KEYS TO A GREAT-LOOKING LAWN.

Tired of mowing and manicuring your front lawn? Do something different with it. ``Reduce the grass area, create some flower beds, create some shrub beds that are a little bit taller and that give you a background,'' suggests Bruno Moser, Purdue University Extension landscape specialist. ``With the use of mulches and some very low-maintenance perennial plants, you can have borders that are not high-maintenance. In fact, instead of spending every Saturday mowing your yard, you might have some time to go out and play golf or do other things.''

Answering machine answers:If you're wondering whether to buy an answering machine or rent voicemail from the phone company, do the arithmetic. Renting voicemail can save you the cost and bother of having to buy an answering machine. But with typical fees of $6 or more a month, you'll eventually wind up spending more than you would on even a top-of-the-line answering machine, according to the Good Housekeeping Institute.