'Don't mess with my gardens': City officials tell family their garden is 'overgrowing,' family brings in experts to protect their plants

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 7, 2023 11:00 AM EST

This home is a gardener's paradise. With two gardens enveloping their family home, this person shared that their family tended to their yard each and every day. So they must have been quite confused when their city reached out to them to condemn the way they were maintaining their lush lawn. 

Those who have space for a garden have an amazing resource at their fingertips. Alongside growing veggies and herbs for meals, you can plant a variety of flowers or shrubs to make your yard look and smell incredible. Soon enough, your yard will be filled with butterflies and honeybees. And there will surely be a few animals sneaking a bite of your vegetable plants each night, no matter how fenced-in the garden is. There are plentiful benefits, but it does require upkeep. 

Some families hire gardeners to keep their yard looking fresh and trimmed. Others, like u/IamasimpforObi-Wan, are more hands-on. The OP writes that their family members were constantly working on the garden---every day, in fact. Working with nature does have a therapeutic effect. 

I have a basil plant at my home that I have anthropomorphized. It's just a happy sunlight-loving little dude! Every time I add some basil leaves to a soup, it feels like the little guy is earning its keep. The basil plant wants to be helpful, I think, and it's making some flavorful contributions in lieu of paying rent. 

Check out this person's satisfying story of gardening malicious compliance. Up next, take a peek into the life of a very overworked coffee shop manager who got to take two weeks off and decided to reevaluate their career. 

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    Cheezburger Image 9847252736
    via Ries Bosch on Unsplash
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    The city wanted me to take better care of my gardens, so I had them approved by the local nature conservation association
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    The guys at prorevenge argued that it better belongs here, so here I am. My house is surrounded by two gardens, one in the front, facing the street, and one in the back, bordering my neighbours' gardens. When my parents and grandparents moved into our house 26 years ago, they planted a thick hedge around the entire
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    property. They also installed a rose arch over the pathway to our front door and my grandfather was always busy keeping up the garden, planting, weeding, keeping everything very tidy.
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    My grandfather died in 2002 and after that, the garden was neglected for a few years as my parents were still working and my brother and I were in university/school. But then, ca. 2005, my mum read something that we should plant stuff to help the bees and she took over the
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    gardens, planting lilac, rhododendron, roses and various berries. Later we decided to also install raised garden beds with various kitchen herbs.
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    My mum is now over 70 years old and has officially given the house over to my brother and me, so that we won't be taxed on inheriting it when she dies. Since then, I've been sporadically taking care of the gardens. I like them in their wild shape with all the birds, bees, bumblebees and butterflies flying around, in autumn we get hedgehogs and we've been visited by a fox recently (which send my cats into a panic).
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    Then, recently, we received a letter from the city stating that our garden was interfering with the safety of the street, because the hedge was overgrowing the pavement and contained poisonous berries which were a danger to children. Now, my brother trims the hedge every month to make sure nothing is overgrowing the pavement in any way, and while the berries are poisonous, to get to them you'd have to be quite resilient because
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
  • 09
    they're surrounded by thorns. They are also know to be ideal food for some local birds. So, I contacted our local nature conservation association and asked if they would like to have a look at our gardens and maybe tell us if we could improve anything to make them even more nature friendly. They came, looked around and then told us they rarely see gardens so in
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    touch with nature. They approved our gardens as "especially nature friendly" and contacted the city to tell them that from their point of view, any changes would be considered unfriendly to nature, and since our city prides itself with once being one of the "green capitals" in our country, they had to budge. Don't mess with my gardens!
    via u/IamasimpforObi-Wan
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    Naige2020 There was a guy in one of the suburbs near me that had a similar approach. He let all the native plants grow wild around his house because he liked living near nature. His neighbours complained to local council that it was unsightly and a fire hazard.
    via u/Naige2020
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    The council sent him notices to trim it all back and clean it up. He refused them all. The council set a date that they would come and remove all trees, plants and shrubs and charge him for the cost involved.
    via u/Naige2020
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    He contacted a local environmental agency that came and inspected his property and they found two species of endangered birds had nested there. One was assumed extinct. After that there was nothing they could do as the birds were protected by law.
    via u/Naige2020
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    Paltry_Poetaster I'm with you, I like the English garden, natural look, and the more plants the better. Bottom line, not interfering with the pavement, and the berries are protected by thorns. Children
    via u/Paltry_Poetaster
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    should know not to just eat any old berry or mushroom anyway, that is just as important a survival lesson as looking before you cross the street.
    via u/Paltry_Poetaster
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    StrixCZ Love this! I used to do a "gardening" job for three months and I hated it. Why? Because 90% of the time the clients basically wanted us to destroy the actual nature in their garden and replace it with something that would look like nature. Not to
    via u/StrixCZ
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    mention all the mutilated trees and bushes :( People these days mistake their gardens for living rooms in terms of "tidyness" way too often. So glad there are still exceptions! Nothing like a spring garden in full dandelion bloom... :)
    via u/StrixCZ
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    hurly_burly_pegasus. That so sounds like Germany ↑ 187 IamasimpforObi-Wan OP Reply It is
    via u/hurly_burly_pegasus

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nature green gardening plants malicious compliance garden city malicious-compliance-reddit bees flowers gardens family malicious compliance reddit
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