Homeowner fights back against HOA's controlling rules with photos of over-the-top backyard: 'The revolution shall come'

One way to fight a homeowners association's restrictive rules is to build a garden so beautiful that everyone just stands back in awe. Or you could just go to town in your backyard.

A batch of photos shared in the r/gardening subreddit shows a poster's lush backyard garden with poppies, daisies, sunflowers, blackberries, and more thriving plants with beautiful splashes of orange, yellow, red, and purple throughout the yard. 

"HOA controls the front yard," the poster wrote. "I control the back."

HOAs are known to have extremely controlling rules about what you can do, or grow, on your own property. Removing homeowners' native plants and gardens without permission, laying on fines for brown lawns, and charging homeowners thousands of dollars to install solar panels on their own homes. These restrictions have led many to fight back against their HOA in order to make money-saving, planet-friendly changes to their homes and communities.

When it comes to essential utilities like energy and heat, HOAs blocking solar panel and heat pump installations comes with serious environmental consequences and stalls progress toward a cleaner, cooler future.

HOAs often negatively affect the environment by requiring water-intensive lawns, restricting native plants and pollinators, blocking practices like composting and rainwater collection, and mandating harsh chemicals for weed control. 

This all leads to more wasted resources, increased pollution, and negative impacts on plant and wildlife biodiversity, all of which have damaging trickle-up effects on the local community, even if house prices in HOAs are somewhat higher.

That's why flower fans in the comment section of the post were thrilled to see the homeowner taking back control of their yard, with plenty of native plants to boot. 

"The revolution shall come from the backyard!," one user proclaimed. 

Another joked: "OP hit every nursery known to man."

Should homeowners associations be able to determine what you grow in your garden? Yes 💯 Only if it impacts your neighbors 🏘️ Depends on what you're growing 🌼 Heck no 🙅 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

"Oh my god. I wanna visit this forest and stare at it for millennia. How do you even get any work done?" one asked. 

The OP responded: "Thank you. I watch the birds all day long. Thank God I'm retired."

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