Gardens can be an important part of any homeowner's landscape plans. Their basic function is pretty simple - make us happy.

Vegetable gardens can actually save on the grocery bill when planted with vegetables we would otherwise buy at the store. Everyone's garden is made up of plants that they enjoy even if we don't eat them. Flowers bring more real enjoyment then we can easily explain.

I suppose it's just the simple idea that we did it for ourselves because it makes us happy. At my house we maintain several areas with large flowers beds that we photograph so we can continue to enjoy them even in the depths of winter. This way we extend the blooming for months after.

The point is to add value through landscaping without spending yourself into the poor house. Planning and maintaining a garden as part of the landscaping around the house does more than just keep us busy with a labour of love - it adds value. Adding value to any house comes easiest from our own labour.

Sure, you can contract it out to get started. This is necessary sometimes when our landscaping plans are pretty big. A landscaping contractor can help with the big stuff like moving mounds of dirt and rocks or leveling off an area for us to complete the work. This is a big time saver when we would have otherwise tackled it with a shovel and wheel barrel.

I talk a lot about adding value to our properties, and we all can see that any effort to maintain a garden of any size brings mountains of rewards. Perhaps pride is the only one if we don't plan to sell but just enjoy our backyard to the fullest. Gardens are cheap and we all know that home improvement rarely come cheap.

Sure you can spend loads of cash on backyard landscaping if you wish. Things like retaining walls and pavers on the walkway can run up the costs pretty fast. Decks and patios can also be incorporated into the landscaping design and they can come with a big cost attached. But the big things are usually a one-time thing.

Once you get the costly expensive jobs done it's down to the simple stuff like turning dirt and planting the garden that finishes off your plan. If you think you want a change, then it's easy to change a garden, where it is more difficult to change a deck or walkway. As long as your backyard works for you that's the real important issue.

Do-it-yourself home improvement we all know saves money. Do as much as you can and this way you save as much as you can. Cut your own grass and you save those few dollars - although sometimes I would gladly pay someone to cut the grass just to give me more time to relax. I have a big yard and cutting and trimming the lawn can take more time than I want to spend.

Nevertheless these days we are always on the lookout for small ways to save a few bucks because you never know when something will come up that needs our wallet. Like a new fishing rod or some new tool that we don't have. All right, we all have our own priorities. The real point I'm trying to make is how simple and cheap it can be to improve our living space without breaking the bank.

By planting a few flowers we improve our lives just a little and add value to our home automatically. If you plan to sell than the curb appeal jumps with rows of bright flowers perhaps covering up the unsightly stucco or cracks in the concrete foundation. Home improvement is all about making your home a better place to live and gardens are a cheap and effective way to get there.