A homeowners' association is forcing a woman to remove her garden, and her son is trying to find a way to save her "pride and joy" from being taken away.
In a recent Reddit post, a user explained his mother's HOA predicament. The Redditor's father made his mother wooden planters for use in her beloved garden, and the family received a warning from the HOA that the planters were not approved.
When they paid $25 to apply for approval for the planters, the HOA rejected their request and asked them to remove their potted plants, which were previously unacknowledged.
"What pisses me off the most is that other neighbors have pots in their yard, and the pots weren't included in the initial warning, yet now the HOA wants them to be removed," the user wrote in the post's caption.
"This is especially infuriating as my mom has said previously that the two things she loves the most are her plants and our dogs, and these new demands are coming less than a week after one of our dogs had to be put to rest," the Redditor went on. "Right now my mother is heartbroken and I'm not sure if there's anything we can do."
Other users sympathized with the poster's frustration in the comment section.
"Put them in the garage and then apply to have them in your yard. [You're] just dealing with the Napoleon syndrome," one commenter wrote.
"Small people tripping on power e.g. the HOA association," another added.
"Ask them why her pots specifically and not others," another user commented. "They can't randomly enforce rules — unless there's a specific reason her pots are a problem, they'll need to make everyone remove them if they decide to enforce."
This isn't the first time an HOA has made greener life more difficult for its residents. Recently, another Redditor lamented about a restrictive HOA policy that prevented them from installing solar panels to provide clean energy for their home.
However, another example provides a glimmer of hope for overcoming HOA restrictions to make greener living more accessible.
A couple in Maryland fought a strict HOA law that would have ruined their rewilded lawn and ended up creating a new state law protecting native plants from HOA rules. With luck, this Redditor may also triumph over the HOA rules and retain his mother's garden.
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