with plastic sheeting and fill with water! Adding a filter and some oxygenating plants can also help keep it clean and encourage wildlife such as frogs and newts which is good for garden pest control too!
Light up outside
You can get very reasonably priced garden lighting these days, many designed to be solar powered too meaning you don’t have to worry about running costs or maintaining them either. Lighting along a path, to show off your favourite plants or garden features can add to the atmosphere and aesthetic during outdoor entertaining in summer or to illuminate and admire from indoors during the dark winter evenings.
Get creative
You can incorporate unusual objects into your garden to create points of interest, whilst recycling items and saving what you might otherwise spend on expensive garden ornaments or furniture. For example, weather proof an old kitchen table and chairs to use outside or a varnish up an old chest of drawers to use as a planter or display piece. Hanging mirrors on walls or fences can create the illusion of more space in a small garden as well as catching the light and creating a pretty effect on a sunny day.
Talk to us at Nicol Estate Agents if you would like an appraisal of your home and to find out how the property market looks set to perform over the coming months. We’ve had a very busy start to 2020 and we expect this to continue.