It’s easy to overlook your front garden, but it could be more of an asset than you think.

If you’re thinking of selling your home and want to make a good first impression, or you just want to improve its “kerb appeal”, giving the front a makeover is a must.

Improving its appearance could add value but, more importantly, will attract buyers and make it easier to sell.

The basics are pretty obvious – have a good tidy-up, give tired woodwork a lick of paint and do any necessary repairs, especially to the walls, roof, windows and front door. Wholesale replacement of doors and windows, though, may cost more than the value they add to the house although they may make selling easier because the house looks better.

The other area you need to focus on is the front garden because it can make a big difference to the appearance and appeal of your home – and it shouldn’t be difficult to transform.

Brightening up your front garden with window boxes, hanging baskets, troughs and tubs planted with colourful summer bedding plants such as pansies, geraniums and petunias can be a good idea, provided there’s not an overwhelming mass to spoil the effect.

Hedges provide privacy if your home’s close to the pavement, but can make the front room dark, so strike the right balance.

If you don’t want the hassle of maintaining a front lawn, or you don’t have room for one, stick to low-maintenance options such as gravel, pebbles or slate chips, all of which can be used to quickly cover concrete and crazy paving eyesores.

A more expensive, but elegant, option is block paving, paving slabs, or slate or ceramic tiles, which are easy to maintain because they can be hosed down. Mix in some flowerbeds and you should have a smart, easy-to-maintain front garden that’s the best of both worlds.

But no matter how good the planting scheme, if you haven’t got time to maintain it then it will soon look shabby and unloved – exactly the wrong approach to take.

Another negative is to smother the front garden in concrete, which looks very tired very quickly. Your neighbours may not be keen to see all the surface water running into the street instead of being soaked up by your lawn so if you want off street parking then use a gravel surface laid on a permeable membrane that lets water drain through but stops the gravel mixing with the soil below.

People love the crunchy, country house sound of gravel under foot and you can hear unwanted visitors walking on it at night, so it’s good for security. When it looks tired simply give it a fresh look within 10 minutes using a garden rake!

Scented plants such as lavender create the right aroma as visitors approach the front door – just as keeping the air fresh inside removes cooking and pet smells.

What’s important is to remember that first impressions stick. So potential buyers doing a drive-by before they ask for a visit will be invited in or turned away by their initial glance.

“That’s why it has to be a good one – a well-tended garden that’s easy to maintain, clean, fresh paintwork, sparkling windows and bright blinds or curtains.

Colin Shairp<