Pictures, no matter how painful, would help. Before you spend a dime, talk to a realtor about ideas for the yard. Clean, rake, pull out the dead stuff. Then reassess. Flower plots are inexpensive, lots of annuals. Avoid planting trees or shrubs, leave that for the next owner. If there are bare spots, get grass seed, keep it watered. Again, after each improvement, reassess. You may not need to spend as much as you think. Now, some truths about males, and husbands, he may not be willing to put the work in, for the same reason he doesn't want to spend the money. Why spend the effort for someone else to enjoy. The realtor can give him the figures between sales with a crappy yard, and sales with a yard that looks clean and neat. That may convince him.

What type of work needs doing? I live in an old subdivision that has seen better days, and the current homeowners don't see the need to maintain the yards for a variety of reasons. My husband is very diligent about keeping our yard up, and it's the second best one in almost 200 homes.

The reason I tell you this is because having a decent yard doesn't need to cost $4,100 if you and your husband are willing to do some work. I don't know what your place looks like, but get out there and mow the lawn and rake up any old leaves to start with. Find a good organic fertilizer to green up the grass along with some weedkiller you can apply only to the weeds with a tank sprayer. Reseed bare spots in the lawn, and cover it with peat moss to hold in the water. Keep it watered.

Either go with flower pots or put in a small flower garden along the front of your home. Buy some flowers to go there since it's too late to plant seeds. Look for flowers that are perennials such as day lilies, shasta daisies and black-eyed Susans to name a few that spread and will come back for decades.

Once you get your yard in shape, make it a point to keep it up. My husband used to mow the lawn every third day and is so obsessive about it neighbors have commented on it, but like he says, it takes less time to do it more often as it's not out of control. And he's right. It's far easier to mow the lawn once a week than twice a month.