GTA REAL ESTATE TIPS – Along with interior staging and repairs, outdoor landscaping and gardening is a crucial part of getting your Toronto home ready to sell. After all, “curb appeal” – the buyers’ first impression of your property when driving up to it – is one of the biggest factors that will determine the buyer’s willingness to submit an offer for your house.
Here in Ontario, springtime is the hottest time of the year for the real estate market. With local housing markets remaining competitive, now is a great time to take advantage by making your garden the best it can be. With that in mind, here are some spring gardening tips to help boost your house’s curb appeal.
When Should I Plan to Start Planting my Annuals?
For the majority of annual flowers – such as impatiens or petunias – you’ll want to wait until after the “frost-free date” to plant your seeds. Spring weather in Ontario can be tough to predict, but generally this date will fall around early or mid-May. Landscaping Ontario recommends May 24th as a “safe” date to plant all annuals, noting that some flowers such as pansies and snaps can be planted a few weeks earlier.
When planning your garden, it’s important to choose plants that are appropriate to the hardiness zone where you live. For example, if you live in Port Credit, you’re in hardiness zone 6. It’s a good idea to buy plants certified for not only that hardiness level, but also three levels colder – just to be safe.
What Else Can I Do to Get Ready?
If you’re eager to get going, there are a number of landscaping tasks you can complete as soon as the snow melts:
- Rake your soil and mulch to prepare the flower beds for your new plantings. If you really want to make sure it’s ready to go, you can take a pH reading of the soils in your various plant beds using a pH testing kit.
- Trim your existing trees and bushes! Make sure to get rid of excess dead or diseased wood – ensuring that there will be plenty of room for new buds to grow when the temperature gets warmer.
- Clear your lawn of any unwanted junk, twigs, etc. that may have turned up after the snow melted.
These are some general ideas for what you can do in the garden during springtime, but if you want to get serious about gardening, it’s a good idea to stop in at your local nursery or garden centre. Staff members will be happy to assist you in picking out the seeds and tools you’ll need in order to get started.
Not into gardening? Even if a ‘green thumb’ isn’t your thing, this is still a great time of year to focus on sprucing up your yard. General housekeeping; removal of litter and garbage, weeding and keeping the lawns well watered and manicured is a great way to show your pride of ownership in your property, and give a sense of security to the prospective buyers that the rest of your house is as well cared for as your lawn and garden.
