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Gardening to Sell

Curb appeal, how important is it? Extremely important.

Curb appeal, how important is it? Extremely important. A well landscaped yard will draw buyers to your property. Taking time and preparing the outside of a home is just as important as the time you spend to plan and arrange the inside of your home. Put your welcome mat out by keeping your landscape healthy and beautiful. Planning my gardens each spring is something I look forward to. Working in the yard on a beautiful day is therapy to me. Deciding what plants I will put in my garden each year, planning out my strategy according to size, height and color is like painting a picture. Establishing a color theme and sticking to it will bring order to your garden. Complimentary colors such as reds and violets, or yellows and oranges and a variety of different types of flowers while remaining true to the color choices will bring interest and a neatness to your garden. Early in the spring after the last frost I like to see what winter has left me with. I usually have some ferns,(because I try to cover them when it freezes) and my yellow columbine is always faithful and pops up along with my Lantana, Purple Heart, lots of Turks Cap, and lots and lots of ground cover. If we have experienced a mild winter I am out pulling up ground cover although it seems like even when we do not have a mild winter I have plenty of ground cover to pull out. It takes over my walking paths and trips me up and assaults my gardens. Many years ago a well meaning neighbor gave me the ground cover in my yard. My front yard gardens were bare and she felt sorry for me. They were empty because of the large deer population nearby that would feast in my yard. Not knowing what I was doing I planted the ground cover in my gardens and of course my gardens were no longer gardens. Two years ago I pulled out all of the ground cover that had taken over my front gardens and began the process of planting a real garden. Back to curb appeal! Soil improvement is the most important step to planting a garden. Adding a 2 to 5 inch layer of compost is recommended, this will help add nutrients to the soil as well as increase the soils ability to retain water. Another recommendation is to till the soil to a depth of 10 to 12 inches. This gives plant roots a good loose foundation to spread out in. When digging your plant holes make the holes slightly wider than the pots the plants came in. Arrange the pots in the garden to make sure they are placed where you want them. When you remove the plants from the pots gently loosen the roots so that they are set to reach out once they are planted in the ground. Make sure the plants are placed in the ground at the same depth as they were in the pot. Surround the plant with mulch this will help to keep weeds away from plants and will help to hold water in the soil. After planting, water the plants well by wetting the soil thoroughly. Make sure you know the zone that you live in not only for temperature but also for precipitation so that your can select the right plants for your area. Some plants that do well in the hot zone include Mexican Heather, Sage, Lantana and Butterfly Weed. Select annuals versus perennials. Annuals are plants that normally bloom for only one season and are usually very colorful. Hardy annuals such as Geraniums may sustain more then one season especially in a warmer climate such as ours. Some annuals are summer plants like Petunias and Impatiens. Pansies and Snapdragons are winter annuals in our warmer zone 8 climate. Perennials such as Coreopsis, Columbine, Black-eyed Susan and Cast Iron Plant to name a few will continue to bring interest and color to your garden year after year. Planning your garden is more important with perennials. Plan for a variety of blooms throughout the season and pay attention to the variety of shapes whether the plants are cascading down a trellis, sprawling along a fence or creating a straight mound that peaks in the middle of the garden. It all adds interest that will remain from season to season. Maintain your garden landscape by fertilizing and pruning the plants. Generally it is only necessary to fertilize once a year in the early spring before new plant growth. A complete fertilizer contains the three main nutrients a plant needs which are nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. It is a good idea to have your soil tested to see if your soil is lacking in any nutrients and this can easily be done by contacting your county extension agent. Pruning your plants will also help with their growth and shape. Trimming away dead, damaged or diseased branches will keep your plants looking healthy and attractive. Some plants that multiply easily such as Turks Cap need severe pruning every few years to keep them blooming. Planting a garden to attract butterflies and hummingbirds can also be fun. Showy bright flowers will attract butterflies. Hummingbirds are attracted to plants with tube shape-flowers such as Acacias where they can gather their nectar. A birdbath in a garden will also help to draw the wildlife you want. We must also talk about cultivating a wildflower garden because Texas more then any other state is probably best known for its wildflowers. A garden of wildflowers is very different from a planned garden because as the name says we are trying to duplicate the conditions of the wild. It is important that the soil condition enables each wildflower selection to thrive. Selecting the species for your yard should receive a good amount of homework on your part. What flowers do best in the shady areas as well as those that thrive in the sun? Purchasing the wildflower seeds from a native plant nursery in the area will assure you that the seeds are adapted to the climate they will be planted in. Wildflowers naturally reseed themselves after blooming so make sure you wait until the flowers have faded and the plants have died before removing the old plant. Generally your seeds are planted between August and November. Perennials may have a few blooming seasons and annuals perhaps one but wildflowers can produce a beautiful garden year after year if they are allowed to reseed themselves. Your yard is the entrance to your home and makes it inviting and interesting. If your house is on the market it is particularly important to keep the welcome mat out by taking care of the outside of your home as well as the inside. Pay attention to detail and keep it neat, clean and vibrant. Our company is slowly turning green, and enjoying it as we sell Austin real estate, This is place where people want to be green. The same goes for Lago Vista.