Just thought I'd share some wins from someone in a townhouse with a HOA. I live in a quad home townhouse in southern MN and initially when I bought the property I assumed that I would not be able to do any landscaping (since yaknow – townhouse and HOA). I would be forced to just have the 1/3 acre of lawn with a couple of nice, mature silver maples and that was it. Thankfully I was able to get on the board and from there I realized that all homeowners in my development actually own the lots, there is no common area. Advantages of a 1980s development I guess.
Additionally my board was fairly chill (outside of a few odd opinions) and I was able to first secure approval for several projects (a long line of berm plantings, a fairly large (400 sqft) rain garden, a native prairie restoration area and a bunch of dispersed tree plantings. The plantings were able to be left opened ended and as such a was able to choose a slew of native trees, bushes and plants. I was also able to plant (with permission) on neighbors lots and switch out dead chinese crabapples for native serviceberries.
Additionally I got a big win recently by getting approval to change our rules and regulations to allow homeowners to not have to seek approval when modifying existing beds! So now my neighbors can change their landscaping to match modern native focused planting guidance.
One interesting thing was that the board was very much on board with native planting when I explained the benefits. They were more concerned with maintenance and curb appeal but not to a ridiculous extent, outside of one frustrating time,
I realize this is a bit of a niche case (owning your own lot in a townhouse, fairly chill HOA, 1/3 acre of planting area to mess with) but I wanted to post it just to let others in my situation know they should check out what they can do!
I'll try my best to answer any questions anyone has and I posted a few photos. Also feel free to recommend plantings or ideas for the space! I'm hoping to make a stone bench nook, a patio, a couple raised beds, and a native prairie in the front this year!
by Rozdolna
6 Comments
Very nice! Congrats on your success!
That’s awesome! We need more stories like this!
Great job OP! Looks great.
Infiltration from the inside and showing the benefits is always better than antagonizing from the outside for reasons.
Pretty damn cool. I’m sure it feels like a small win, but one native tree can support hundreds of insects, which can then support songbirds, bats, and native mammals. The difference looks small to us but it’s huge for those smaller THAN us.
You’re not alone! A native plant group in Northern Virginia (thick with HOAs) has developed materials and programs to help HOA communities incorporate more native plants in both common areas and individual properties.
Obviously some of the plants and topics are NOVA specific, but a lot of their materials/ideas generalize to other places.
https://www.plantnovanatives.org/hoa-and-condo-associations
1/3 an acre to plant on? Shiiiet. My home sits on a standard city lot, approx. 0.12 acres.
I’d like a few acres one of these days or maybe an oversized lot. I’ve got plenty of yardwork to do as it is though, so maybe not. We’ll see how it all pans out.
Pretty cool project and info about your situation though!