this old house

i know that many of you have been waiting for pictures of my new dwelling...and i've been slow moving because, well, there's not much to see. the inside still doesnt look quite to my satisfaction, so today you're just getting outside pictures.

most of the yards on my street are well taken care of. they have flowers, plants, arent overgrown or weedy. and then there's my house:

while i cant be sure that an official vote has been taken, this yard surely grabs the 'ugliest on the block' award. there's barely a house to be seen past the overgrowth of vines, weeds, and mystery plants. you can hardly see it, but to the right of the house, there's another tree. it's covered in vines, so it blends in with everything else. dont give yourself a headache trying to find it; believe me, its there. the sad thing is that the front yard was worse than this before we moved in. the landlord was kind enough to do some minimal bushwacking (the dead branches are still on the lawn). so the question i've been faced with since moving in is "what, if anything, should i do?". should i bother doing yard work for a rental property? surely i cant make the landlord do it....i can imagine that conversation.... "i'm sorry, my yard isnt pretty enough. please do something or i'll contact the housing authority."

i think what really gets to me is that this yard has so much potential, and could look very nice with a little work. even if the existing plants were scaled back a bit, it would look far superior. i vaguely recall my landlord saying that if we wanted to do yard work, they could supply tools...so i might take them up on that while i still have time and good weather. if anyone has any suggestions for what could be done, i'm open to ideas...