One Florida homeowner was set to challenge their homeowners association's rules about the type of plants they wanted in their yard.
"Legal questions re: Florida HOA and vegetable gardening," they said in a Reddit post on the subject. "My HOA says no fruit trees. Would a fruit vine or bush fall under a vegetable garden or a fruit tree?"
According to the homeowner, they'd been doing their homework in regard to what they could or could not do with their yard.
"I posted recently about replacing sod in an HOA and have since thought more about what we want to do with our front yard," they explained. "Someone told me today that Florida has a law that prevents HOAs and other governing bodies from regulating vegetable gardens as long as you follow the relevant fertilizer, irrigation, and invasive species regulations for your area. You also can't sell the produce. I googled it and the story seems to check out."
Given that policy, they were surprised with their HOA's ruling on fruit trees. "I could look into the exact wording in the HOA guidelines, but I'm also wondering how the no fruit trees rule made it past this law," they said.
Sadly, HOAs are known for getting in the way when homeowners want to make money-saving and eco-friendly changes such as planting gardens. Many are more concerned about making neighborhoods look traditional and uniform than they are with the finances or quality of life of the residents.
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But the original poster still wanted to go ahead with turning their yard into a food-producing paradise. "I'm so over this HOA already," they said in a comment. "They're enforcing the wrong things."
"Anyone have experience with the law and guerrilla gardening in an HOA?" they asked.
Commenters offered a range of solutions for skirting the HOA's restrictions.
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Should homeowners associations be able to determine what you grow in your garden?
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Yes 💯 "What exactly does that mean, no fruit trees?" one commenter hedged. "What is a fruit? Are berries OK? What about sterile versions of fruit trees? What about shrubs? What is a tree?"
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"You could also do a dwarf variety fruit tree in a large planter," another user said.
One other option would be to change the rules that are causing the problem in the first place. Learn more about changing an HOA's bylaws with this guide.
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