Real Estate News

Spring curb appeal checklist: Get your yard ready to grow!

by vahabj

Curb Appeal Garden

 

Beautiful lawns and gardens, groomed and manicured year after year, add real value to your home when it’s ready to enter the market. Early Spring is the perfect time to prime your green spaces to nurture grasses, scrubs, flowers, and edibles. Use this handy checklist to prep your garden for the growing season ahead.

Spring curb appeal checklist:

Tip: To prevent soil compaction, wait until the soggy ground of early Spring has dried out before walking on lawns and flowerbeds.

  • Remove stones and debris that have found their way onto the lawn from the driveway. Make note of areas (natural or man-made) that could use a little patching and repair.
  • Look for damage from molds and lawn diseases caused by cool, wet conditions and rake it away. This may appear as a fluffy white, pink, or gray residue on the lawn.
  • Rake the lawn to remove dead grass and thatch, and clear away fallen tree branches.
  • Start seeds for annuals, tomatoes, and peppers indoors.
  • Give summer-flowering bulbs, such as cannas and dahlias, a head start by potting them indoors under lights until after the last frost date.
  • As soon as the ground is workable, plant cool-weather crops such as sweet peas, onions, cabbage, radishes, and leeks.
  • Prune deciduous trees and shrubs (except those that flower or flow with sap in spring).
  • Spray scale-infested trees and shrubs with dormant oil before their leaves appear.
  • Apply slow-release fertilizer to flowering shrubs and vines, including roses, rhododendrons, and clematis.