March 30 -- After a season of record snowfalls and lengthy cold spells in many parts of the country, homeowners are finding their houses and landscapes unusually battered. Blizzards, wind and errant snowplows have conspired to make this spring one of long recovery, leading to an early sales uptick for the yard and home-repair industry.
"Many people will see the worst lawn this spring and summer in the history of their lives," says Jackson Madnick, founder of Wayland, Mass.- based Pearl's Premium Inc., which packages and sells its own grass-seed blend. Looking at ornamental-plant damage over the past 15 years, this winter ranks in the "top five," says Doug Erickson, an arborist with Bedford Hills, N.Y.-based landscape service SavATree.
Even with snow still falling this past week in parts of the Northeast and Midwest, consumers already are gearing up for spring cleaning. Preliminary 2011 orders of gasoline-powered outdoor power tools have been very strong, according to the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, a trade organization, spurred partly by homeowner landscape repair.
Makers of handheld battery and plug-in outdoor tools, including Black and Decker and Neuton, say spring sales are up 10% to 20% on items such as chain saws, wood splitters and pole saws for trimming damaged limbs. Home Depot Inc. cites "high single-digit" percentage sales gains of roof-repair materials from this time last year.
Kathleen Hassinger and Brandon Halbert in Wynnewood, Pa., are among those whose home sustained multiple winter wounds. Ice dams damaged their 100-year-old home's slate roof and left new gutters "twisted like a piece of tinfoil," says Ms. Hassinger. Snow sliding off the roof broke branches on shrubs while gutter runoff wore bare spots into the lawn. Ms. Hassinger says they'll be spending about $1,000 for roof and gutter repair, and she's rethinking placement of plants and downspouts for next year.
Before regular spring fertilizing and thatch removal, watch out for snow mold, a fungal disease appearing in circular patches of pink, gray or white hues. It takes hold after extended periods of snow cover, sometimes on grass left unmowed or buried under leaves before winter set in.
"The first thing I'd do is rake up any matted leaves and any patches of grass that have a bleached-out look and are stuck together," says Ashton Ritchie, lawn and horticultural expert and spokesman for Scotts Miracle-Gro Inc. "You want to break that up to expose the crown of the grass plant to sunlight." The first mow, he adds, shouldn't be a "scalp" job but rather set the mower no more than one notch lower than regular mowing height. Turf suffering the double whammy of last summer's drought followed by heavy snow may require the laying of new grass seed on top of existing grass—known as over-seeding, says Mr. Madnick of Pearl's Premium. "Many lawns may be weakened and susceptible to bugs, mold and other problems."
At Andrew Gadaleta's home in Elkins Park, Pa., 1,500 square feet of lawn were wiped out by drainage from melting snow. He's using Snow Joe LLC's "Tiller Joe" electric garden tiller to rework topsoil with compost and reseed the area. Sales of the company's tillers are up 33% so far this year.
Calls for help with bent, broken or misshapen plants are already pouring in to Arlington, Mass., landscape designer Laura Kuhn. "The snow came so early and there was so much that people couldn't make it out to shake the snow off the plant and are calling me guiltily," she says. Frequent plowing wrecked shrubs and grass near driveways too.
First step: triage. Ms. Kuhn recommends pruning broken limbs flush to the branch's collar as soon as possible. If limbs are cracked or twisted, they might be salvaged using small hardware such as a carriage bolt to draw them back together, says Mr. Erickson of SavATree.
For shrubs like boxwoods misshapen from the weight of ice and snow, he advises temporarily tying plants together with twine or rope made from jute fiber, or propping them up for the season with the crotch of another fallen branch. Those are victims to what gardeners call girdling, when winter-starved animals chew off a ring of bark where the plant peeks above the snow, may require replacement.
Be patient with plants like rhododendrons with brown leaves, Ms. Kuhn says. "Don't start hacking. Wait to see if buds will break in a few weeks."
Piling several inches of compost, topsoil, mulch or straw around plants can help stabilize their soil from melting runoff, says Susan Murphy, a landscape designer in Weston, WI.
Think about next winter now. Record where snow gets piled from shoveling and reevaluate if plants are in the right spot.
Broken limbs, fallen trees and moisture make a feast for invasive pests such as termites and carpenter ants.
"They haven't had a lot of food to eat and as it gets warmer, they will have a tenacious appetite," says Bob Young, a manager with pest service Terminix International Co.
Minimizing wetness and woody material such as mulch and leaves around a home's foundation can help. Mr. Young advises routing gutter downspouts far from the home and keeping them clean. As for felled trees and branches—"those are evil," he adds. Remove or mulch debris and keep it away from the house. Signs of termite activity include dead winged insects and mud tubes running up foundation walls.
It was a banner year for ice dams, which typically build along roof eaves in periods of extended cold, causing leaks and other damage.
Not only is the resulting moisture inside a roof or wall "like putting gravy on meat" for carpenter ants and termites, Mr. Young says, it can lead to longer-term woes like mold.
Replacing wet drywall and insulation is top priority. Also, fix broken gutters and shingles.
"You're going to see gutters where exceptionally heavy snow storms separated them" from the house, says David Dail, Home Depot's merchandising vice president for building materials.
"A leaky roof is pretty much something you've got to deal with," he says.
