With Labor Day weekend just around the corner, cottage season is grudgingly coming to an end. For some, this will be their last year as they make the difficult decision to sell their recreation property.

Before you lay out the MLS welcome mat, here are five things you can do to help sell your cottage, according to Chris Winney, a sales representative from Royal LePage, who specializes in the Land O’Lakes region in Ontario.

The five things Winney recommends are:

• Get rid of the clutter. “Often things end up at the cabin that are not bad enough to throw out, but good enough for the cabin,” she explains. Winney provides clients with a cargo trailer to help with the process and advises them to use hotel rooms as an ideal. Personal effects and knick-knacks need to be cleared so potential owners can envision their treasures lining the shelves. Less is more.

• When asked about spending money to fix up the cabin, Winney cautions sellers. Focus on the outside, specifically, the dock. Make sure you have a good dock, “Spend $10,000-$15,000 and build a dock to die for,” she recommends. The first place she takes buyers to is the waterfront. Investing money on your dock will yield a good return. “Don’t pour a whole lot of money into anything but the dock; the new owners are going to change the cottage anyway.”

• Make sure the property looks great. Rake, take away refuse, trim tress and spruce up the privies. Don’t get rid of the privy, people want them.

• Fix what needs to be fixed: baseboards, steps, and replace the deck if it is rotten or broken.

• When it comes to selling your cottage or cabin, it is all about first impressions. Everyone wants privacy first. Make sure the natural growth provides privacy but doesn’t impede the view.

Making the decision to sell your cottage is a very difficult and emotional process. But once owners make the decision, the rest becomes easier. Hopefully these five tips will help you sell your cottage.

Cheers,

Julie

I love flowers, Black Eyed Susan’s are among my favourites. I envision flower beds filled with these bright yellow plants, but all I have been able to grow, are their paler cousins, the Shasta daisy.

My project for next year is to landscape around the cabin, plant some shrubs, add some wildflower beds and maybe even coax some grass up through the weeds.

While most people spend the majority of their time on their gardens in the spring, the fall is also an excellent time to plant, transplant and prepare your flower beds for the next year.

Shirley Aarts, owner of Dutch Gardens & Nursery, Port Alberni, British Columbia, has been gardening for over 28 years, and teaches fall gardening courses. Here are her tips on autumn planting.

• Planting - there is still plenty of time to plant or transplant shrubs and roses. Shirley likes the cooler days and says the plants still have time to get settled before the cold weather arrives.

• Dig up your flower gardens, turn over the soil even if you are not planning on planting anything right now.

• When it comes to buying bulbs, especially tulips, buy only #1 bulbs. Shirley does not recommend you purchase your bulbs at Walmart or any other big box retailers, “Go to a nursery and make sure you are buying #1 grade, this will ensure you get the best quality bloom on your flowers. You pay more money at a nursery, but you will get years and years out of that bulb.”

• You can plant bulbs any time now, up until late October, after that, it is too wet and too cold.

• Pansies are a great plant to replace your annuals, but make sure you are buying winter pansies, there is a difference.

As for my Black Eyed Susan flower garden, Shirley recommended I wait until spring and then buy a Rudbeckia plant. I confessed my attempts at scattering wild flower seed mixes had not been successful. She explained that many of the seeds in these packets germinate at different times and require different conditions. Lupines for example need to be frozen for 48 hours, then soaked in water and started in peat pots before they are transplanted. Once they are established, they will “naturalize” or spread.

According to Shirley, “Gardening is suppose to be fun. It is a learning thing, and you can learn from it every single day.” Hmmm, maybe when it comes to gardening, I have ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder.

I would love to hear about your gardening adventures - please leave me a comment.

Cheers,

Julie