15

You know you're in a poor neighborhood when the front yards look dumpy. The lawns are patchy. The garden plots are weedy and bordered by cement blocks, or tires, or painted rocks, or plastic dividers or railroad ties. When the people living in a poor neighborhood try to garden, there are half a dozen wood cutouts, plastic animals, plastic pots and plastic pinwheels everywhere. There are rusty, bent garden fences or even string. There are twelve weak-looking impatiens planted six inches apart. Bushes are wiry and misshapen, or overgrown and covering the windows. Mulch? What mulch?

It does NOT have to be this way. I don't care if you are poor, you don't have to put up with an ugly front yard any more. I don't care if you've never gardened before, you don't have to put up with a yard that screams, "I'm trashy!"

It is the goal of this book to show you how to make your home, no matter how modest, look fabulous. I will show you four different levels of cost: Free, Nearly Free, Budgeted Expense, and Investment. I will show you four different levels of work: Twice a Year, Once a Month, Once Every Couple Weeks, and Gardening Is My Hobby.

I will show you where so many people go wrong, and how to go "rich" instead (without having to be rich!) I will reveal to you the mystery of a weed-free garden, a decent lawn, neat edging, and beautiful flowers. Don't let the people who can afford to hire landscapers have all the glory. Use this easy-to-follow guide to make your yard the envy of the 'hood!