Landscapes and the Law

You may be assuming that you can do whatever you like with your yard, but consider these cases from 2007:

A 70-year-old woman in Orem, Utah was arrested for failing to water her lawn in the heat of the summer. Utah has such a dry climate that only lawns on regular irrigation schedules can possibly comply with such a (really, really bad) law. Residents of even drier Tempe, Arizona were fined for the very same reason.
Police in Toronto destroyed a 10-year-old wildlife habitat garden containing over 150 species, including dozens of shrubs. The law there requires "yards" to be no taller than 8 inches, unless an exemption has been granted, which this habitat gardener had not done.

A Corinth, Texas homeowner was fined for growing tall, drought-tolerant, native and well-adapted grasses instead of turfgrass.

In nearby Hyattsville, a wildlife habitat gardener was out of town writing a book about her garden when city officials hacked her garden to the ground because it violated their weed law.

Buffalo gardener/writer Elizabeth Licata (left) toasts to the successful rescue of Jean Dickson’s garden of perennials and shrubs. Photo courtesy Susan Harris

But my favorite story of landscapes and the law is from Buffalo, New York, where a gardener had planted her front yard with shrubs and perennials and was ticketed for having “overgrown” vegetation. While she was consulting a lawyer and awaiting her court date, her friends in the Buffalo blogosphere and nationally on GardenRant waged an email campaign targeting Buffalo’s mayor. After being barraged with emails from angry gardeners all over the world, the mayor relented and charges were dropped. Regional and national media picked up the story because who can resist a rousing finale of wildlife gardeners and bloggers taking on City Hall and winning?

Takoma Park and county laws

Not to worry, Takoma Park code enforcement can appreciate this beautiful garden at Westmoreland and Walnut. Photo: Julie Wiatt

If you’re wondering if your own tall grasses, shrubs or dormant lawns could get you in trouble with the law, not to worry. Takoma Park requires that lawns be kept below 10", but that truly means the lawn — not perennials and shrubs — and it’s only enforced against abandoned properties, or those that look abandoned. Code Enforcement assures me that they can tell the difference between overgrowth and a garden, so the gorgeous front garden of switchgrass at Westmoreland and Walnut Avenues is not in danger of being destroyed or ticketed. The Montgomery County code requires that turfgrass within 15 feet of property boundaries be 12 inches or shorter, but no county employee could answer my questions about its enforcement. (I kept hearing, “Is this for a newspaper story? Let me forward you to someone else.”)

Signs of improvement
There are signs that some jurisdictions, especially in the arid West, are changing their environmentally backward ways:

When Salt Lake City’s new mayor learned that local law required turfgrass, he openly defied it by growing taller, drought-tolerant plants and saw a 65 percent drop in his water bill as a result. So it might have taken civil disobedience by a sitting mayor to make it happen, but attention was finally paid to repealing the absurd, waste-wasting law.

Austin, Texas gives rebates for switching to drought-tolerant plants, and Albuquerque gives rebates specifically for removing lawn.

Tucson limits the amount of lawn that developers can plant on new properties.
And Tempe, AZ, the very same town that requires lawns to be watered in the summer, gives rebates for switching from traditional lawn to drought-tolerant plants — $500 for both the front and back yards. Their lawmakers seem a bit confused.

Could the solution be fake turf?
Then there’s this disturbing new trend in the West. Las Vegas and towns throughout Southern California have programs called “Cash for Grass” which give rebates for replacing lawns with artificial turf. Yes, you read that right. In arid climates real turfgrass is such a drain on resources that fake grass is regarded as more environmentally responsible, despite its inability to clean the air, provide for wildlife, or filter rainwater as well as real grass. Personally I’m appalled by the stuff but my friends in the landscape business out West argue that artificial turf not only saves on precious water resources but requires no pesticides or fertilizer (a major contributor to pollution here in the Chesapeake Bay), reduces sports injuries, and can be made from recycled products. But it’s exactly those recycled ingredients, like ground-up rubber tires, that have safety experts worried, and the jury won’t be in on this question until more research has been concluded.

Clothes-drying and the law
The introduction of electric dryers may have brought an end to the sight of clothes waving in the wind, but now some conservation-minded folks want to return to that old-fashioned practice and are running afoul of local laws and homeowners association rules that forbid it.

To their rescue is a national nonprofit called Project Laundry List, which was formed to champion the humble clothesline in legislatures across the country. They’re also working with homeowner associations to repeal rules that forbid not just clothes lines but also compost piles, window fans, solar panels and vegetable gardens and other rules that mandate large homes, two-car garages, herbicide on lawns, and dusk-to-dawn outdoor lighting. 57 million Americans live with homeowner associations rules, so their impact is huge, for better or worse. If they don’t change their ways voluntarily, more states will follow Florida’s lead and rein in their freedom to impose such regressive rules.

What laws make sense?
We can all see how environmentally irresponsible these laws and rules are and we may even take the libertarian view that all laws affecting private property are anathema. But consider these reasons for laws about landscapes.

Properties that look abandoned serve as magnets for vagrants and burglars, and the appearance of at least minimal care makes neighborhoods safer. That same care also serves to protect property owners from falling values caused by the abandoned or run-down appearance of nearby homes and yards.

No one wants noxious plants like kudzu or poison ivy spreading into their yards or nearby parks, and both Takoma Park and county ordinances address that. It’s also illegal in Takoma Park to allow vines to grow up into trees, a good law that’s flagrantly violated all over town. It’s not just that vines can harm the trees, and they can, but when English ivy grows up into trees it matures, grows berries, and is then spread all over the neighborhood by birds.

Another good law in Takoma Park prohibits plants growing onto or in the space above sidewalks, which poses a real hazard. I’ve had my face scratched by branches I didn’t see at night, and the visually handicapped and kids in strollers are vulnerable all the time. The city does indeed get complaints about this type of violation (including from yours truly) and promptly leaves warning notices on the front doors of the offending property owners. But forget the law. Prune your plants away from the sidewalk to keep them from hurting your neighbors. It’s a great project for winter.

Susan Harris is a Master Gardener and gardening coach (see TheGardeningCoach.com). Her how-to-garden website is Sustainable-Gardening.com.