By Heather Chilvers

Dear Heather,

I am going to be putting my house on the market in a couple of months, is there anything I should be doing now to get it ready?

Home Seller

Dear Home Seller,

One of the best things you can do to give your house instant curb appeal, besides the usual exterior repairs and painting, is prepare a beautiful garden. And now is the time to do it!

March is a bit of a guessing game in the garden. Will it warm up soon? Will it stay warm? Will the rains start/stop? About the only thing we can count on is that March too shall pass.

So go ahead and push the envelope a bit.

You should have your seeds started, trees and shrubs pruned and your tools ready to go. After that, the most important thing is to have patience. It’s tempting to take advantage of warm days, but even in Bermuda winter gets the last word in the garden.

Here are some gardening tips to take with a spoonful of judgement.

Chores for spring would include:

• Prepping the soil … adding manure, fertilisers, mulching, etc.

• Pruning back shrubs and bushes ready for the new spring growth. The rule of thumb is remove any dead wood, and dead heading always encourages blooming.

• Raking up leaves and picking up branches blown down during the winter (start a compost heap).

• Deal with insects as the weather warms … including slugs and snails which are loving that wet winter weather.

• Fertilising grass, adding weed and feed if required.

• Repotting and refreshing potted plants.

• Pull up all weeds and plants that are not doing well or too big for the flower bed

• Avoid walking on wet soil in the garden.

• Transplant container-grown citrus trees, fertiliser-established trees now. Wait four to six weeks to feed newly planted trees.

• It’s time to start replacing cool weather annuals with summer varieties.

• Plant summer bulbs, tubers, etc, like blood lily, caladiums, canna Lily and elephant ears.

• Start planting bedding plants, like petunia, daisies, begonias, impatience.

• Keep watering, especially new plants.

Brighton Nurseries and Aberfeldy both have a fabulous supply of spring plants, pots and even raised wooden vegetable gardens. Your garden will look fabulous in a couple of months’ time. The bedding plants will have grown up, small shrubs established and older bushes and shrubs will have new growth. Happy planting!

Heather Chilvers is among Coldwell Banker Bermuda Realty’s leading sales representatives. She has been working in real estate for 27 years. If you have a question for Heather, please contact her at hchilvers@brcl.bm or 332 1793. All questions will be treated in confidence.