The Riz Team Blog

Fall is a feast for the eyes with red, gold and bronze hues. While enjoying the trees in their tawny splendour, consider these simple tips to prepare your garden for the upcoming winter.

Grass
Although a carpet of leaves is part of autumn’s glory, don’t let them sit too long. Rake them frequently as grass needs oxygen and sunlight for proper growth.  This is also the time to seed your grass for a thick lush lawn in the spring, and to keep pesky weeds out.

Leaves
Put leaves to work! Small leaves from birch, beech and silver maple trees (or shredded larger leaves) spread under shrubs and over soil will degrade into mineral nutrients and worms will turn them into fertilizer.

Pruning/Re-arranging Plants
Pruning in the fall is important. With leaves cleared you have a better view of your plants. Cut off dead and diseased branches. Remove diseased leaves from under roses (blackspot) and dispose of in the garbage (not your compost heap) or they’ll re-infect plants the following spring. If you decide to re-arrange plants or shrubs, move them while the earth is still warm so that the roots can take hold.  Protect delicate shrubs with burlap.

Bulbs
If you want to see crocus, tulips and daffodils peeping through the soil in spring, now is the time to start planting.  Buy the very best quality bulbs and you will be rewarded with showy blooms in the spring. Check with a local horticulturalist for native bulb options and ideal planting conditions.

Container Gardening
Fill your balcony or patio containers with fall flowers.  Picture a pot filled with Vanilla Butterfly (marguerite daisy), with a background of Orange Sedge – this olive green grass turns orange in cool weather, finally fading to bronze.  Want an instant conversation piece?  Plant ornamental Kale (winter cabbage) in your container:  its quirky look is an attention-getter.

Every season has its beauty, but a Canadian fall is spectacular – enjoy!

By Kitchener-Waterloo Association of REALTORS® (KWAR) admin   •December 5th, 2012

KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON (November 5, 2012) –– Residential real estate sales through the Multiple Listing System (MLS®) of the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of REALTORS® (KWAR) were up 7.3 percent last month compared to November of last year.

There were 486 residential properties sold in November, bringing the year-to-date total to 5,931, just nine more home sales than during the first 11 months of 2011. The total value of homes sold last month was $151 million, up 11.3 percent over last year.

“In terms of total unit sales, it was a better than average November” says Dietmar Sommerfeld, president of the KWAR. “Our figures show that residential transactions in November were 6.8 percent above the previous 5 year-average.”

November’s residential sales included 318 detached homes (up 8.9 percent), 33 semi-detached (down 17.5 percent), 26 townhouses (up 4 percent), and 103 condominium units (up 14.4 percent).

There was a jump in the number of home selling in the $500,000 to $750,000 price range — 41 homes compared to 23 in November of last year. This put some upward pressure on the average price range.

The average sale price of all homes sold in November was $311,604, compared with $300,447 a year ago, an increase of 3.7 percent. Single detached homes sold for an average price of $359,439, compared with 346,044 last year, up 3.9 percent.

The median price for all homes sold in November was $287,750 compared with $275,000, an increase of 4.6 percent. Single detached homes sold for a median price of $326,500 compared with $315,000 last year, up 3.7 percent.

Sommerfeld says that despite talk of cooling markets in some Canadian cities, continued low borrowing costs, confidence in the local real estate market, and a well-diversified local economy are keeping Kitchener-Waterloo’s housing market steady and stable.

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