LEAVING YOUR GARDEN BEHIND - OAKVILLE HOMES

Leaving your garden behind on moving day can be tough; planning can help!

By: Dean Fosdick

Selling a home can be sad and stressful for gardeners leaving behind members of their extended plant family.

Many are living memories. Maybe it’s the iris bulbs that bloomed in your mother’s garden, or the low-slung trees your kids used to climb. It could be the shrubs marking the place where family pets lie buried, or some lovingly tended roses climbing an entry.

So why not bring them along? Two reasons: It might not be practical — perhaps they’re simply too large — and doing so might void the sales contract.

Phipps, a real estate agent from Warwick, R.I., suggests that home sellers disclose any plants or cuttings they intend to take with them.

“Failing to do that probably won’t invalidate the deal, but you don’t want to be in a situation where the buyer takes you to small claims court because you didn’t go along with its terms,” Phipps said. “When in doubt, spell it out. List them as you would a dining room fixture or window treatments.”

Many growing things don’t react well to new locations. That goes for plants with extensive root systems, plants unable to cope with different hardiness zones or plants on official not-wanted lists.

So what are grieving gardeners to do? They might try:

Negotiating trades. “I once represented a couple who had been given a tree as an anniversary gift,” Phipps said. “It was a small tree, but it was important to them. We brought in a new tree to replace it. We negotiated the swap as an exception to the (sales) agreement.”

Providing a detailed user’s manual. Diagrams, photographs and step-by-step instructions can greatly help new owners care for an unfamiliar garden, said Mark Glenn, a self-described “hosta-holic” and an agent with Coldwell Banker Burnet in Minneapolis. “For a short time, at least.”

Taking cuttings from favourite plants. This is not foolproof, but it can produce clones.

Helping with the changeover. “I knew a woman who had to sell her house because of a divorce,” Phipps said. The garden “had been her canvas and it broke her heart to move. She gained permission from the new owners to come back and visit, and often she did. She also did some transitional work with them for a few years.”

Taking containerized plants or yard art when they move. “In our area, the custom is potted plants can be removed because they’re portable,” Phipps said. “If they’re in the ground, they’re treated differently.”

Keeping a photographic record. “Take the best photos you can, covering as much of your garden as possible, to remember what a wonderful part of your life it has been,” said Wanda Teays, chair of the Philosophy Department at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. “Then move on. Don’t drive back every week or month or year to see what’s changed. You’ll never be happy.”

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MORTGAGE RATES - OAKVILLE HOMES

BY: MADHAVI ACHARYA-TOM YEW
TORONTO STAR BUSINESS REPORTER

The good news in the housing market these days isn’t just low interest rates.

Experts say that whether you choose a variable rate mortgage or a fixed rate for a set period of time, the difference over the long run is likely to be minimal.

“Rates have never been this low so Canadians are increasingly looking for advice when it comes to mortgages. The question of fixed versus variable takes on greater importance when you consider where rates are and the possibility that rates will start to increase towards the end of this year,” said Collette Delaney, senior vice-president of mortgages and lending at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Experts typically say that a fixed-rate might bring more peace of mind to first-time home owners, and that those who are further into their mortgage payments may like to try a variable rate to save some money.

But that may not be right for everyone.

“There is really no generic answer,” Delaney said. “What’s right for me may not be right for you or someone else because we’re all at different stages in terms of financial planning and lifestyle.”

The big advantage of fixed rate mortgages is that they offer a high level of stability. When you lock in a mortgage at a fixed rate, you’re locking in for the term of your mortgage so you will know, for each monthly mortgage payment, exactly how much is going to the interest and how much is going to the principal.

“You’ll know at the end of your term how much of your amortization you’ve paid off. The downside is that you can’t take advantage of lower interest rates. If rates do drop, you won’t have the ability to have more of your payment go towards the principle and less to interest,” said Bernice Dunsby, director of home equity financing at the Royal Bank of Canada.

With a variable rate mortgage, your monthly payments don’t change. What may fluctuate is your interest rate. That means when rates go down, an increased amount of your payment will actually go to your principal, and less to interest. That means when rates go down, you’re paying off your mortgage faster.

But when interest rates increase, so does the portion of your payment that goes to interest. With less going to cover the principal, it’s possible that your amortization period could be extended.

Research by Canadian economic experts shows that variable rate mortgages hold more benefits to consumers the vast majority of the time.

Moshe Milevsky, associate professor of finance at York University, studied mortgage rate data from 1950 to 2007 and found that choosing a variable rate mortgage would have saved Canadians $20,000 in interest payments over 15 years, based on a $100,000 mortgage.

He also found that Canadians would have been better off with a variable rate mortgage compared to a five-year fixed rate 89 per cent of the time.

The question is whether this other 11 per cent of the time when it is advantageous, is right now, said Benjamin Tal, senior economist with the CIBC World Markets.

“This is one of the few examples of times when it really doesn’t make much of a difference. If you take variable and I take fixed now and we meet five years from now, you would probably be able to buy me lunch, but it would be a cheap lunch.”

That’s largely because interest rates are so low right now. Economists are expecting rates to increase by about half a percentage point or more beginning in June, with further rate hikes to come in 2011.

Right now, variable rate mortgages tend to be about 1.75 percentage points cheaper than fixed rates. But interest rates will probably rise by more than that overall in the next couple of years.

“This will probably take variable rates, more or less to where fixed rates are now, maybe a bit higher. If you do the math, you would find the difference would not be very significant,” Tal said.

If you’re looking for peace of mind, he added, take the fixed rate.

“If you have a large mortgage vis-à-vis your income, I would go fixed and just relax about it. Learn the market, pay as much equity as possible but go fixed because you don’t want the volatility,” Tal said. “However, if you have been in the mortgage for a while and your mortgage is not as large relative to your income, pay with the variable and you will do better over five years from now but not significantly.”

Many banks have an array of mortgage products that combine the fixed and variable rates mortgages. These typically allow homeowners to combine the security of the fixed rates with the ability to take advantage of any interest rate declines.

But experts say that even if a variable rate mortgage could save you money in the long run, you still need to think about the risk.

“If a fluctuating interest rate is going to keep you up at night because you’re not sure how much is going to principle and interest, then maybe a variable rate mortgage is not right for you,” Dunsby said.

It’s also important to consider your stage of life. If you’re counting on having your mortgage paid off in five years because you want to retire, then the possibility of your amortization period being extended probably isn’t for you.

Don’t forget to take your other debt obligations and savings goals into account.

“For some people locking into a payment actually gives them flexibility to working to other savings goals or paying other debts,” Delaney said.

“It’s very tempting to look at low rates today but we encourage people to look beyond where rates are today and consider what mortgage is right for them in the medium and long term.”

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BEYOND THE BASEMENT REC ROOM - OAKVILLE HOMES

By Colin and Justin

Beyond the 'wreck' room

Whilst traversing the GTA, we see legions of homes, most of which share one felonious faux pas. Sure, most of these abodes need radical renovation but there's a lowest common denominator that always shrieks "help me." "Lowest" being the, ahem, operative word.

Aye, the great (hold it, make that not-so-great) Canadian basement is the room to which we lovingly refer.

It's seldom breaking news as we discuss with clients the problems they endure. In fact most of our "contributors" happily concede defeat as they tell us how singularly unstylish they think they are. And there's seldom any love lost as we open our mouths and let our tummies rumble agreement.

There is, however, plenty of love gained as we return to our candidates their newly remodelled homes. Yup, generally speaking, it all comes good in the end. Save for a little on-set shouting. And that's just when our beloved catering truck goes AWOL.
Before analyzing the specifics of this particular project, we reckoned it might be useful to provide a little roundup of basic basement problem-solvers. Call it a C 'n' J guide, if you like, to making the best of what you've got ... down there.

TOP TIP LIST

1. Max Up Head Height: Paint ceilings in a lighter tone than walls to help raise perceived dimensions. It's also important, where height is restricted, to keep lines simple by removing crown and cornice. De-fuss even further by removing picture and dado rails to stop walls looking "chopped up," and therefore shallower. Opt for narrower skirting boards, and paint them the same colour as walls to help them blend in.

2. Colour: Limit bold colour to easily changeable accessories and ornamentation or opt to paint just one accent wall. Applying stronger tones won't only darken the space, it will also limit design flexibility further down the line.

3. Lighting: Avoid dangling overhead pendant lamps that can muddle sightlines. A well-planned project will still look wonderful with shallow ceiling-mounted tracks, side lighting, pot lights or simple "wall washers."

4. Flooring: Wooden floors are good for basement application as long as you're absolutely certain there's no possibility of dampness. Carpet is also serviceable but if there's even the slightest hint of moisture, opt for a higher nylon content to inhibit mould.

Tile, too, is perfectly acceptable – choose from slate, ceramic or stone, all of which are better equipped to deal with future damp problems than many other options.

5. Furniture: Keep furnishings low-slung to help distract from vertically challenged rooms. Opt for long, lean sofas and seek out designs with small legs to pull the eye down further. Keeping floor space as free as possible will allow for good circulation so consider drawing a sectional, modular L-shaped sofa against one wall, positioning occasional tables at either end and adding side mood lighting to create ambience. Or go funky retro. In another recent rec room reno we added bean bags and the results were fabulous.

6. Two For One: Think, too, about multi-purpose furniture (tables that act as storage chests, for example, or cubes that moonlight as seating) to squeeze optimum flexibility from your family room.

Max up double-duty with surfaces that work as kids' homework zones but can easily double as side tables when pushed against one wall.

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PREPARING YOUR GARDENS - OAKVILLE HOMES

Cullen: Proper soil preparation equals success in the garden!

As the soil warms up and the early spears of your perennial hosta begin to jab their way out of the soil, there is an overwhelming temptation to grab a shovel and start digging holes in the garden. This is a type of spring fever that the psychologists do not talk about.

Truth is, every gardener gets these early spring urges and I would be the first to encourage you to satisfy them. But keep one thing in mind: The success that you enjoy in your garden will be the result of one thing above all others — proper soil preparation.

It is May and it is no coincidence that this is Compost Week across Canada. The Compost Council of Canada is right in there. The executive director, Susan Antler, is right up to her elbows in it. In fact, you can help celebrate the 15th anniversary of Compost Week by attending a Compost Garden Party at the Mustard Seed Community Garden, 791 Queen St. East, Toronto. This event takes place on Sunday, May 2 at 1:30 p.m. and everyone is welcome. Visit www.compost.org for more details.

Why not just plant in the soil that you have?

I don’t mean to rain on your digging parade, but let me ask you this: would you build a house without first putting in a solid foundation? A great garden is made only when there is a solid foundation at its roots, pure and simple.

What is not so simple is how you create a growing environment at the root zone of your garden that will induce the good plant health that your gardening dreams were made of.

Step 1: Know Your Soil
Go ahead and dig your hole. Use a sharp spade or shovel and the job is infinitely easier than if you use a dull one. I use a bastard file from the hardware store to do this job and I sharpen my digging tools every time I use them. It takes about one minute and makes digging a joy.

As you dig, observe: Do you have clay? Sand? Old, tired soil? Does your shovel move through the soil easily, or does it take all of your weight and some wiggling to get the blade to slice down through the soil? If you have not added lots of organic matter over recent years, chances are you will discover heavy, clay-based soil that is not conducive to good growing.

Clay: If you have been blessed with heavy clay, welcome to the club. Most soil in southern Ontario was dumped here by the glaciers when they receded. They left behind a limestone-based soil that is, for the most part, alkaline and heavy.

You have a choice: either dig your new garden out to a level about 30 centimetres (12 inches) deep or amend the existing soil with lots of sharp sand (sometimes called play sand for sandboxes) and organic matter in the form of compost. A mix of about 1/3 sand to 2/3 compost is a good start. I spread the triple mix five-centimetres (two-inches) deep each spring and let the earth worms pull it down. You may choose to turn the triple mix over with a garden fork or spade.

If you have to use a pick axe to dig your garden, get rid of the stuff as there is very little that you can do to revive its quality. This requires the use of a large metal dump bin to dispose of the clay material.

If you can dig your existing soil with a sharp shovel or spade and not put your back out doing it, you can add the good stuff (sand/compost) to it to bring it up to standard.

Sand: Few readers will have this problem — but it is a difficult one. If you live in, say, Ballantrae, Wasaga or the lower Beach of Toronto, chances are good that you live on what was once the shore of an ancient lake and your soil is substantially sand. I recommend that you add generous quantities of compost (no sand, obviously) and by that I mean at least five-centimetres (two-inches) deep of the stuff. Just like preparing clay-based soil for planting, you will dig it in or wait for the worms to pull it under.

Above all, when planting in sand, choose plant material that is tolerant of drought conditions. Study “xeriscaping,” the art of gardening in the absence of water. Professional advice is useful under these circumstances. An experienced garden designer can help you immensely in choosing the right plants for this environment.

I might add that growing a lawn on sandy soil can be a great frustration. For more answers go to www.markcullen.com.

Compost: I have been a great fan of backyard composting for over 25 years. When our firstborn came into this world, I thought that it would be a good idea to start taking care of the environment in my own backyard. It seemed the right thing to do for the little kid that was crawling across the grass.

What is compost?
The raw material that you have left over after meal preparation (but not meat) can be very useful in your composter. So can much of the waste that you produce in your yard (but not woody sticks or evergreen boughs).

Take the leftover salad, carrot tops, potato peels, fallen leaves, grass clippings, spent tulip and daffodil leaves and put them into a compost bin or compost tumbler and away you go. Mother Nature has a wonderful way of breaking all of this stuff down while you simply wait — or more to the point — while you divert your attention away from the composter to the barbecue or planting your vegetable garden. In several weeks, or two to three months of warm weather, you will be surprised at how much progress your compost has made.

Step 2: The Benefit
The second rule of successful gardening (after proper soil prep) is “Feed the soil.” Every organic gardener lives and breathes these words. Thanks to the Ontario government, we are all organic gardeners of a sort as the majority of garden chemicals are now off the retail shelves.

When you add finished compost to the surface of your soil, you are adding the equivalent of a high octane fuel. You are providing a charge of organic matter that will attract earth worms, protozoa, beneficial bacteria, microbes and much more. All of these things add up to a sophisticated living colony that we are not meant to completely understand — and we don’t! But what we do know is that the addition of this fuel for your soil will help you to produce a nice friable soil that is . . . wait for it . . . chocolate cake.

Your goal is to produce soil that is the consistency of chocolate cake — light, easy to cut through, full of air pockets for oxygen and a joy to work with. Remember to add lots of sharp sand for porosity.

Get this right and your plants will explode out of the soil this spring. They will flower and fruit with joy and exuberance.

Get it wrong and the experience of gardening is not a lot of fun. You will be thinking of all the reasons why you should give golf one more try or saving up to buy a sail boat.

Finally — and there is no “finally” on this subject as your feeding of the soil goes on for as long as you have an interest in succeeding in your garden. Remember that there is no such thing as a failure in the garden, only composting opportunities.

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