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The weather is very hot and the lawn is turning yellow. The front yard does not look inviting for any prospective buyer - for that matter - it doesn't even look inviting every evening when you drive home to it.

The small amount of money that can be spent to enhance a front yard is a really good investment. Some of the larger trees and shrubs can be more expensive, but only two or three of these will be needed. Smaller plants that can be grouped around them, and a few well placed rocks will swell the garden foliage without swelling the bill too much!

Three of the most important factors to consider when trying to improve any yard are color, variety, and design definition. Design definition could be qualified as the use of paths or gravel areas or fencing. Also, areas of foliage contribute to the feeling of varied levels of elevation. Any of these will give 'form' to your yard. Variety will be found by use of different mediums and different textured plants.

Sometimes, the simple act of cutting a pathway and placing two trees in large pots each side of the front door can make an immediate difference. However, the pathway must have neat edges to look really effective (this applies to curved pathways as well). A simple manual edging tool (rather like a half moon on the end of a stick) is very cheap to buy.

A boring front yard can be broken up by things other than flower borders and pathways to have some interest. A rock wall or a rock garden are easy to build; the rock garden being by far the cheaper and easiest of the two. It will be even cheaper if you make it a fun project to scour the water's edge and country-side for some of your smaller rocks!

Sometimes a whole cluster of smaller shrubs and rocks placed in front of a tree will offer sufficient interest in a yard. Many people plant a small tree and sink dozens of daffodil bulbs around it to bloom each spring.

Ground cover shrubs are very practical for a front yard, they provide variation and color (many have white or red striped leaves) and they will spread to take up a large patch where grass would have been.

If you feel that your neighborhood is a secure one, you can buy a bird bath and place it on a circle of an attractive circle of gravel or stones to make a focus point in your front yard.

Keep your garbage bins well out of site, and do not let the kids' toys accumulate in the front yard. Finally, a small thing like always keeping the grass cut and watered, can make a huge difference to the look of your front yard.

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