Gardening happens to be one of the things that I find relaxing and tedious at the same time. I think 
I have a love hate relationship with my garden. My husband on the other hand loves it. No wait - he is actually a psycho about his lawn - He will bleach and power wash my concrete a number of times during the summer season. He will also cut out patches from my lawn if there is "color variations" - oh, and he will have me climb on top of the roof of my house so I can bleach my awning and the actual house. Trust me - he is a garden outdoor psycho!
One thing that I can say though, I do get the itch to see life and color in my yard, so with the weather getting warmer and my husband and I starting to get the itch - I compiled a few cheap suggestions that any person can do and If your home is on the market - you should really take advantage of spring - a happy colorful house is the best way to create curb appeal!
Green goes a long way! - Take this test: When you look into your yard, is it brown? If you pour water onto the brown ground, does it create mud? If yes, then you need to lay some sod. if you have no idea how to do this - hire a land scraper to do it for you and then water - water - water. if you don't want any kind of upkeep you can either install a sprinkler system while you have no grass and then its a no brainer or better yet or install paver's, which can be costly but with zero upkeep!
Remove - Got a beat up old wood or chain link fence? Take it down. Really, they look horrible if they were never treated.
Decorate - Don't just plant the flowers, utilize decorations that direct the eye to what you want seen. I was afraid to use an outdoor rug last year, I thought that it would really just get so dirty and dingy looking, so I bought a cheap 5'9"x9'2 outdoor rug last year just to try and I found that I love it. It almost allows me to treat my outdoor patio as my outdoor dining room. Yes, it did get dirty, but I paid $130.00 so if it is gross when I take it out of my shed - I won't feel bad if I am forced to toss it.
Don't ground it - I hate when my inpatients become unruly and so over grown that they actually take over my garden. So I found that if plant my year round plants into the ground and plant my annuals in a pot and just place the pot where I want them to go within my flower bed, not only do I eliminate over growing but I also gain height in my garden and my colorful plants stand out. Great light weight pots that look great are sold at Yardiac.com
Light me up baby - I very rarely get to sit in my yard during the day and most of my company comes over late in the day and I want to enjoy my garden creation at all times. So an easy solution for me was LIGHTS! I installed lights all around my garden bed and under my awning. (I really wanted a bamboo ceiling fan).
Statue - Decorate! Don't be afraid, place statues in the yard and in your garden. They add life and trust me - People always ask me about my statues. Now, it is easy to over kill on statues - DON'T - there is nothing more eery than a family of cherubs living in your garden, one two and maybe three are good - but anything more than that is just weird. Limit your statues.
Clean up! - No, really. Clean up the yard. Pull the weeds, cut the grape vines, get rid of the ivy, trim the bushes and rose bushes, get the old cars out of the yard and hose down the patio. Just because you plant something does not mean you just leave it. You do need to trim from time to time.
Seriously, if you are selling these few tips will spark interest in your buyers. A yard is a big selling point and if a seller just tweaks their yard and does some staging - the return will be great. You do not have to spend alot to do one or more of these suggestions, a simple clean up job and trimming will make a world of difference.
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