• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, May 2, 2012

For home improvement stores, spring fever usually drives one of the busiest sales periods of the year, as consumers flock to lawn care, garden projects, and the seasonal lure of sprucing up the homestead. 

This year, however, more DIY companies are going digital. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is introducing its Ortho Problem Solver app, which turns the Problem Solver Book, a 1,000-page tome given to hardware and lawn and garden centers to help consumers, into a handy app that diagnoses lawn, garden and pests.

And Lowe’s, which is pushing projects ranging from “done in an hour” to weekend-long efforts, is pushing new “Spring Into Action” projects in stores, and supporting them with its Lowe’s Creative Ideas  iPad app. 

The Home Depot, which has been running its “More spring per dollar” effort for the last month, is turning spring projects into a fundraising effort, under the “Doing Nation” banner. Homeowners who complete one of six easy DIY spring projects, from building a raised garden bed to hanging an outdoor chandelier to constructing their own fire pit, can upload a photo to the company’s Facebook page, triggering a $100 gift to one of five charities supporting veterans.

 A new study from NPD Group reports that 70% of consumers are conducting some kind of home-improvement project, from landscaping to repainting, and they are often thinking about better tools to get it all done.

Some 54% of the respondents in NPD’s survey own and use at least one power tool (drills are the most common, owned by 49%) or outdoor power equipment item (with walk-behind lawnmowers the most likely, owned by 43%); 32% own and use both.

Brand decisions don’t always matter. The Port Washington, N.Y.-based market researcher says 55% of respondents say they own equipment that was purchased by someone else, and only 37% consider them to be gifts.