NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Attractive yards make homes and neighborhoods look better, and make your city or county environment healthier and prettier, too.

In Hampton, Va., the Clean City Commission and master gardeners share these tips on how to create and maintain a yard that looks good every day of the year — no matter where you live.

• Evaluate your “curb appeal.” Stand across the street from your house and look at your home landscape like you are a stranger in the neighborhood.

Does it look nice? Is it colorful and well-balanced? Are plantings graduated by size and scaled to their location? What would make it look better?

n Plan your landscape for easy and effective maintenance. Reduce the size of your lawn with flower beds and islands to reduce lawn maintenance efforts. Use ground cover and mulches to control weeds. When you shop for trees, choose varieties that will not compete with power lines.

• Allow your landscape to reflect you and your family. Use yard art, picnic and play areas, gazebos or other features to show that your yard is part of your home. Add wildlife habitat features like ponds, rock gardens or feeders.

• Trees and shrubs can enhance and protect. Use trees to shade your house and air-conditioning equipment to reduce summer energy demands. Use wind-breaking trees or shrubs on the north side of your house to block winter winds. Use trees to add color and texture to your landscape.

• Plant with care. Follow expert advice in placing and planting your plants. Allow plants plenty of space to grow. Put them where they would look best fully grown.

• Water your landscape conservatively. If you select drought-resistant plants and plant them properly, you can start counting your savings in time and lower water bills. When you water, do so deeply. Light sprinkling wastes water and produces shallow roots.

n Use lawn chemicals sparingly. Remember that your yard is often just one storm drain away from an important waterway. Use lawn chemicals as sparingly as if you were pouring them directly into your drinking water!

Only use pesticides after you identify the specific problem and then select the proper chemical registered for use with your problem.

• Lastly, but importantly, keep your organic materials to yourself. Mulch your grass clippings and leave them on the ground to keep your lawn healthy. Start a compost pile to maintain a good supply of inexpensive soil conditioner on hand for your landscape.

Joan Harper believes in tough love for the plants in her yard.

She seldom, if ever, waters because she chooses plants that are suitable to the various growing conditions on her property. She uses no mulch because she prefers to see the ground. She relies on no toxic chemicals because she really never needs them.

Yet, Harper's piece of paradise in Hampton, Va., was the 2010 winner of the Hampton Clean City Commission's Yards Are Really Distinguished Showplaces (YARDS) contest. It is just as lush and lavish as any garden could want to be.

“I have been gardening all my life,” says Harper, 64, a retired schoolteacher.

“As a child, I remember vividly the blue hydrangea on both sides of my grandmother's steps leading to the front door. I thought they were the most beautiful flowers in the whole universe. She always had an impressive garden with loads of color.

“I caught the garden bug immediately and have not stopped.”

When Harper moved into her current house in 2001, there were only two plants in the yard — a red crape myrtle in the front and a lavender rose-of-sharon in the back.

She soon began to change that scenario. Before buying anything, she studied how sun and shade moved across her yard, learned the makeup of her soil and then planned what would look and work best.

“You've got to do your homework, know your conditions and know what your plants need,” she says.

That little bit of homework paid off because today thousands of healthy-looking plants spill everywhere, leaving little ground to be seen, especially when they are in full bloom spring and summer.

Dainty white flowers cover hundreds of stems on seven Diamond Frost euphorbias that fill a raised brick bed at the front of the house.

And nearby, dozens of celosias with flaming red blooms splash color against the green lawn.