Repairing Your Lawn – From Your Friendly Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Repairing Your Lawn – From Your Friendly Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Getting your home ready for sale this spring? As a Vancouver mortgage broker we can tell you that curb appeal is important when the buyers come looking. Your lawn is one of the first things that stand out when people come to view your home, and a well landscaped lawn says a lot about the person who owns the home.

With spring approaching around the corner, the snow is pretty much gone and your lawn has taken a beating. From salt, burrowing rodents and even the neighbour’s pets, it’s time to roll up the sleeves and get your lawn prepped so you can enhance your home’s appearance.

Lawns get stressed so it’s not uncommon to find dead patches when the snow is gone. Here are some tips on how to spruce up your lawn and maintain it after winter.

Lawn Damage from Salt

Salt and other types of de-icers are one reason for those dead patches. Your first step is to give the dead areas of the lawn affected by salt a good flushing with water to remove any residue. You can also use a sprayer with your hose and add just a few drops of mild detergent. This will help rid the area of the salt residue and allow oxygen to reach the roots.

Another good remedy is to use some gypsum soil conditioner which comes in the form of pellets. It contains both sulphur and calcium which will help the lawn repair itself and should be applied thinly using a lawn spreader. You should do this as soon as possible as it will take a couple of weeks for regeneration to occur. If you don’t see any improvement you will have to dig out the dead patch and re-seed 

Lawn Damage from Rodents and Insects

Voles and moles are some of the worst culprits as you see their wormy lines of burrowing from their tunnels. Skunks are also another major pest as they like to dig up the lawn for a meal of tasty grubs. And, if the skunks are digging for grubs then that is another problem in itself because grubs can infest the lawn and kill the roots

The furrows in the lawn left from rodents can easily be repaired by buying some bags of topsoil and filling them in to even out the lawn so it appears consistent. You may also have to add some seed to facilitate growth. However, if it looks as if the skunks have been looking for grubs, you should also see if you have that problem because it’s very likely you do. One clue is that the sod will be yellowed and detached. You can use a trowel to dig down a few inches to see if you have grubs

About your only eco-friendly option is to dig up the infested area and dispose of it. Then,you will have to replace the topsoil and re-seed again

Lawn Damage from Pets

Our pets like to play on out lawn but unfortunately they also like to tinkle and leave behind other packages which can damage the lawn throughout the winter. Dog urine is high in nitrogen and although nitrogen is generally good for lawns, too high a concentration will cause a ‘nitrogen burn’ 

Like salt, your first step is to give the burnt area a good long soaking to dissipate the residual nitrogen. You can also use horticultural lime, but must do so cautiously and sparingly by following the directions closely or you can end up causing more damage.Keep watering these patches of lawn on a regular basis and it should eventually recover

Although lawn maintenance might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s something a homeowner has to address each and every spring. And, you can take it from this Vancouver mortgage broker that a well maintained lawn will help put a buyer in the right frame of mind when they come to look at your home.