I didn't delve into that level of investigation :) But when we bought a house, a "blank slate" was definitely a plus for me. This house had only some lousy foundation "shrubs" (if you can even call them that), and a couple of bushes planted in the back. I loved the idea of being able to plan every inch of the garden myself!

The only plants I kept:

-Two really nice, mature Boxwoods.
-A white Crepe Myrtle on the corner of the house.
-A Lady Banks Rose that I ALMOST ordered dug up when we built the fence in the middle of winter. Thank goodnesss I decided to wait until spring to see what it was!
-Two unidentified sedums. Autumn Joy, probably.

That is IT! Everything else was OUTTA HERE!! :D

I can't tell you what a difference it made in the way I feel about driving up to the house and seeing gardens I had created. I spent several months feeling very depressed, driving home to raggedy overgrown foundation shrubs. It didn't start to feel like my house until we ripped those out and replanted.

I definitely wanted a full sun place, and I got it.
I do wish I had a few mature trees, those cannot be grown in any short period of time and I am envious of others' beautiful big maples.

When I bought, I asked the previous owner - how is the soil? He said - Great! Loamy sand everywhere. Except for about 100 feet around the house where we used clay fill.

Hmmm, 100 feet around the house is where I planned to garden . . . .

I didn't bother checking the soil. All soil can be ammended if need be. What was important here when we bought the house in 1999 was a reasonable sized lot (1/4 acre), a mature ash (which is likely coming down this year or next - EAB is getting closer...) middle-aged, well placed white pines and a juvenile red oak. Those trees have been invaluable to the garden. There are advantages to a completely blank slate but you can't beat substantial trees as a starting point.

This is an interesting post as it contrast with the more common angst of 'I'm moving- how do I take my garden with me' ...

Oh, did I mention my username is not just a coincidence, LOL? I am probably one of the most sunny-side-up people on the planet, to the point of ridiculousless, I'm sure. I am not dwelling on what will be left behind, that is way too "half-empty" for me! Nope, just looking at the "possibilities" :)

I completely make my friends sick with my ALWAYS half-full approach, but hey, we are what we are, right? My hubby says that if there was a nuclear blast in an abandoned area down the road, my response would be: "Well, at least we don't need night lights for a while." I think he's being a BIT dramatic, but he does have a point... :)

We made the deal on our first house and then, with the owner's permission, planted a garden in May because the closing date wasn't until June 30.
The house was empty and had been so for quite some time. While digging out the new garden, my husband cut off the telephone service for most of the surrounding houses. The telephone cable had been laid across the ground and was obscured by all the weeds.
We got to know our new neighbours pretty fast because of that incident.
My husband had to pull enough water out of the well bucket by bucket to water in the seeds until we moved in and the electricity was turned on. But we had our own vegetables that summer. And the neighbours became friends.

in my world.. 10 years ago ...

first came acreage ... or lot size.. can't amend that.. better plan ahead ...

then came a pole barn ... never have enough space for all your junk .. lol ...

oh .. and then the house i would be in when it was too dark/cold to be outdoors..

included in the acreage was soil type .... and luckily for me ... the prior owners horses had a rubbing spot where i could see yellow sand ... i would have prefer a nice loam .. but that was not an option out here ... and whomever above said all soil can be amended.. never had to take a pickax to battleship gray clay to dig a hole ...

what i found in the interim .. out here in the country.. is that the well and septic guys know all the soil they work in .... i found out years later ... that i live on a river of sand as they call it .... but no more than a mile away is the intolerable clay .... so either your real estate agent .. or a local septic guy from the yellow pages might help ...

and finally ... the home inspector.. who also did a field check of the drain field... could push his t bar spike.. 4 feet down into the soil ... which fairly indicated to him.. it was all sand.. in other words.. you dont need to dig holes .... see link

and a perk test is always requisite ... how fast water drains in the given soil ...

not to mention water availability if a well is involved.. again... the well peeps can help ... again i later found out.. i was 50 feet above an unlimited underground river.. go figure on that ... and its no use to try to do some hard core gardening.. if your well is going to go dry every july ... eh???

i know this may mean nothing if you are city folk.. but it might help someone else .. looking back.. i am simply amazed what i learned when i moved from city services out into the wilderness of adrian mi .. lol .. 60 miles from suburban detroit ...

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: sticker in-ers in the first pic

I had NEVER gardened in my life. But when we built a new house and I had a mud yard I sort of went wild and started my first garden near the mail box. IT GREW! Then I started a clay garden in the back for the house, then a large middle garden and now I'm working on the rock walls.

So for me - a blank slate seemed to have tripped a trigger in me!

I have lived in the "starter home" DH and I bought for sixteen years.

I dream of a bigger lot with trees of my choosing rather than the neighbors. Idiots that owned the house behind us planted Douglas firs and pines as a hedge in 1952 instead of arborvitea and did not shear annually and they are all forty to fifty feet tall or more and their roots almost reach our house in the back yard. We have cut branches off that were twenty feet long (had them fall too) They suck all moisture out of the soil, even with soaker hoses. It is a major battle once the rain stops here.

To the best of my knowledge all soil here is acidic clay and it rains so much here that seeing puddles or mud would likely be easy.

I'll look for hardscapes that I like, they are more expensive than plants. Fences and patios and decks and such. I won't care about house color other than I won't want vinyl siding that can't be painted.

and two or more bathrooms but that is another story.

Mostly I'll want space to create big shrub borders. I can't grow many great shrubs like ninebarks, viburnums, witch hazels and elderberries because they get too big for this tiny lot.

I had lived and gardened in a typical suburban lot for 30 years. I wanted acreage nothing else mattered I wanted land.

I did not care if it was blank or filled with trees and flowers all these things could be removed or relocated.

Felt the same about the house. As long as it was brick, I can remodel, fix-up or change anything I did not like.

After 2 years of looking I found my dream acreage. The family had lived in the house for 50 years raised their family and DH & DW were going to assisted living. The home had not been updated in 30 years, and the gardens had gone to the deer, weeds, kudzu, wisteria vines and any wildlife that could find a snack. The plus was gorgeous mature trees, bushes and fruit trees.

As I drove down the long driveway to the potential home my heart was beating and shouting "THIS IS IT" 4 acres of private garden space. LOL

I haven't read all the comments yet, but for sure, when we moved from city to country, there were a zillion things I never would have known to ask. One thing for sure, you must speak to the township offices to find out what major changes are going on in the area. Not that they'll tell you the truth, but it is good to ask about things like a tire recycling plant moving in next door, or a gravel pit expansion, or a new pig farm.

As to the gardens, there too I wouldn't have known what to ask. The work on 10 acres is incredible compared to our 25 foot wide lot in Toronto. Cleaning out a barn? Never done that before. Spring flooding? OY! Anyway, it has been what I hoped for- a place to grow food and flowers and enjoy nature (groundhogs, rabbits, voles, deer, coyotes, hawks, etc) with all its highs and lows. Everything is a process that no amount of planning would have changed.