When the no-brainers are done, you can start getting serious. The hot trend at the moment: beautiful pathways, made of brick or concrete pavers, winding from the street to the front door. "You have to eliminate the 'garage walk,'" says Linda Engstrom, president of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, referring to the typical 3-foot-wide path that routes visitors from the garage to the front door. Contractor Bob Novelli of Selbyville, Del., tackled the project on his own home, ripping up asphalt and concrete and replacing it all with 1,800 square feet of interlocking concrete pavers. After adding lighted retaining walls and a screened back porch — at a total cost of around $25,000 — he had his home reappraised at $325,000 this past October, up from $225,000 in October 2001. "This project had a lot to do with it," he says.

Make the path slightly staggered or curved to give it some character. Place a wooden "pergola," or archway, over the path to define an entranceway; one can be purchased at a home-improvement store for a few hundred dollars. Flank the path with Mediterranean-style pots featuring flowering container plants.

Next, add some light. Low-wattage ground lighting to sandwich the path is fairly easy to install and will boost the effect immeasurably in the evening hours (do-it-yourself kits are available from around $100). For showstopper trees, add one higher-wattage lamp beneath. "It gives the whole front yard a soft glow," says Maureen Gilmer, host of the Do It Yourself network's Weekend Gardening and a nationally syndicated columnist based in Palm Springs, Calif.

Redoing the front of your home can have spectacular effects. Anneke Moore of Portland, Ore., tackled the project to get her place ready for sale in 2004, when she and her husband, Dan, plan to retire to Arizona. "I wanted the landscaping to be an asset to the house," says Moore, a manager at a local high-tech firm. "And I wanted it to have enough time to grow into something special."

With guidance from Linda Engstrom, Moore installed a pathway of concrete pavers, wooden pergolas to frame it as the main entranceway and a boundary hedge to give the home some privacy from their busy street. With those changes to the front, along with a similar overhaul of the back — which totaled around $25,000 — "I should be able to clear $250,000," predicts Moore, judging from other recent home sales in the neighborhood. Her original buying price for the home 25 years ago: $70,000. "I was surprised at how much hardscapes became part of the plan," she says. "It was a lot more than somebody just suggesting plants to throw into the ground."

Remember, low-maintenance plant material is best. Buyers want the yard to look great, but they don't want it to be labor-intensive. "I call it meat-and-potatoes landscaping," says Gilmer. Otherwise, "you may turn off buyers — particularly downsizers." Also keep in mind that these trees and shrubs are going to grow by leaps and bounds, so you want to give them the space to do it. "The biggest single mistake people make is overplanting," says Selger — say, crowding two majestic oaks within 10 feet of each other. "Plants grow. If you want instant impact, be prepared to have maintenance problems in a few years."

Next: Project 2: The Year-Round Yard

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