After jumping through hoops to add a native flower garden to their yard, one Connecticut homeowner was angry to have that garden destroyed by their homeowner's association anyway.
The strength of their reaction is illustrated by the fact that they posted in r/LegalAdvice looking for help.
"HOA cut my garden down without permission. Is it worthwhile to go to small claims?" they asked.
It is actually quite common for HOAs to interfere with native plant gardening. Many such associations are more concerned with keeping the neighborhood looking uniform than they are with the incredible benefits of planting native species, such as the savings on water and fertilizer, not to mention the reduced effort to keep your yard healthy and the benefits for native wildlife.
In this case, the original poster did everything they could to work with their HOA and get permission for their garden.
"I had a garden I planted earlier this year from seed, with native wildflowers. HOA rules that the garden in front of our place we can do what we wish, but things planted must be annuals. Which they were," said the original poster. "I come home today to see that maintenance has completely cut through my tiny wildflower garden. It's nothing but soil now."
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The original poster was angry enough to take legal action.
"Would it be worthwhile pursuing small claims?" they asked. "If it helps, I'm active duty and would have access to JAG corps."
In many cases, it doesn't take legal action to settle issues like this. Instead, you can use the association's internal processes to change the rules.
That is likely a better course of action than a lawsuit, because as commenters pointed out, there was not much to be gained from suing in this case.
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