The big uprooting

A good garden can help sell a house, but beware the vendor who, having sold, wants to take some of the garden with them in the form of shrubs and even trees. New owners would normally expect that plants rooted in the soil should be part of a sale, unless otherwise stated. Indeed, large-scale changes to a garden could subsequently give rise to a claim for compensation, especially if the house was marketed as having a particularly good garden.

For avid gardeners, selling on a garden that has taken up so many hours and cost so many broken fingernails, the temptation to take favourite plants with them must be very strong.

It can be done, according to garden designer Verney Naylor, with a good deal of planning. She recently sold her home in Claremont Road, in Sandymount, leaving behind one-third of an acre of garden she intensively developed over the past 25 years. She has been planning for a move to west Cork, where she will be starting a new garden. "You need to plan a move from a garden well in advance, ideally for a year," she says. This is to in order to take advantage of the dormant season between November and February, which is the best time to move plants and small shrubs.

While she has no intention of moving her garden or effecting any change to the design, she has been dividing up plants and putting them into pots. "I've been taking some cuttings over the past few months but I think one should only move something that is very rare and impossible to find again. Or else, something that has a sentimental value."

However, trees, often planted to mark special occasions can't usually be moved very successfully. "One of the most important things to do is to have a pot and to number and label everything. You need to know from where they came but I've only done a fraction of what I could have done."

She admits this time of year is the wrong time to be moving plants around but she says most perennials can be chanced. "Water them well before digging, preferably the day before. Then put plants into a pot or plastic bag and cut them back so as to put energy into the roots. Don't allow anything to sit in water or they will become waterlogged," she warns. But not all plants transfer very well to other ground. Aspect and soil also come into play. Every garden has a micro-climate of its own. Something that does well in Sandymount might not necessarily do well in west Cork. "I've moving to an exposed windy garden from a walled, sheltered garden," she points out.

She is planning to take some herbs and ferns but not a Japanese maple for instance. Pots and containers are like mobile planting stations. They can be moved around or replanted at will and Verney Naylor has made the most of them with the move in mind. "I've done quite a bit of potting up and put lots of things into containers. It's important, too, to think about what was in the garden in a different season, such as a particular clump of snowdrops which you might want," she says. She is also keeping in mind a dwarf cyclamen. Landscape gardener Dessie O'Donoghue says people tend to leave their gardens behind in the hope of getting a better price for the house. "They often bring us in to tidy up a garden before they put the house on the market. They want it to look well. Keen gardeners might dig up a few bulbs or take a few cuttings when they are leaving but most people leave it as it is."

With a trend towards paving and away from grass, people do consider moving expensive slabs and paving stones with them. "It would still be unusual for people to do this, though we had an instance of a water feature stuck into a wall which we were asked to remove on behalf of an owner. However, the new owners intervened and said they didn't want the wall put at risk so the owner agreed to leave it."

While landscaping costs money, Dessie O'Donoghue says people are generally philosophical about leaving the garden. "We wouldn't encourage people to shift plants about like that. They'd have to have a very good reason."

Certain plants are harder to move than others - such as mature trees. Many people plant these to mark special occasions such as the birth of children but these trees cannot readily be taken away. One person planted roses on his wife's birthday and after her death, returned every year to the original garden in her honour under an informal arrangement with the new owners.

Moveable items, such as statues, seats, birdbaths and the much maligned gnomes, are normally excluded from a sale. But if in doubt, draw up a list in advance of the sale or auction detailing exactly what can be left behind. Indeed, Verney Naylor did this as part of her conditions of sale.

Auctioneers don't admit to witnessing large-scale changes. A garden will certainly help sell a house, Denis Beare, from Lisney confirms. "But the number of houses with exquisite gardens is not great."

Most gardeners aren't going to wreck their garden and destroy what they have created," he says. "And while a professionally landscaped garden might be attractive, it might not necessarily be a labour of love and the owners will simply replace it with a similar garden some place else. Many landscaped gardens are just geared to be low-maintenance and to look well," he says.