If you are simply switching out different plants / shrubs or adding additional plants you can go ahead and do that. But if you are removing something such a flower bed and replacing it with grass then you should submit your changes to the HOA Landscape Approval committee.

The safest thing to do is just get your design approved so you don’t have to worry about redoing the yard because you didn’t have it approved to begin with. There are about a dozen or so people having to redo their landscaping because they didn’t have it approved and they did things that were against the standards.