Gardeners across the country flock to Canadian Tire to stock up on lawn
    and garden essentialsTORONTO, April 21 /CNW/ - With much of the country experiencing warmer
temperatures this past weekend, many Canadians hit their local Canadian Tire
store to stock up on lawn and garden essentials. As one of the country's
largest retailers of lawn and garden products, Canadian Tire has a
fully-integrated program that combines providing customers with the products
they need, at the prices they are looking for, with an easy-to-follow
five-step process to help customers create and maintain a healthy lawn and
garden this season.
    Increased in-store traffic, online visits to
canadiantire.ca/lawnandgarden and a review of the top five lawn and garden
sellers this weekend all demonstrate that the spring shopping season is here
and reinforces the importance Canadians place on having a healthy lawn and
garden.
    "Canadian Tire is the destination for spring products and a busy Canadian
Tire store often signals the start of spring projects," says Duncan Reith,
senior vice-president merchandising, Canadian Tire Retail. "At Canadian Tire,
we believe that there are many benefits to having a healthy lawn including the
environmental aspects. We are providing our customers with the products and
information they need to make it easy for them to be the envy of the
neighbourhood and support the environment at the same time," Reith adds.
    Based on Canadian Tire's top five selling lawn and garden products this
past weekend, which include grass seed, soil, fertilizer and gardening tools,
it is clear that Canadians are busy taking care of the first three steps to
creating a healthy lawn. For full product information and details on lawn care
the natural way, customers can visit their local Canadian Tire store or go to
canadiantire.ca/lawnandgarden.

    Benefits of a healthy lawn

    In addition to the cosmetic aspects, a healthy lawn has a number of
environmental benefits. Healthy lawns:-  Have a cooling effect, with the average lawn having a cooling effect
       of about 9 tonnes of air conditioning. To put that in perspective, a
       home central air unit has a 3-4 tonne capacity;
    -  Generate large quantities of oxygen and remove carbon dioxide and
       harmful emissions from the air;
    -  Reduce run-off and water contamination by effectively absorbing
       rainfall; and
    -  Discourage noxious weeds and harmful infestations by insects and
       rodents.


    Five-Step Process to Lawn Care the Natural Way

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    Step 1 - Prepare
    Rake the lawn to remove debris. Aerate and dethatch to oxygenate the soil
    and encourage deep root growth.
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    Step 2 - Repair
    Repair damaged areas of the lawn using a 3-in-1 patch repair containing
    seed, mulch and fertilizer.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Step 3 - Strengthen
    Overseed the entire lawn for a thicker, healthier lawn that helps prevent
    weeds.
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    Step 4 - Maintain
    Regular mowing, watering, weeding and fertilizing are important to
    maintaining a healthy lawn, making it less susceptible to damage from
    weeds, insects and grubs.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Step 5 - Protect
    Overseed and fertilize the lawn to get it ready for winter. This also
    gives it a head start for next spring.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------For savings and helpful information throughout the gardening season refer
to the Canadian Tire flyer, inquire in-store or go online at
canadiantire.ca/lawnandgarden.

    Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (TSX: CTC.a, CTC), operates more than
1,200 general merchandise and apparel retail stores and gas stations in an
inter-related network of businesses engaged in retail, financial services and
petroleum. Canadian Tire Retail, Canada's most shopped general merchandise
retailer, with 475 stores operated by dealers across Canada offers a unique
mix of products and services through three specialty categories in which the
organization is the market leader - Automotive, Sports and Leisure, and Home
Products. www.canadiantire.ca offers Canadians the opportunity to research
more than 25,000 products online. PartSource is an automotive parts specialty
chain with 86 stores designed to meet the needs of purchasers of automotive
parts - professional automotive installers and serious do-it-yourselfers.
Canadian Tire Petroleum is one of the country's largest and most productive
independent retailers of gasoline, operating 273 gas bars, 266 convenience
stores and kiosks, and 74 car washes. Mark's Work Wearhouse is one of the
country's leading apparel retailers operating 372 stores in Canada. Under the
Clothes that Work™ marketing strategy, Mark's sells apparel and footwear in
work, work-related, casual and active-wear categories, as well as health-care
and business-to-business apparel. www.marks.com offers Canadians the
opportunity to shop for Mark's products online. Canadian Tire Financial
Services has issued over 5 million Canadian Tire MasterCard credit cards and
also markets related financial products and services for retail and petroleum
customers. Canadians can also access Financial Services online at
www.ctfs.com. More than 57,000 Canadians work across Canadian Tire's
organization from coast-to-coast in the enterprise's retail, financial
services, and petroleum businesses.