Keeping Up Your Home's Curb Appeal

Pick the Right Landscaping

If you want to create curb appeal that will last through the seasons and the years, look for low-maintenance plants that provide color year round. Let a local landscaper or nursery help you choose plants for your front lawn that are native to your area and will thrive without much fuss from you.

To keep your home's front landscape from overpowering your home, look for slow-growing shrubs and trees that won't obstruct or damage the home. "Foundation" plants like boxwood and varieties of evergreen yew bushes are ideal for planting along the base of a home, since they provide color but won't block windows or doors.

"The biggest mistake homeowners make is not knowing the size the tree or shrub will be at maturity," says Greg Seaman, founder of Eartheasy.com, a website that offers information and products for sustainable living. Homeowners who don't investigate the growth pattern of the plants they install may find themselves digging them up and replacing them a few years later, he adds.

Add color with perennial flowers that don't have to replanted year after year, with flowers like Shasta daisies and lavender, and with lilies like the Stella De Oro -- known to rebloom from May to July and sometimes even through September.

Lauren Kim