The new year brings new interests — again. This year Bob and I will be redesigning our landscape — again. We’re removing ALL non-indigenous plants then planting ONLY native plants.

This was not an easy decision. After all, we’ve lived here nineteen years and these plants have been growing for at least seventeen years. The three privets on the driveway side of the house are at least twenty-five feet tall and do a marvelous job of shading the hot sun. A few of my honey bees like the privets well enough but hundreds of pollinators literally cover the neighboring red bud tree; the buzz coming from this tree is majestic. While the privets have a delightful fragrance, it’s not quite what the local pollinators need.

Privet (Ligustrum sinense Lour) are small trees from southern and eastern Asia or the Himalayas extending into Australia, hence, not a native plant. When…