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Her garden dream has become a living nightmare.
A Long Island woman who proudly sports an excessively tall natural garden on her front lawn has spent the last year fighting a contentious legal battle and facing thousands in fines over it.
“In the land of the free, I can’t plant some good flowers in my front yard?” Xilin Zhang, 45, of New Hyde Park, told The Post, standing near her handwritten front lawn sign that reads “my garden is not unmaintained.”
“And this is the village I pay tax to support — and they take me to court four times?”
The battle began last August after an anonymous tip to village officials accused Zhang, 45, of not maintaining her front yard, some of which has grown as high as six feet.
The village court issued her a summons, she said, that threatened a $2,000 fine — about half of what she paid for her uniquely designed garden.
“I have maybe five different milkweeds. I have probably four or five different kinds of pastures, all native, plus blazing stars, New York ironweed, false sunflowers, and false indigos, just to name a few,” said the 13-year New Hyde Parker.
“I manage this garden, but it’s not like a lawn that I would cut.”
A health care COO in the Big Apple, Zhang said she grows over 20 different plant species — several sprout inside old car tires — on her tiny block just doors down from an LIRR station, an auto body shop and other industrial properties.
“They don’t need any fertilizer, they don’t need any chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides to help them grow — they don’t even need water,” she said.
“You just basically plant them and they grow.”
Not growing on them
Since last year, Zhang, who loves the birds, butterflies and bees that have since occupied her space, said the local court initially told her, “You have to basically take down everything.”
Adding insult to injury, growing a natural garden became a recent hobby of Zhang’s after the town of North Hempstead — of which New Hyde Park is located within — launched rebate incentives for residents to start their own gardens at home.
“I was like, ‘Oh, cool, free plants’, and I get to replace my lawn — I’m all for it,” Zhang decided in 2021.
“I had to do a lot of research, I had to make a yard design, and I worked with the specialists from the town to put a garden plan together,” the mom of two told The Post outside her backyard vegetable garden.
None of her neighbors have ever complained to her face, she said, adding that she often chats with one of them to share tips on growing tomatoes.
Zhang said she brought documents to court showing her consultations with North Hempstead, and also used Manhattan’s High Line as an example of the benefits and beauty that come with natural gardening.
After close to a year of hassling with various government agencies in New Hyde Park, Zhang said a final resolution forced her to move some of her larger plants — the New York Ironweed and false sunflowers — off the front of her property to avoid heavy fines.
The village of New Hyde Park did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Her larger plants are now steps away in Zhang’s side yard — close to where she grows tomatoes, pumpkins and other natural treats.
“I still don’t see why this was all necessary,” she said. “I don’t feel this is a good use of my village taxes.”
Since her recent conditional dismissal, Zhang posted her handwritten sign on her front fence for all to see, explaining that her yard’s native plants “support the ecosystem, pollinators, and other wildlives.”
“I hope you enjoy as much as I do!” the message signs off.
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