If you're selling Real Estate in a year or less 2

Landscaping Tips

Edge the beds Cutting fresh edges where grass meets mulch makes the
lawn look well kept. A move as simple as curving the edge of your
flower beds could increase the value of your home by 1 percent, says
horticulture professor Bridget Behe, the lead researcher on the MSU
study.

Also, if your foundation plants are overgrown, widening the beds by
two feet will make the shrubs seem smaller.

Nourish the grass For truly lush turf, ideally you should start
regular fertilizer treatments a year before listing the house. But you
can green up the lawn with just a single application.

Spend $45 on a broadcast spreader, which quickly distributes
fertilizer over a lawn, enabling you to nourish a quarter-acre lot in
about 10 minutes.

For a yard that size, expect each monthly application to cost about
$20 (for straight fertilizer) to $30 (with weed killer).

Scatter color throughout For about $1 a plant, you can blanket your
yard with petunias, impatiens and other small annuals that will flower
throughout the current growing season.

Also invest a few hundred dollars in some larger perennials and in
shrubs that stand at least four feet high.

"A few good-size plants have more sex appeal than 20 little ones,"
says Chicago landscape architect Douglas Hoerr.