After going to the trouble of planting and nurturing a garden, one Redditor was devastated to find that the company that owned their home had cut everything down for no reason.
Some landlords simply seem to have it out for gardens. One owner closed off an outdoor tap to prevent their tenant from watering their garden; another pulled up newly planted flowers but left trash behind in the flower beds. A third landlord brought in a crew to dig up the garden space that the tenants paid extra to use, and one totally unhinged owner showed up in person to tear up the yard with a pickax.
This example isn't quite as dramatic, but it's just as heartbreaking. "Landlord mowed my garden," said the Redditor, sharing a photo of the clear-cut space. Even though the garden is obviously marked with a brick border and flower pots, the owner appears to have mowed over it as if it were part of the lawn, cutting the plants right down to ground level and leaving some patches of dirt completely bare.
Destroying a garden this way means the tenant is out any money they spent on plants, fertilizer, water, and garden supplies, and they don't even get to enjoy the delicious produce they were growing. It also leaves the soil vulnerable to erosion with no live plants to hold it in place.
"Wow, left it barren," said one commenter. "What did you have growing there?"
"Kale, tomato, peppers, and chives," replied the original poster. "There was a handful of nettle in there which I was also going to use."
"That's so rough," said the commenter. "They should reimburse you for replacements."
"I doubt they would," said the original poster.
In some cases, a landlord would be in legal trouble for destroying a tenant's garden. Many jurisdictions protect a tenant's right to the "quiet enjoyment" of the property, as Cornell Law School explained. On the other hand, the terms of a lease can determine whether a tenant is allowed to plant a garden at all or is required to keep the yard in the same condition it was in when they moved in.
According to the original poster, their landlord had no intention of making this issue right. "The best they could do was a 'sorry about that, we'll tell them not to do that next time,'" they said in a comment.
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