As one Reddit post explained, one person's life with their boyfriend has meant waving goodbye to veggie garden dreams, thanks to the landlords living in a separate apartment unit.
"I was promised, given permission, and support to garden and grow food," the OP explained. However, that green light would quickly turn red as the landlord consistently changed his mind.
"Who won't let you have a garden?" asked a commenter. In this case, the landlords were the father of the OP's boyfriend and his girlfriend. After initially approving such, the owner complained about the use and location of metal garden beds, the color of the blue garden buckets, the usage of the front yard, and so on.
Sabotaging a garden is the same as forcing someone to lose money, as one can potentially produce over 300 pounds of produce worth $600, according to Grocery.coop. Native gardens provide healthy non-GMO food sources for both humans and friendly pollinators, who forage these plants for pollen, enabling more booming biodiversity.
Soft landscaping with healthy plants and trees in a residential area adds oxygen along with better aesthetics that can improve property values — up to 15% to 20% on average, according to the American Society of Landscape Architects, as relayed by Bank Rate.
The OP isn't alone in their frustrations about gardening in a rented space. Others across the country have faced similar battles from landlords who prevented eco-friendly and cost-effective living adjustments like native gardens.
A previously unproblematic landlord ripped out a renter's vegetable garden beds, claiming the renters hadn't "weeded it properly and efficiently." In another incident, a landlord sprayed a crop with toxic herbicide, making the tomatoes useless.
One commenter advised, "Best thing [is] to work toward homeownership because it'll be a bit hard to find a [landlord] that will let you garden (though not impossible)." However, such resistance doesn't end with renters since homeowners have faced similar battles with HOAs.
Going as far as infiltrating the HOA and becoming its president was one tactic a resident used to change minds about natural gardens. People can also research HOA bylaws for things they can change and see where state laws may trump them.
Someone joked, "There are squirrels where I live. It's a fight every year against those cute buggers."
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Should homeowners associations be able to determine what you grow in your garden?
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Yes 💯 There's always a case for creatively growing food indoors, as another noted, "I have an apartment … my roommate's little indoor 'garden' by our windows."
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