When you purchase and move in to a new home, always wait a year before replacing the existing landscape. In general, one needs a full year to observe what comes up in different seasons and which of the existing plants, shrubs, and trees deliver across time.

I say this because I have seen so many yards where new homeowners have immediately had everything dug up before really knowing what treasures they may have inherited.

As I walk in my neighborhood, I always look for the gardens that have wonderful spring bulbs. This spring, I watched in horror as some men dug up and discarded a large planting of budding daffodils just before they would have created their most breathtaking flower display.

And just yesterday, I saw a garden that had lovely mid-sized hydrangeas, roses, and crepe myrtles being dug up and thrown away. Then today, I saw in that very same garden that a few very tiny hydrangeas and a couple of miniscule other shrubs had already been planted. If the new owners had wanted smaller shrubs, they could have just had the existing ones pruned and save a lot of money.

Always wait and ask a variety of friends, neighbors, and experts to tell you exactly what you already have before getting rid of the whole lot.