In March, a gardener on Reddit shared the bittersweet story of leaving their previous rental house after a "nasty" company forced them to remove their garden from the property.
The unusual story appeared on r/goblincore, a community dedicated to the "goblincore" aesthetic. According to the subreddit's description, the focus of that aesthetic is "the celebration of natural ecosystems usually considered less beautiful by conventional norms."
For the original poster, that included a native plant garden.
"A week ago, my landlord forced me to trash my backyard that I had turned into a native plant paradise," they said.
Native plants are used to the weather and soil conditions in the area they come from, so they need very little water or maintenance to flourish — not to mention that they provide food and shelter for local wildlife such as butterflies. Unfortunately, many property owners care more about the look of a yard than the vitality of an ecosystem.
"Why would he do that?" asked one distressed commenter.
"They are a big faceless corporation that bought out our previous landlords a couple of years ago," the original poster replied. "From what we've gathered from the neighbors, this is just a general policy of being nasty to long-term tenants so they can force us out and jack up the prices for new tenants."
According to the original poster, they lived in the Washington, D.C., area. Under their laws, rent can't rise more than once a year for an existing tenant, and the increase is capped at 10% and sometimes less.
But those limits don't apply to a new tenant, which is why a landlord might want their old tenants gone. "They're within their legal rights, unfortunately," said the original poster.
On the way out, though, this Redditor noticed something interesting. "Today I handed over the keys and found a cherry tree sprouting among the stones," they said, sharing a photo of the tiny shoot.
They also managed to salvage a small piece of their garden. "I have a much older sapling that I saved from this same backyard who has come to live with me at the new place!" they said in a comment.
Other users loved the image of the defiant cherry sprout left behind. "Life ... aheh ... finds a way," said one commenter, quoting "Jurassic Park."
"Congrats on the cherry trees," said another user. "Hopefully this is the start of something new and beautiful!"
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