This spring think curbside appea

When spring begins to blossom in communities in southern Alberta — flowers, a nice lawn and a near-perfect landscaped yard comes to mind with a focus on front yard curbside appeal to make the neighbours jealous, as they too venture out to spruce up the old homestead.

But before planting trees and flowers haphazardly — get a gardening and landscaping education to help make your yard the best it can be.

First off, according to President David Kuperus of Coaldale Nurseries, right now it’s too early to plant flowers but homeowners can begin to fertilize grass.

“Either aerating it or cutting it really short to get the dead stuff out and then it will green up really good,” said Kuperus, adding grass should be aerated if there is a lot of traffic flow on the grass.

Secondly, if homeowners want to plant trees this spring planting season, the best thing to do is take a picture of the yard and bring it into a gardening specialty store with ideas of what to plant and learn what types of trees work in different areas of the front and back yard.

“A lot of people plant trees that are too big for their yard or a lot of people plant junipers and stuff on the wrong side of the house that won’t do well. There’s so much to it,” said Kuperus, but being educated on the topic is a good start to healthy planting.

If homeowners want to learn about which trees to plant and where to plant trees, Kuperus said homeowners can bring in a picture of the yard to Coaldale Nurseries and sales staff can offer suggestions of what to plant where, depending which way a house faces.

Discussions about what types of trees a homeowner would like to plant and an idea of how big a certain type of tree will get could help homeowners make the right tree choice.

“They can imagine if they will fit in their yard and you want to think past four years or five years. A lot of people plant too many trees in the yard and then they end up cutting them out or else they grow all together or they find them too close to the house or powerlines,” noted Kuperus, adding homeowners should also measure how big their yard is and that will help determine how big of a tree can be planted.

Kuperus said in a front yard a house really doesn’t need shade but a backyard is where a homeowner wants shade for privacy. “In the front yard you want a decorative tree and in the back yard you really want more of a shade tree,” said Kuperus.

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