Jackie French: Don't underestimate the value of a garden

A good garden can add 20 per cent or more to the value of a property, or far more if you've created a backyard orchard and almost self-sufficient market garden, and the buyers are longing for mature apple trees, lemons to eat every day, strawberries for their kids to pick after school.

It does, of course, depend on both garden style and buyer. There is an unforgettable garden of tall cacti, all green and white, surrounded by white pebbles and a crazy paving path. It is memorable, a product probably of about 20 years of dedicated hard work - and possibly totally unsaleable unless the prospective buyer had a bulldozer and isn't afraid to use it, or shares the same passion for tall Texas-style cacti.

The same may apply to a garden with topiary swans, or horses. If the right buyer meets the right garden, the price will go up. And - let's face it - some people simply do not like gardens. A lovely old house I know had the most magic garden, at least 50 varieties of old-fashioned climbing roses, rampant wisteria, hollyhocks as high as I am, a host of foxgloves, a million jonquils and daffs all through the end of winter and to the end of spring.

It was bought almost as soon as it was on the market, just as the roses were in full spring bloom and the daffs glowing underneath, not to mention the bluebells under the snow gums on the footpath, a combination that worked surprisingly well.

A week later the mechanical digger arrived. By afternoon the garden was bare dirt. It's now neat paving, large matching pots of yucca, lines of black Mondo grass along the fence line and a pair of yellowing potted gardenias by the front door.

But mostly gardens are bought by people who like gardens: low maintenance, or the full bloom kind. Just choose your style then make it the best you can if you plan to attract buyers. And cheat, just a little, with pots of bloomers if you want a cottage garden look. Cheer up a dull concrete or brick wall with a line of tall pots filled with 'Candles' banksia or grass trees or even those plastic jobs that these days can look very realistic indeed, till they get tatty. (There are some so life-like you need to rub your fingers on the leaves to see if they are living or plastic).

And otherwise? Keep the lawn green and well mown, not just to look neat and frame the house but because freshly mown and then watered grass gives off a scent that most humans find deeply instinctively attractive. Keep paving weed free. Hire a commercial hard-hitting hose to clean concrete and brick walls, paving, stairs and anything else that will survive water and looks a bit grotty.

Make sure no cobwebs dangle anywhere an arachnophobe or neatness lover can see, as though no spider has ever dreamed of sharing your house. And even if you have grown accustomed to the scent, never leave dog or cat food tins inside the house once opened, and do a morning and evening poo patrol.

And maybe just a little more cheating, like two giant hanging baskets of flowers in season either side of the front door, and two equally big hanging baskets of herbs outside the back door or by the barbecue.

And having said that? Grow the garden you love, Chances are, even if its two-metre-high cacti, there will be others who will love it as much as you do.