Paint this, plant that ... blah blah blah. Try these tricks to give your home’s exterior a fresh look without any extra maintenance

It’s almost a cliché that owners have to spruce up the exterior of their house in the front - the facade and yard - if they want to attract buyer attention and sell in a crowded real estate market.

But it also makes sense to do so for your own sense of personal and neighborhood enjoyment and pride.

Because of the tougher economy, the old rules of curb appeal have been replaced with some new, smart tricks that help save dollars, maintenance and the environment:

Grow A Smarter Garden
Green, sustainable gardens are good for the environment; formal gardens are out because they require too much money, time and aren’t environmentally friendly.

Starr Osborne, author of “Home Staging That Works” (AMACOM, 2010), suggests grasses and perennials since they don’t need as much irrigation, they don’t have to be replanted, they self-seed and are good at attracting birds and butterflies.

Find a New Water Way
Permeable hardscapes allow water to seep through into the ground; materials like cement are less water-table-friendly and can create conditions for flooding and erosion. Attractive, well-wearing permeable choices include bluestone, flagstone and pebbles. “Try to pick indigenous materials to make your garden greener,” Osborne says.

Use a Hot Hue
Shutters in dark hues usually don’t clash with a landscape or facade; bright Mediterranean colors are now considered too splashy for many suburban yards. Also, too-cute color combos like red shutters against a red-brick facade are on the outs. Instead, Osborne favors new combinations that are more maintenance-free because they hide dirt, such as Benjamin Moore’s Wenge (an almost-black hue), Hale Navy and Flint (a medium gray).

Invite in the Sun
Solar-powered lights along a walkway rather than low-voltage lamps are less costly to install and maintain. The solar-powered lights cost only about $15 each and never need to be turned on or off since they derive their energy from the sun. “They’re also easier to install since you just pop them in,” says architect John Gidding, HGTV host of “Curb Appeal: The Block.”

Open a ‘New’ Door
An antique door from a salvage shop adds a more novel welcome than a newly built stock door. The right door makes a major first impression, says Gidding. If you find one that doesn’t quite fit, it often can be trimmed to work. For contemporary houses, he suggests lighter colored woods; for more traditional houses, he says go with darker woods with details like iron hinges.

Get Artsy
Build your own artistic sculpture from found stones rather than purchasing expensive outdoor art, statuary or urns. Irregular Pennsylvania bluestone slabs, which can be found at many local rock distributors, can be stacked and attached with a fence post down the middle to add an interesting focal point in your yard, says John Algozzini, a landscape designer with Kinsella Landscape Inc. in Blue Island, Ill.

Create a Low-Maintenance Lawn
Replace high-maintenance sods like bluegrass or any grass with lower-maintenance choices like Buffalo grass or Purple Love Grass ground cover. You don’t just cut your time and effort in mowing but also your fertilizer and watering bill, says Algozzini. Though the initial cost sometimes may be more expensive, the maintenance costs are far less, he says.

“Buffalo grass only needs mowing once or twice a year, and never fertilizing,” he says. Another lawn alternative, wildflower meadow, doesn’t require pesticides, says Chris Cipriano, a landscape architect in Ramsey, N.J. Laying “carpets” of wildflowers akin to sod, such as asters, coneflowers, butterfly weeds and lupines, prevents having to plant them individually. Once they’re established, all you need to do is cut them down come fall.