What a yard should look like is still cemented in a lot of minds. When it comes to vague ordinances, the situation gets even messier for homeowners with nontraditional yards.
Tread's Lee Hedgepeth reported on a tricky situation in Alabama, where Dr. Ellen Newsom, a veterinarian, faced a significant legal battle to maintain her garden.
Newsom's struggle centered on her city's code, which limits grass or weed growth to 12 inches. After a neighbor's complaint, Newsom was found guilty, fined over $500, and ordered to take down her garden. She responded by appealing and securing a jury trial.
Her reluctance to change her garden was understandable. After moving in, she hired an expert and invested $10,000 to transform her garden into a sustainable haven that addressed flooding issues.
However, some nosy neighbors complained about the garden, wrongly assuming it wasn't maintained and that it had to look like monoculture lawns. There was also the issue of whether the plants on hand truly were weeds or grass.
Despite the judge's ruling, it turned out to be a different story when the case was presented before a jury. One factor undoubtedly helping was the jury, which featured other gardeners and members with sentiment against homeowners association.
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Afterward, one of them shared with Tread that they thought the city's code was poorly written, given that Newsom's taller plants were food. They also believed that the city didn't show that the garden was poorly maintained.
Shaky testimony from neighbors and a strong case put forth by a horticulturalist also helped. As it turned out, the jury ruled unanimously for her.
Newsom isn't close to the first homeowner to face demands to change a nontraditional lawn with dubious backing. The saga showed that many other residents find the sort of limiting ordinances an infringement on property rights.
The victory drew attention on the r/NoLawns subreddit, sparking conversations about sustainable gardening. The thread starter revealed they lived in the same town as Newsom and branded the case as "ridiculous."
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"That was exhausting to read, I can't imagine having to deal with that as a homeowner," a Redditor reacted. "What if each American landowner made it a goal to convert half of his or her lawn to productive native plant communities?" a user proposed. "Even moderate success could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than twenty million acres of what is now ecological wasteland."
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