Garden-lovers wax lyrical about the joy of a manicured lawn and neatly layered flower beds; garden-haters resent every hour they give to keeping their scruffy plot in order. Yet there is a compromise that could bring these two tribes together — a communal garden.
Buy into a housing development with shared gardens and you never again have to face the horror of a jungle to be cleared when you return from holiday. All is kept in order by someone else. Little wonder they are popular with owners of expensive new homes.
The gardens of the Star And Garter development on Richmond Hill are a prime example. The neo-classical building itself was opened by King George V in 1924 as a home for soldiers injured in the Great War. In 2013 it was acquired by developers, London Square, who built apartments and houses ranging in price from £600,000 to £8.5million (londonsquare.co.uk).
Manicured grounds: A first-floor apartment with 1.5 acres of shared gardens is for sale at The Leazes in Northumberland
The communal gardens and terrace of The Star and Garter development on Richmond Hill
To match the swish facilities — including a pool, spa and cinema — the property has communal gardens with a cherub-ringed fountain. The residents don’t get the chance to colonise too much of the grounds. The open areas are for everyone, but anyone wishing to book a barbecue area for a private function can do so through the concierge.
‘It’s an ideal arrangement,’ says Rebecca Little, sale and marketing director of London Square. ‘Our residents often travel widely throughout the year and they cannot commit themselves to gardening.’
Buying a property with communal gardens isn’t entirely straightforward and there are stories of residents being landed with suddenly inflated management fees.
‘The key to buying successfully is engagement,’ says James Greenwood of Stacks property Search. ‘Join any committee that oversees the grounds and study its budget and future plans to ensure you aren’t going to be asked to pay for any over-ambitious improvements.’
Splendid communal gardens are not solely the preserve of the uber rich. Royal Earlswood Park in Redhill, Surrey, is surrounded by 97 acres of parkland.
The entrance drive is guarded by a phalanx of Redwood trees; deer roam the grounds in the early morning and the area around the pond is a particular favourite with picnicking families.
‘We are happy to stay here in our two-bedroom flat — even with a one-year old child,’ said one resident. ‘The grounds are so spacious we don’t feel the need to move to a bigger place.’
There are several apartments for sale in Royal Earlswood Park, which also has a resident’s pool and gym. A two-bedroom flat on the second floor is for sale with Connells for £265,000 (connells.co.uk).
Near Hexham in Northumberland, at the Grade-II listed country home The Leazes, which has shared gardens covering 1.5 acres, a three-bedroom flat is for sale at £450,000 (struttandparker.com).
There are some 27 million gardeners in the UK and some of these are attracted to communal gardens because they offer the chance to practise their horticultural skills on a broader canvas.
Many of the big country houses allow residents to help their team of gardeners informally, while the Marmalade Lane co-housing group in Cambridge offers residents the opportunity to join a group of eco-friendly gardeners.
‘We have a large meadow bordered by oaks and maples, with mowed strips which we use for picnics,’ Jan Chadwick, 67, one of the 100 or so adults who live on the site. ‘We have a herb garden for the bees and grow courgettes, squashes and tomatoes.
‘There’s no compulsion to work on the land, but once a year there’ll be a shout out for help mowing and raking and then everyone joins in. It’s good fun.’
Prices in Marmalade Lane range from £295,000 for a one-bedroom flat to £535,000 for a four-bedroom house (savills.com).
Research from Barratt found that 82 per cent of buyers are more likely to buy in an area that incorporates green space, hence house builders offering imaginative showpiece communal gardens incorporated into their developments.
Galliard Homes has a Zen Garden, designed as a Japanese dry rock garden, in its Islington Square development and the Co-op scheme in Coventry has an indoor landscaped garden.
‘The grass is artificial, but the trees and plants are real,’ says Dipak Ghedia, 40, who lives in one of the 63 apartments priced from £165,000 (connells.co.uk).
‘With the wind blowing around the glass roof, you’d swear you were outdoors. It’s a truly relaxing environment.’
