Veggie garden

I once handled a sale of a house in a good suburb where the owners had transformed the yard into eco gardens, banana circle, companion plantings, pool converted to natural systems as freshwater pond with perch, solar power (when rebates were reasonable) etc.

No interest until everything was ripped out grassed and rechlorinated etc.

 

Ahhhhhh!!!! People are so frustrating! I get this all the time as a Property Manager. "Trees and gardens are the worst, let's tear everything out and make it a barren lawn".

That said.... people (*cough* tenants *cough*) are also lazy and don't take care of things, which is why owners seem to prefer barren lawns. I understand the appeal of tearing out vegetation, it's just a shame.

I'm obviously in the minority, but one of my non-negotiables for a PPOR is established garden and tree vegetation. You can have all the money in the world, but you can't buy a gorgeous thirty year old fig tree.

 

I’d love a veggie garden but didn’t see many when we were looking in Canberra. I think it would depend on the size of your block and the size of the veggie garden. Does it take up the whole yard? Does it look high maintenance? What is the market for your property, is it families? They may want a veggie patch.

Btw - Good on you for growing one in Canberra, I have had trouble keeping herbs alive!

 

I think perhaps the best question is what percentage of your backyard is veggie garden? When we were looking for PPOR I wanted a large open space in the back yard and I did not like clutter. As luck would have it I bought one with a veggie patch/garden, but it is a small percentage of the yard.

What do you grow? Have you found orientation important? I imagine the cold in Canberra has not been conducive.

 

I love a vege and herb garden ... plucked rosemary, sage and (from storage) garlic from the garden for our slow roast lamb tonight ... and the pumpkin seeds dropped in my compost have gone rampant. Thirty-odd Queensland Blue and Butternut pumpkins at last count - all self seeded - that's a lot of roasts and soups.

Is your vege garden raised and looks tidy? Raised with neat edges (timber or colorbond) makes a big difference to sell-ability. And personally, love a few mature trees that aren't gums

 

Did you try eating them? The Halloween one's are not good eating ...

Had some of my pumpkin with a roast lamb last night - OMG - so firm and sweet. Unlike the mushy water plumped and fibre ridden shop bought ones

 

That green waste mulch is great .. we got 80 ton in (4 double bogies) for some paddock work for just over $1,000. It did come with a lot of plastic and tin can rubbish in it tho, as they don't sort it before putting it through the mulcher - but, at only around 20 buckets of rubbish, relatively little in comparison to how much mulch we actually bought

 

I'd love to do the entire property - probably cost around $20,000 - but the increased value due to the enriched soil would be more than the cost.

Just have to convince hubby. Life used to be so much easier when he traveled for work - he'd come home from 1-2 weeks away and things were simply "done"

 

Hmm...I tend to disagree with the agent. If you want to sell a house you want people to form an emotional bond with the property. What better way than with a garden? Even budding gardeners like to think they could get stuck in and keep things fabulous.

To an extent it wouldn't matter what you had people would complain about something. I would put it on the market and see what happens and then consider changing things. Time to talk to another agent perhaps?

Perhaps if it was a unit and small block I can understand a reduced garden. With a block that size people will expect some maintenance. As long as there is some lawn/ play space for children.

 

I'm not sure how I'd react if I went away for the weekend and my wife had spent $20k on manure

 

The lamb?

 

hahahaha - the pumpkin. The lamb was also awesome - slow roasted with a rub of garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil - based in red wine ... Yummo!

 

From my perspective....and I am not a gardener, I HATE trees near a house, especially the front yard. I like to have things that look neat & tidy, and not a lot of maintenance required. If there was a vege garden, I'd like to know that there was little maintenance required, but would see it as a plus if it was a PPOR. I'd see it as a negative if it was for an IP.