Front Yards That Say Welcome

If you don't believe in the value of good front landscaping when buying or selling a house, take a look at the two photos below, and I guarantee you that you'll change your mind. In the first photo, the house sits totally isolated from its surroundings, with overgrown front plantings, and absolutely no way to get to the front door. In the second picture, the scene is transformed: a new cobble semi-ciruclar drive provides easy pedestrian and automobile access to the principal entrance of the home; a stone wall and new, in-scale foundation plantings define the property, and a row of carpinus betulus, European hornbeam, forms an aerial hedge, helping to set the house back off the busy street without hiding it completely behind a wall of greenery. Which of these two homes would you rather live in?