Here's a story from today's Indianapolis newspaper. Yet another reason why I need to get out of this city!

Organic gardening may uproot owner

Woman being sued by homeowners group because her neighbors say compost stinks.

By Courtenay Edelhart courtenay.edelhart@indystar.com July 09, 2002

A Northwestside woman may lose her house in a dispute with her homeowners association over her desire to garden organically.

Dawn Marie, 49, bought her home in the 4900 block of Cherry Hill Court intending to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables, but she decided the dry, heavy clay soil in her yard needed improving.

Marie prefers organic gardening to chemical fertilizers, so in the summer of 2000 she began treating her soil with aged horse manure and carrot pulp from a health food store. Soon, next door neighbor Michael Pieper complained to the Trees II Homeowners Association board that the compost looked and smelled bad.

The board and Pieper filed a lawsuit in June 2001 asking a Marion Superior Court judge to ban Marie from using "raw food and sewage" to fertilize.

Judge Michael Keele initially ruled in Marie's favor after she argued the association's covenant and bylaws don't prohibit organic gardening. But Keele later changed his mind during a hearing on a motion to correct errors, agreeing with the board and ordering Marie to stop.

Marie will try to change Keele's mind again when the hearing resumes at 1 p.m. today.

Both Pieper and fellow plaintiff John O'Sullivan, who lives across the street from Marie, declined to speak to a reporter. The association's attorney, Matthew Griffith, also declined to comment.

In an August deposition, Pieper testified that the "pukey-looking" carrot pulp smelled like rotten garbage, and a pile of grass clippings and "brown and black gunk" in Marie's back yard also stank.

"We had to close our windows because the stench was coming in the house," he said.

Marie said that if she loses, she will have to sell her house to pay her $29,000 in legal fees and the $17,000 she estimates her homeowners association has spent.

Marie says O'Sullivan, who serves on the homeowners association board, has a vendetta against her. Marie is a former board member and has complained about dues being too high and the way they're spent.

In a separate deposition, O'Sullivan testified that relations with Marie had become "strained" over disagreements on the board.

Marie said she doesn't know why Pieper and O'Sullivan find organic gardening offensive.

"If I used chemicals, that would smell a lot worse than organic compost," she said. "The stuff I was using didn't smell, and once I started tilling it in, you couldn't even see it."

Marie said she tried unsuccessfully to work out a compromise. She began burying the carrot pulp and offered to build a 6-foot fence and plant greenery to block Pieper's view of her back yard.

In the deposition, Pieper said he sued after he couldn't get Marie to respond to other problems, such as an unsightly pile of wood under a tarp in her back yard.

Marie said she wants to use the wood as steppingstones for a pond but hasn't finished the project because of the cost of fighting the suit and work-related travel.

Marie is a technical writer in civilian life, but the military reservist has been called to active duty as a logistics coordinator for Grissom Air Reserve Base and is away from home most of the week.

Purdue University horticulturist Steve Mayer, an expert witness in the case, visited Marie's home last July and said her compost conformed with standard organic gardening practices.

"I didn't find anything objectionable," he said. "It was a very mild smell -- just smelled like carrots to me."

Mayer thinks this is a case of hostility between neighbors getting out of hand. "It never should have escalated to the point of a lawsuit. You can't keep all odors in your yard.

"Where do you draw the line? If you're a vegetarian, are you going to sue your next door neighbor for cooking meat on a grill?"

The Marion County Health Department also inspected the property. Environmental health specialist Josh Seib sent Marie a letter indicating a complaint was unjustified, because composting is not regarded as a health or sanitation issue. Seib could not be reached for comment.

Marie is representing herself today because she's run out of money for attorneys.

"It's really ironic that I'm helping my country to fight terrorists, but I can't afford to fight the terrorists who are attacking me through my own homeowner association, and using my dues to do it," she said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call Courtenay Edelhart at 1-317-444-6481.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

Answers

Good grief! I think I'll check on GardenWeb and see if the compost folks know about this. Maybe there are some in the vicinity who can rise up and help her!

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

I should have known, someone posted it already! ;-)

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

Thanks Sherri! This kinda thing gets my hackles up! I cant STAND the idea of someone telling me what to do in my own yard!

I wrote to the journalist asking if there was a fund for this woman's legal expenses we could contribute to.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

I've been keeping my eye on the newspaper's website to see if they give an update after the hearing, but there's nothing yet.

Our homeowner's association sent out notices this year that if your grass gets too long they will hire someone to cut it and send you the bill, and if you have too many dandelions in your yard they will hire a lawn service to treat them and send you the bill!

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

All she needs to do is convert the anarobic decomposition to aerobic decomposition with...........WORMS :>) Just the sweet smell of humus under those leaves.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

I may lose my house due to dust. Can't hardly see what's in it anymore! Maybe I should stay inside with a dust rag?

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

Oh MAN! I am so glad I don't live in a community like that. I would have been evicted long ago. My friend Maureen lives in such a community (with covenants and an association) but its not as stringent. Even though its great she and her husband no longer take part in meetings etc because of the BS. Good ol' independant homeowning...its the only way to go because those rules that are supposed to protect you can come back and bite you in the ass. That poor poor woman. I hope she wins again but chances are they'll just waste the dues to try it again.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002

There is no way I'd live somewhere will all those rules. Forget that! I'm sorry for her but even if she wins her life there is going to be H*#%. It's probably best for her sanity if she moves.

Does anyone know what happened at the hearing yet?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002

She can keep gardening as long as the neighbors don't complain about the smell. Since the one neighbor is already mad at her over other issues, how long you want to bet it takes before he files another complaint? I"d like to take a load of fresh cow manure and dump it on his front yard, let him know what a stench is really like! ****************************

Judge puts limits on organic garden

The garden is gone if neighbors smell offensive odors, ruling says.

By Courtenay Edelhart

courtenay.edelhart@indystar.com

July 09, 2002

A Marion Superior Court judge ruled today that a Northwestside woman may continue to garden organically to the extent that it doesn't create odors offensive to her neighbors.

The Trees II Homeowners Association filed suit against homeowner Dawn Marie last June, saying her application of aged horse manure and carrot pulp from a health food store created a foul odor and violated the neighborhood's ban on "noxious activity."

Judge Michael Keele stressed that he, himself, is an organic gardener, and has no problem with organic gardening in general. However, he said homeowner association rules forbade activity that limits the use and enjoyment of property, and several neighbors had previously testified Marie's yard smelled so foul at times that they were unable to go outside or open windows. Some even said they became nauseous.

"Organic gardening isn't on trial, here," Keele said. "It's never been on trial. It's wonderful. It's commendable. You just can't do it in a way that disrupts your neighbors."

Marie, 49, was disappointed with the ruling, saying it was too vague.

"It's so hard to quantify what smells and what doesn't," she said. "You can't take a picture of it or document it. It's entirely subjective, and neighbors who object to organic gardening and have animosity against me get to be the judge of what's acceptable and what's not."

Call Courtenay Edelhart at 1-317-444-6481.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002

Here's a follow-up from one of the Indianapolis Star's columnists. It seems like this whole affair is more about politics than carrot pulp.

Ruth Holladay

Stinky court battle is less about mulch, more about power

July 11, 2002

It stinks.

No, not the carrot mulch that Dawn Marie has applied to her organic garden in her fancy neighborhood on the city's Northwestside, near Eagle Creek.

The mulch is just a red herring -- make that a yellow herring, since that's a color close to carrots as well as cowards.

What really stinks is the behind-the-scenes shenanigans driving a lopsided legal battle that played out this week in Judge Michael Keele's environmental court.

On the surface, the issue is a suit filed last year by the Trees II Homeowners Association against Marie after six people complained about smells in her back yard.

Actually, only one person was vociferous. That's Marie's immediate neighbor, Michael Pieper, who acknowledged in court that he called Marie -- an Air Force Reserve captain and a writer -- a stupid f - - - - - - b - - - - 10 times this spring, after a nasty confrontation over oak leaves blowing into his yard.

Pieper and Marie used to get along. She sat for his pets.

But then came the pukey, orange, sewagelike smells from Marie's yard - - that's how he described them. The smells upset Pieper. So did the wood Marie stored under a tarp. Everything fell apart.

Or is that really what happened?

Marie's contention is that this year-long battle has nothing to do with organic gardening.

She says the homeowners association is out to get her. She frets that such groups have far more power -- and links to lobbying groups that influence politicians -- than they should.

And she should know. She served on the Trees II board in 1998. That's when she objected to what she calls unusually fat fees -- $360 a year -- charged to homeowners there contrasted to other nearby associations' fees.

The association has $100,000 in its account, she says. When she served on the board, she discovered another $20,000 socked away in an undisclosed operating account.

When she voiced her concerns -- and charged that maintenance contracts were going to board members' friends -- she was voted off the board.

Not long after that, her garden officially started to stink.

However, she was using organic methods all along. She moved here from Seattle, where organic mulching and composting are common.

In 1998, she took a master gardener class and added carrot mulch.

Pieper objected in spring 2000. So did others, including two board members -- a neighbor who has since moved and Mary Lou Cary, who works for Kirkpatrick Management Co., which runs the development.

Tuesday, Marie had her day in court.

In her mind, she lost.

"She has not been fined by this court. She can do organic gardening. But she cannot do it to the extent it creates a noxious odor that impinges upon her neighbors," said the judge.

The judge visited Marie's garden. To him, it did not smell. Still, it may smell to the neighbors. The association's attorney, Matthew A. Griffith, did not return phone calls. Cary had no comment.

Neighbor Matthew Florczyk says he and his wife do organic gardening, but nobody says they stink. Yet.

"This is more about the association, is how I feel about it," he says. "If they want to make life difficult, they can intimidate -- just like in a communist country."

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Ruth Holladay's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. You can reach her at 1-317-444-6405 or via e-mail at ruth.holladay@indystar.com.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

Hmmm. Perhaps if she has other organic gardeners in her neighborhood, she could share her loads of carrot mulch, etc., amongst them. Then wait and see WHOSE pile causes complaints.

She's probably too short on money now, but I think she should have just gone ahead and installed the fence and greenery that she had offered to put in.

Funny what stinks to some people. There is a tree here in my neighborhood (I have yet to identify it) that has sweet smelling blossoms that mature to smelling like alcohol on someone's breath. Gave me quite a start walking the dog late one night. I suddenly smelled this and thought there was a drunk lurking in the bushes! LOL! It got worse as the blossoms aged, but now they are all dead and gone. Gee, I suppose I could have made an issue of that and gotten it cut down . . . . Of course, since I think this is an asinine idea, that would never happen! ;-)

So EM, did you get any info about a fund for Ms. Marie?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002