But now it's time to take it up a notch. By smart planting and giving color to the yard year-round, you've instantly set your home apart from most others in the neighborhood, which will likely be leafless and drab in the winter months. At her home, for instance, Anneke Moore has nandina "firepower" shrubs in the front yard, with their brilliant red leaves, along with mock orange trees for some fragrance. "Getting color in winter is not easily done here in the West, so people go to evergreens all the time," Moore says. "But now, in the winter, my yard is full of color."

Other ideas for year-round color, which are good for most areas of the country: flowering shrubs such as viburnums with their colored berries, or trees with colored bark such as coral bark Japanese maples. Ornamental grasses, including fountain grass and maiden grass, are hardy through different seasons — as well as ultra-trendy and easy to maintain. And always remember to match the plants to the home. Pansies and petunias may be perfect for a cottage-style house, but not for one that's sleek and contemporary.

Whatever you plant, insiders say the soil is just as important as what's going in it — maybe more so. "We have an adage around here: Plant a $50 plant in a $100 hole," says Selger. One tip is to contact your local agricultural agency (often on the county level), which can either test your soil or refer you to a local lab. In a couple of weeks, you should have an analysis of your soil, along with tips on how to improve it. A few common problems: Your soil is either too acidic (which requires lime) or too alkaline (which requires sulfur), or there's not enough organic matter, which means it's time for mulching or composting.

Likely your most valuable asset, though, is your trees. They're also the perfect investment. "You buy a tree for $20 when you first put it in, and immediately it starts to rise in value," says Mayita Dinos, host of the Do It Yourself network's Weekend Landscaping and a garden designer in Los Angeles. "It's one of the few things that appreciates over time; almost everything else depreciates the minute you install it."

When deciding which tree to plant, look around your neighborhood to see which tree the municipality plants in public areas. It's always very carefully picked, in terms of hardiness in local weather conditions, susceptibility to disease and structure that's not prone to falling branches. Depending on your region, you might opt for oak, maple or gingko biloba (which all do well in colder climes), crepe myrtle (flourishing from the D.C. area south to Florida), or magnolias and liquid ambars (best in areas with milder winters), to name a few.

The payoff: You might get a buyer like Jane Billish of Naperville, Ill., who owns a scaffolding business. Billish and her husband, Scott, bought a property with a modest home three years ago, attracted almost solely by the three-fourths-acre wooded lot. "We'd all but given up," she recalls. "Then I saw this place one Sunday morning, and by the next weekend, we'd bought it."

But Billish figured there was even more value to be plucked, so she brought in arbor specialists The Care of Trees. They removed some diseased elms, which were crowding out higher-value trees. They also did some pruning and fertilizing, and now Billish has a property full of healthy oak, maple, ironwood and hickory. In conjunction with renovation projects Billish did on the house itself, the property was recently reappraised at close to triple what she paid. "We've made 200%," Billish marvels. "These trees are such an asset, it's hard to adequately express their value."

Most experts say that younger is usually better when it comes to planting trees, but if you're selling within three to five years, you'll need some size to get the full effect. Maureen Gilmer's favorite size is 15-gallon — maybe 1 or 2 inches.hes in diameter, around 8 feet tall — which will set you back around $50 to $150. "The numbers I've heard are that trees can enhance your property value as high as 5 to 20%," says The Care of Trees President Scott Jamieson.

Depending on where you live, going ultra-native with your trees and surrounding landscaping can be downright trendy. In the drought-prone Southwest, for instance, it's known as xeriscaping, in which gardeners opt for a truly desert look: sand, cactus and boulders, as well as a variety of native plant materials such as mesquite, or acacia trees; cassia, or "Texas Ranger" shrubs; sage; and more. Projects might start at $2,000 without any existing turf, or at around $3,000 if you need to take up your current landscape, according to Robin Jablonski, a construction division manager for The Groundskeeper in Tucson, Ariz. But talk about easy to maintain.

Next: Project 3: The Sanctuary

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