"Landscaping is one home improvement that actually appreciates over time."
"Besides the personal enjoyment you'll get from a nice yard, landscaping adds more value than almost any other home renovation. With a core group of plants and spring blooming bulbs, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help."
--David Salman, President and Chief Horticulturist, High Country Gardens
1. Create Healthy Soil
The best time to fertilize in the fall is after a few light frosts or when trees begin dropping their leaves. Though it may sound odd to feed plants now, an ample supply of fertilizer in the fall will give plants a head start when it’s time to grow in the spring. Use organic soil amendments, as opposed to chemically derived fertilizers, so you build the soil at the same time you provide nutrients to your plants. Read High Country Garden's Recipe for Healthy Soil
2.  Make Your Life Easier With a Low-Maintenance Yard
Plan your design for low maintenance with a good core group of low water groundcovers and perennials. Don’t overlook the beauty of ground cover Speedwells (Veronica) and Hardy Ice Plant (Delosperma) for larger areas. For ideas, view:
 3. Add Low-cost Beauty with Bulbs and Poppies
For a burst of spring color an assortment of poppies and naturalizing bulbs should be planted in the fall. Daffodils are also safe from burrowing pests like gophers, moles and voles. One investment will give you years of spring beauty.
4. Plant deer and rabbit resistant plants
if they visit your area, and make sure that you plant rabbit and deer resistant plants and protect young plants from hungry critters. Deer Off is an aesthetically pleasing way to repel browsing animals but requires that you remember to re-apply it to new growth throughout the growing season and just before the onset of winter.
5. Shrubs should be an integral part of any naturalized landscape
Many shrubs are extremely low-maintenance and xeric. Caryopteris clandonensis 'Dark Knight' (Blue Mist Spirea), Fallugia paradoxa (Apache Plume), and Mahonia hamatocarpa (Red berry Mahonia) are all good choices.
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