this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Native Plant Gardening

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👮 Neighbor called the cops on me for having weeds 🌿 -- how to work the system in this situation (slrpnk.net)
submitted 7 hours ago by activistPnk@slrpnk.net to c/nativeplantgardening@mander.xyz
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/31676944

An anonymous neighbor wanted to control the appearance of my yard without speaking directly to me. So whoever they are, they filed a report that I have weeds and I was cited.

I wanted to understand what law was being used against me, so I looked it up. It turns out the law is in a body of statutes covering health and public safety. So my 1st thought is: that’s bizarre.. an ugly plant is a health issue?

WTF is a “weed”?

In common language most people are making a value judgment by regarding ugly plants as weeds. But the legal definition is not so subjective. It’s plants that have toxins and allergens. So things like Poison Ivy. The law names 6 or so examples but is not limited to those.

So the law is perhaps reasonably written to control health hazards, not so people can control the appearance of other people’s property. But the enforcers were either clueless about this or they were intellectually dishonest in hopes that those cited would naively create a pretty landscape for the demanding neighbor without first reading the law.

I might have been willing to do a landscape had the process of telling me the yard looks ugly not been as rude as sending cops to bully me.

A citation generally saying “you have weeds” is likely typically a false accusation. They should be writing on the citation exactly which plant specie is toxic or hazardous, just as a speeding ticket says how fast you were measured at.

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[–] seathru@quokk.au 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Here you can appeal it with the city codes department. Read through your codes 8 times and find anything that can help you. For me it was the word "cultivated". The local codes stated the lawn could not have "non-cultivated" grass/weeds/flowers/whatever over 10" tall (it's early, I can't remember the exact verbiage). So in the process of converting my lawn to native grasses and flowers, I've just been documenting everything. Now when my neighbor that mows his lawn 3 times a week (no exaggeration) calls in on me this spring; I can show the codes department "no, this is all intentionally and purposely cultivated this way with native plants, and I have the receipts to prove it".

We'll see how it goes.