Design and construction

The builders yard

I have just visited another new house, and it is depressing how builders can make such a great job of kitchens, bathrooms and plastering and then completely run out of steam, money and the will to live when it comes to the garden. The house I saw today was finished to a really high standard; good solid doors, expensive door handles, nice kitchen with decent appliances but the garden was completely laid to mud. Not even turfed. Whilst I was measuring I came across some shoes buried in the ground and there was rubble everywhere. The ‘patio’ they had laid outside the kitchen consisted of six of the cheapest slabs it’s possible to buy without stealing them from the council. The path down each side of the house was nonexistent on one side – just mud, and the other side was just one slab wide. They had tipped a bag of gravel along one edge, where the path didn’t meet the house and just left mud all along the other side.

The fence the builders had put up didn’t actually come down to the ground in some places because the garden is on a slope, and because of the slope, they had piled up earth around two copper beech trees because they didn’t want to level the ground properly.

And, that was it. Nothing else.

The house was a four bedroom detached in Godalming that probably didn’t leave much change out of half a million pounds. I suppose it’s what we’re used to with new houses, and what we expect and accept. There are no house builders or property developers that are prepared to construct a decent garden, as they know they can get away with it. The clients I saw today were very realistic and had kept back the money to do the garden too. It must be a bit galling, though, to move into a brand new house and know that you still have to spend another twenty thousand getting the garden done. I can only tell people that a beautiful garden will put around 12 per cent on the house and for a £500,000 house, spending £20,000 will be a good boost to your equity to the tune of another £40,000 if you do it properly.

If you’re buying a house in a new ‘estate’ area then it’s assumed it doesn’t matter, because each house will look the same and a muddy, six slab garden for each house gives identical choice. The customer ends up buying the house for the bedroom space they want.  However, for a one-off development I can’t understand why a property developer still doesn’t realise the huge impact a fantastic garden can have on a prospective client. I know people who have walked right the way through a house to look out at the garden and have said “I’ll take it” without looking at a single room properly. I’m one of them.


Plants

Lilac – Syringa

Lilacs are lovely trees. If they’re looked after properly – and not just left to flower wildly at the very top of the branches they will be covered in blooms this month. They are so sweetly scented and I often buy them as cut flowers (even though my Mum says they’re unlucky to bring into the house).  I once saw a man cutting down a huge lilac tree whilst it was in bloom!  Sacrilege! I stopped the car and asked him if I could have the branches. I loaded them all into the back of the car, filling it completely and then filled every single vase in the house with huge boughs of lilac. It was wonderful!

And guess what... The national collection of lilacs is held at our very own Withdean Park! Check out the NCCPG website and read all about them. They had 791 different plants there at one time. I am going to visit as soon as possible and try to find out more about the collection and how it started.

Lilacs are usually purple or white, although there is a lovely pale lemon that I grew once. Cut the branches back hard after flowering to keep the shrub in check but you have to prune immediately it’s finished flowering or you’ll lose next year’s flowers too. At Withdean Park, they once cut them all down with a chainsaw to regenerate the collection. If you prune them too much or too often they’ll sulk and won’t flower again for a couple of years.


Things to do

Cutting back

Cut down grasses and other ‘tatty’ plants that are showing good strong signs of new growth now. Things like Crocosmia, Day Lilies, Iris and most of the grasses will be sending up strong shoots from the base of the plant. You can pull away the old dead leaves with your hands, or cut them off cleanly with a pair of sharp secateurs. I try and keep all the dead leaves on the plants over winter, but I live in a slightly colder area over the Downs and the frost does make a difference. Keeping the leaves bent over the plants during the cold months will protect them from the harder frosts and colder weather.  It’s strange but you seem to know when it’s time to pull away the old dead growth. Something tells you what to do and when to do it! It’s a bit like motherhood I suppose. Once the secateurs come out of the shed and get oiled for the Spring I can go around and find lots to do. My neighbours’ front bed needs a bit of a trim too, and I’m longing to do it – control freak!