Splitting Plants: An Inexpensive Way to Increase Home's Curb Appeal

Despite the importance of curb appeal, real estate agents do not recommend spending significant amounts of money on the yard as sellers usually will not get a 100 percent return on their expenditure. As such, anything sellers can do with their current plantings is a good first step, and dividing gardening plants, also known as splitting, is an inexpensive and highly effective method to double or even triple the number of plantings around a home.

A real estate agent once told me that 74 percent of buyers will drive by a house or look at its appearance on the Internet and decide if they are interested in it without stepping inside. This means that three out of four potential buyers will "judge a book by its cover," and highlights the crucial nature of curb appeal. Real estate agents define curb appeal as the first impression a house makes on a potential buyer when he or she pulls up in front of a home. This first impression generally influences how attached they initially become to the house so for sellers with limited funds to devote to their home's external appearance, splitting is a godsend.

For buyers with time and foresight, splitting a few seasons before putting the house on the market (i.e. fall before spring) can lead to a plethora of mature plants. However, buyers with short time periods can still benefit from splitting plants as they can fill out the front of the home.

Splitting Basics

Perennials that grow in groups originating from a single plant can get too large for the site at which it is planted or start producing smaller flowers, and benefit from being split. After the initial shock period, the plants will grow back healthier and in greater number than before.

The best time to split plants is in the early spring just as the plant enters the rapid growth period or early autumn after flowers have come and gone. The summer is not the ideal time for splitting perennials because of the combination of heat, dry soil, and the fact that plant is in its flowering stage. Unless in a moderate climate, winter is also not a good time for splitting as plants are dormant and the ground is solid.