richard unsworth – The Interiors Addict

How to make your garden add value to your home at sale time

By Richard Unsworth

When it comes to selling your house and preparing it for the mega-competitive marketplace, it’s often the case that the outside is completely overlooked, with the focus almost entirely on the interior.

Your garden is an integral part of the home, and in my opinion, presenting it in the best light can make your property really stand out from the crowd as it’s usually the first thing that a prospective buyer will see.

Richard Unsworth

But it’s important, of course, not to go over the top and be realistic with your budget as the last thing you want to do is overcapitalise.

So, how do you get the best value when you prepare your garden for transformation?

Asses the assets and liabilities in the space. What is not working, and what really are the stand outs? Can’t see the wood for the trees? Do you have some beautiful trees, but you can’t see them because messy shrubs are in the way, or vice versa? Clear away scrappy plants that add nothing. Prune to shape and give definition, prune any dead wood in trees that are unsightly.
Bad paving underfoot? Sometimes it’s not as expensive as you think to lay a new floor, and the results can be transformational. It may just be in a certain section, a new smart front path, or stone pad for entertaining.
Entertaining areas. Prospective purchasers like to see areas for entertaining, even if it’s just a simple courtyard/paved space with either an outdoor lounge setting or dining setting.
Create a strong dramatic focal point with a hero planter or pot composition. It’s instant and so simple to create a strong visual using one large statement piece, or cluster of planters to draw the eye away from something unsightly or transform a dull space. Pots are so portable, you can buy the ones you love and take the pieces to your next property.
Small touches in the right spots work wonders – use pairs of smaller pots with massed succulents by outdoor steps, doorways, on table tops. Don’t forget indoor plant specimens too in those important areas.
Advanced plant specimens are a great way to instantly fill in empty gaps, screening unsightly views as well as creating instant scale and impact.
Make your prospective purchaser fall in love with a stunning water feature – they are more portable than you think so you can always take it to your next home, or sell it back to the new owner.
If you don’t have a budget for a water feature, float bowls are romantic, effective, affordable and so easy to fill with inexpensive blooms before an open house.
Border plants – if the front of your garden beds are messy and inconsistent, plant multiples of the same low plant to tie it all in together. Repetition is the key to replacing order. Use long flowering plants such as lavenders or flowering kalanchoe for instant colour.
Fresh mulch on tired beds can make a huge difference and costs next to nothing. Same goes for pebbles or gravel walkways, use a natural Nepean pebble or Cowra white for a fresh contemporary look. Drop in pavers as stepping stones, so easy.
Ugly timber fences – paint in a dark colour and watch them disappear. Rubber wall pots massed with assorted succulents can create a very affordable and instant greenwall.
If you have the budget, mount laser-cut screens, or other wall art in high visibility areas.

—Richard Unsworth is a renowned garden designer and owner of Sydney’s iconic outdoor store, Garden Life St Peters.

Fiddle leaf figs — their popularity and how not to kill them

By Richard Unsworth

The fiddle leaf fig, fiddler fig, or if you want to get really technical – Ficus Lyrata. The uber ‘it’ plant of the last five years. Surely it’s the only house plant with its own waiting list (Garden Life has a long one)? So just what is it about them that makes many folk go completely la la and want to part with hard earned, cold, hard cash in order to have one?

Is it that their deep lustrous, verdant hand-sized leaves just look so good in any interior space? Is it the big bold burst of green that contrasts so well with our modern interiors? Whether it be industrial minimal, pretty-pretty or contemporary luxe – the fiddler fig seems just so right anywhere you choose to place it.

Whether we like it or not, indoor plants are back with a vengeance, but unlike the previous decades where more was more, it’s now about one major floor specimen, and the fiddler fig is still definitely numero uno.

I love it when they start to get bigger, much bigger, as they begin their transition into mini indoor trees. As they mature, the lower leaves will drop off and the stems take on tiny trunks. Re-potting them into larger pots is the key to enduring growth and it’s easy to get this effect inside given the right conditions.

Garden Life constantly struggles to keep up with demand, partly due to the plants’ slow growing nature – the nurseries can’t physically grow them quick enough, and we are constantly working the phones with our growers, trying to sure up supply, checking their growth and availability.

I think some of our growers do quietly smile at our inner city houseplant addiction, remembering a time 10 years ago when they had greenhouses full of them and couldn’t actually give them away – can you actually imagine such a time?

When they are healthy and vibrant, there is nothing that can touch them, so to ensure your new friend always looks its best, check out my tips:

F.Figs love a well-lit position indoors, so select something else if you have a dark space – consider the rubber plant (Ficus Elastica ‘burgundy’) or a Kentia Palm.
F.Figs don’t need to be constantly moist, let them dry out between watering – but you must water them well – as a general rule, once a week is sufficient.
Best take them outside, in a shower, or atop a sink, so you can water well and the water can freely drain out.
If it’s really dry (stick your finger in, does it feel dry? Dry potting mix will not stick to your finger) you may need to dunk/soak it in a large bucket for a few hours.
Use a liquid feed, such as Nitrosol or house plant food every two weeks during spring/summer – so one week water, the next week feed it, next week water, etc.
If you want your F.Fig to grow ‘tree-like’ and touch the ceiling, consider re-potting your fig into a larger plastic pot, using best quality premium potting mix– they will love you for it and put on lots of new growth.
If yours now looks like sad sticks, (RIP) it may be curtains, but try taking it outside, in a morning sun position, or filtered light under a tree, water it, feed it, talk to it, get on your knees and pray godammit! It should come back, just a little slowly.

–Richard Unsworth is a renowned garden designer, writer and traveller. He is also the owner of Sydney’s iconic outdoor store, Garden Life, and has played a part in Australia’s landscape design scene for the past 15 years.