7 Ways to Make Your Winter Yard Eye Catching for Your Open House
1. Make sure you mow through the fall
If you know that you are going to be selling your Albany home during the winter months, make sure you keep mowing through the fall. Of course, by October most of us are tired of mowing, but your yard will look much nicer if you continue to trim and keep it in shape through the late months of the growing season. Especially in the Capital Region, how long into the fall you should mow may vary from year to year, but the general rule is that as long as the grass is growing, it’s still ok to keep it trim!
2. Winter-blooming shrubs add interest in dormant flower beds
Planting winter-blooming shrubs may not be possible by the time you decide that you’re going to be selling during the winter and want to make sure your winter landscape really pops for potential buyers. Instead, you can buy a few winter shrubs and place them in decorative pots to draw the eye to or from strategic aspects of your landscape.
3. Fill summertime planters with winterscapes
Those planters that you set out during the summer? Fill them with evergreens and berries and other winter colors. You can opt for real or fake or a combination of both. We particularly like livening evergreen plants with sprigs of imitation berries and even glitter-dipped branches for a more festive look.
4. Paint your front door
With the lack of color in your gardens, your front door can really pop. Talk with your realtor about staging your home and whether painting your front door a striking red or welcoming blue might increase your home’s curb appeal.
5. Emphasize ponds and moving water features
Though installing a new pond or moving water feature may not be in your home staging budget or timeline, if you have an existing water feature, you should be sure to emphasize it with winter planters and even lights. Moving water is always eye-catching and a water feature can add value to your home.
6. Draw attention to structure with white lights
Highlighting trees, shrubs, and structures like pedestals or arbors with white light strings can also add quite a bit of interest and curb appeal to your winter garden. Lights can help you to direct attention to certain features of the landscape and should be used sparingly and with the advice of your Albany New York real estate agent.
7. Add interest to flower beds with hardy annuals
This last suggestion will require a bit more work and ongoing attention from you, but hardy annuals like pansies are cold-resistant and add a pop of color to borders and flowerbeds during the dormant winter months. Plant these hardy annuals in the late fall and make sure you keep an eye on them as the months get colder.
