I hope you have luck in selling. One way I would try is to advertise your garden for sale. One pic of your garden instead of the house in the ad. Then include the house as an extra.

Do you have a local horticultural society? Perhaps this would be a place to pass the word that your garden is going up for sale.

If you are planning to hire a real estate agent, find one that loves your garden, rather than one who thinks it all seems like too much work.

Oh dear, I would love to buy your place --- if only .....

I'd say first interview your real estate agent and be specific about your demands. It is all in the ad and you should be very clear that the potential buyers must meet your standards. Albeit, you will be limiting your market.

The real estate agent is one who is willing to work for you and for what you want. So it must be someone who is going to be patient enough to seek clients who are gardeners. Perhaps you will be wanting to interview the people before you agree to sell.

Ianna

This is really a point for discussion between you and your real estate agent. Including pictures of the yard as well as pictures of the house and including a garden description in the write up may help.

Are you going to insist that the buyer be a gardener? You will limit the pool of potential buyers considerably if you demand that a buyer also be a keen gardener. That stipulation would have to be advertised. And how would you police it? Interview the buyer? Demand proof that they garden?

A gardener who shares your taste in plants and design in the market for a house would likely choose yours over one with no garden, if the houses were similar.

Actually, if I was using an agent it would be a little more of a 'no brainer'. However, for the time being I would like to sell privately. So ... I guess what I was looking for were suggestions of places that you have advertised (if you have sold a house & GARDEN) - for instance, do any of the gardening magazines list properties for sale?? Or any other networking techniques that have worked for you or someone you know.
I fully plan to network with other gardeners that I know & to send 'fact sheets' to anyone who has ever been to our garden on a tour or to our small yearly plant sales. I figure since they have already seen the property they would make good use of the 'word of mouth' technique.

so ... any really creative ideas out there?? Come on guys this could be useful to anyone of you in the future.
thanks
A.

Have you considered selling by yourself? A lot of people in my area are listing with www.forsalebyowner.com. I don't know how it works but maybe someone here has had experience with them. You could make a blog of your own with pictures of your house and extensive garden and post the link on your listing. Marg

Marg,
Yes, we are going to try and sell the property ourselves - at least at first. I will have a look at the 'for sale by owner' site - thanks for that suggestion.
So far this is what I've done
- created a brochure with property information & coloured pictures - these were picked up by people who came through our garden on a bus tour last weekend. I will also send copies of this to friends & gardening acquaintences hoping they will pass it on to any interested parties.
- inquired about putting an add in the local alpine newletter.
- in the process of developing a web-page
- have a series of photos on-line showing the garden through the 2006 growing season. (link in top posting)

not bad for the first week! Given time, I'm sure I can come up with other marketing ideas - but I'm still open to any suggestions!
a.

I was in the same boat. A professionally landscaped house, But I found a larger property with what I was looking for. I was hoping the new owners would appreciate the landscape.
The new owners litterally ripped out the rose garden to make room for some extra car space. All the plants in front of the house were ripped out, not to incl an 18 foot Rockie Mountain Blue Spruce (Intense blue all year).
I can go on and on about the back but I wont.
Noyone is going to value your house as much as you. You can keep your lovely house or hope I do mean Hope that the folks who buy your house dont have any other plans. I pretty sure your Agent will consider not putting in clauses as it is much complicated when it comes to landscaping. You might ask your local City/Town about this. I believe ripping out landscaping is pretty much protected. I think if they rip out landscaping they must replace it with someother landscaping. My 2 cents. george.

Gosh George, how depressing :o(
I have heard similar stories but, somehow you hope it won't happen to you.
Our place is certainly not professionally landscaped But, it does have hundreds & hundreds of rather special plants including a collection of almost 100 different ornamental grasses.
All I can do is hope that someone that appreciates the garden buys it. If not .... what can you do. I will take small pieces of all my most precious plants with me, at least those that will tolerate my new 1.5 zone colder garden.
Your experience makes me quite sad ...
a.

achnatherum when we sold our other property we tagged certain plants to be EXCLUDED from the sale of the property.
Wheather your selling private or with an Agent, The plants you want add them to the contract so they dont go after you looking for damages. The property we purchased was to start a Nursery and those were our mother plants. so you understand why certain plants were tagged. I have some ads on Kijiji.ca.ca. Check us out you might be surprised. George..

Here is a link that might be useful: Mississauga, Brampton. home and garden

achnatherum Ive seen some photos, not all as Im busy. But they are nice. It appears your in a nice neighbourhood.
By LAW I believe it hasnt changed but the new owner can do some adjustments but if they tear it all out they must replace it with something else. if someone complaines about the new owners digging up their yard and removing perfectly healthy plants they might get fined. The government are strict about ruining an entire landscape and replacing it with grass or something to that effect. achnatherum with what Ive seen I think your going to stay there. A house landscaped your way is hard to find. I think your going to miss it. It certainly is hard to leave a beautiful landscaped house. George.

George,
Yes, we are definitely going to miss the place!
But, we are also definitely leaving ~ we have already bought another house :o)
If someone takes out the garden it will be their loss. Sad for me but once I sell it isn't my business what they do...
all I can do is hope!
a.

achnatherum I done the same thing. I found the right property doing so I had to sell our other house. I certainly couldnt turn down this offer.
What they do after we move out is their loss. achnatherum when I go back to speak to my buddies they werent happy with what the owner has done. The new owner wanted maintenance free. I did forget to mention that the new owner has a disability and therefor could not take over the maintenance.
Like you said you enjoyed it for the years you've been there.george.