Growing money

The so-called cocooning effect is frequently mentioned to explain why the garden market is currently booming more or less across the globe: people are tending to withdraw from a world that is becoming increasingly complicated to the manageable confines of their own home, which also includes a garden. In this analysis it is easy to overlook the fact that the garden not only has an intangible value as a “feelgood” sanctuary but is also worth hard cash, as revealed in the Global Garden Report 2011 by Husqvarna/Gardena. For the first time the so-called garden effect has been investigated in a statistically representative study in nine different countries from Japan to Finland. In Australia, for example, home owners can increase the value of their real estate by an average of 12 per cent or the equivalent of US $ 65 000 if they have a well-maintained garden. That translates into a return of $ 3.6 on every dollar they invest in their garden, a factor that the authors of the study call “estimated payback-if-sold”. Gardening has become a significant topic in Australia over recent years. As the authors determined from their observations, Australians are less likely to follow trends slavishly: only 20 per cent of respondents see themselves as susceptible in this way compared with 40 per cent in France and 37 per cent in Russia. Nevertheless they too have come to recognise the value of a well-maintained garden. At any rate, in springtime 17 per cent of Australian garden owners spend more than 20 hours a week working in their garden – a figure that is comparable with other countries, though by far exceeded in Germany and Poland (29 per cent each) and France (40 per cent). Sixty-three per cent of the Australians questioned regard their garden as an investment. In their eyes the element contributing most to its value is a well-maintained lawn. This is presumably the reason why automatic watering systems top the list of the most wanted garden tools, ahead of robotic mowers. The second factor chosen by Australians as adding to the value of a garden is an inviting social area. However, the Australian “garden effect” ranks relatively far down in an international comparison. In Germany, for instance, a well-maintained garden adds 18 per cent to the value of a property, while the figure amounts to 24 per cent in densely populated Japan. Download: