It seems like more and more people are getting into gardening.

Will a vegetable garden (actually a bit more than that, since it includes some blueberries, thornless blackberries, etc) help create buyer interest in a home?

I'm thinking it could be included in the property description, along with a statement along the lines of "owner will remove if desired" so it's not an impediment to anyone who doesn't want something like this.

Does anyone have any experience with this, especially our resident real estate agents?

It definitely will be a plus with the right buyers. And I'd leave out the "remove" bit. I can't see it being a negative.

Not a real estate agent, just logic in use.

How much non-garden yard is there and what are the percentages - i.e., 1/4 acre lot and 20% is garden.

Some buyers will love it, some will be ambivalent, and others will be turned off. I think it's a lot like tailoring your resume to a certain position, but it's harder to tailor your real estate listing to different audiences. It might be better to just have it and the rest of the yard in really good shape - curb appeal - and let the real estate agent (if you are using one) tailor the presentation. For instance, if someone has a couple kids, they can talk about the grassy play area for the kids and the vegetable garden for them to learn how the food they eat goes from the garden to the table. This would probably also appeal more to a family with a stay at home parent since they generally have more time and less money and won't be scared off by the imagined level of work and will like the savings from growing their own.

Now that I've told you "it depends" and maybe confused you, my work here is done.

The yard is almost half an acre and only a very small fraction of that is garden, so I don't think excessive garden size will be an issue.

Take out the "will remove" clause. If the next people who rent from the .gov want to tear it out and put in a sandbox or whatever they feel like, they can.

You should be embarrassed.

Most buyers want an 'empty canvas' ...

The gardens we had in the yard of the suburban house my parents sold when I was 12 were an impediment until a woman bought it for her aunt and uncle. She was a doctor and was able to assume the mortgage. It was the mid-1980's and she and her family were Sikh. She got her uncle, aunt, & cousins out of Punjab right after Indira Gandhi's assassination when it got tough to be Sikh. That uncle was an older gentleman and a farmer back in Punjab. I got the impression that they were hicks by Indian standards and the niece was "the educated one in the family". I don't think they were very literate in their own language, and certainly spoke no English. He took one look at the yard with the garden and all the fruit trees, gave my dad a big smile, a laugh, and a hearty pat on the back. Clearly kindred spirits and that pretty much sold the house.

Of course our neighbors hated us, since we sold to a non-white family. Tough cookies. Dad was just happy that someone kept up the garden.

Don't say anything about a garden

Those that know what it is will appreciate it and those that don't know what it is will gloss over it thinking its just more green stuff

Looked at a house for possible investment property a couple of years ago. The house was terrible, but the little milpa in the back yard was pretty nice. Didn't buy the house, but had to look at the garden a second and third time before I left.

It might be worth looking around to see if your neighbors have gardens that are visible. If a potential buyer thinks a tomato plant is intolerably unsightly, he/she probably would not be interested in a neighborhood where other homeowners have gardens.

My own personal thought is that your garden should not be a problem and may be a plus if it is well tended and nicely mulched so that it provides a sense of order. It is really not that impossible to have a vegetable garden that gives some eye appeal. I don't know your time frame for putting your house on the market or how serious you are about selling, so some of this may not apply. If a plant is on its last leg, yank it out. I'd leave out the corn or sunflowers. The blueberry plants likely will be tall enough without being intrusive. Kale is used in ornamental beds here along with mums. Sweet potatoes are morning glories. They make nice ornamental vines. Ditto for cantaloupes. Scarlet runner beans can be pretty good looking. If you are growing tomatoes, use a dwarf variety and add a few marigolds as beneficials. Put some thought into using pavers for a permanent-looking border around the garden and keep the plants trimmed back behind it and the grass trimmed in front of it. Since you have berries, you likely have butterflies and birds. Capitalize on that aspect and point it out to your realtor too. Cone flowers are cheap and easy and attract the butterflies and birds. Flowering beneficial plants can help tone down the "Farmer Brown" aspect of the plot. As long as your garden adds to the sense of order rather than detracts, my guess is that it should be more than fine. Any potential buyer who does not like the vegetable aspect can always replace those plants with inedible ornamentals. Having the bed established, mulched, and free of grass and weeds would be a big plus to me.

Then again, I like gardens.

It would be a plus for me.

Vegetable on a pig.

That's ****ing pathetic.

I'd leave it and not put the "will remove" phrase in the listing. Folks can always remove it themselves if they choose and throw on some grass seed. For those who have gardened, they'll know how hard it is to start one from scratch (the weeds!), and will appreciate it. It also gives you/them a negotiating tool. Buyers like to get something extra out of the deal, and if they can get you to remove the garden (i.e. plow it under and throw on the grass seed ... the fall is a good time of year to be planting grass) as part of the contract, they will feel as if they've "won" (and you were planning on doing it anyways).

Just my opinion.

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You should be embarrassed.

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Vegetable on a pig.

That's ****ing pathetic.

I'm utterly baffled by these comments in the context of this thread. Anyone care to explain what I'm missing?

Do you have someone on ignore?

Same here, so I guess I have another reason to leave them there.

No, I don't have anyone on ignore. I was wondering whether there was something I don't get because I'm a Brit but they seem almost random. Can someone confirm they are the 6th and 12th post in this thread?

Fwiw, over here there is a long standing tradition of gardening for food but it's pretty rare for a veg plot to feature in the property details.

Ntb: Nobody ignored, yes, they're 6th and 12th.

I dunno either.

maybe they're posts intended for another thread but accidentally posted here and forgotten.

You can't figure out how absurd thinking something as trivial as a garden could influence a five or six figure investment is? Really? Maybe installing pretty doorknobs will close the sale. Or maybe offer to throw in your lawnmower.

Some friends just paid a premium price for a place with lots of raised veggie garden beds, grapes, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, etc. Also had almost a dozen rain barrels to store rainwater for watering. Oh, and it also has the fanciest chicken coop I've ever seen.

Yes, but you're in Portland. When it comes to some things, it really is different in the PNW.

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You can't figure out how absurd thinking something as trivial as a garden could influence a five or six figure investment is? Really? Maybe installing pretty doorknobs will close the sale. Or maybe offer to throw in your lawnmower.

Well that clears one up. The INTJ is strong in you Rule 10 and such things would not affect your decision which will be entirely rational. But you are wrong, most people are not like you. It's not an 'investment' (to them) it's a home and home purchases are driven by emotion and influenced by all sorts of relatively 'unimportant' factors specific to the individuals taste.