A South Carolina Man Planted a Garden in His Yard—Now His Town Is Taking Him to Court

Rich Ashford, an arborist and relative newcomer to the town of Cowpens, SC, is going to court over his garden. 

The conflict stems from a dispute about the height of what Ashford is growing in his front yard. Town ordinances say that the yard is overgrown, while Ashford contends that his garden qualifies for an exception for “cultivated gardens.” He says his property is a state-recognized natural wildlife habitat. 

Though the town ordinance is clear, legal experts think Ashford has a pretty good chance to beat the case—or that the town will need to change how it polices this issue.

A native solution to a landscaping headache

Ashford originally had no plans to become a homeowner in the town of Cowpens, but the Ohio native bought a house on the town’s main street back in 2020. 

“I got tricked by this big, beautiful Victorian home,” he tells Realtor.com®. “I got a smoking deal on this old Victorian house that was in really, really bad condition and had been neglected for 30-plus years.”

Ashford, in his telling, has become a well-known part of the community in the small town over the past few years. He left his career in banking soon after arriving in the town to pursue arborist work full time, with an emphasis on working with the land. 

“It's ecosystems, it's natives, it's xeriscaping, it's using what you have at your disposal as opposed to trying to force a yard to look like a certain thing,” he says. 

The lawn and grass around Ashford's home is kept in such a way to encourage bees and other pollinators. (Rich Ashford) Native plants in Ashford's front lawn. (Rich Ashford)

His emphasis on native plants and wanting “nature to do its thing” is part of what led him to approach his own yard differently. The previous owner, Ashford says, had covered the front yard in pea gravel and displayed tombstones there. As a result, when he bought the property, the soil was “trash.”

He filled the area with mulch, but everything that grew in failed to hold the topsoil, which would wash away in the rain and create mud and mess. 

“So what do I do? Easy solution: what grows in ground where other stuff doesn't grow? … natives,” he says. 

Ashford had previously experimented with natives in his backyard to some success, and he decided to plant an “Upland Meadows” mix from Ernst Conservation—a native seed producer—along with a wildflower and pollinator butterfly garden mix, between his two water oak trees out front.

A pollinator garden takes hold

The resulting growth included grasses, native oats, and blooming flowers. Quickly, the garden was attracting pollinators and wildlife that the old yard never could. 

“I get lots of pollinators, lots of butterflies out front, bees of all varieties. We're starting to get some migratory birds,” Ashford says.

It also attracted the attention of his neighbors. Ashford was prepared for pushback in a town where most people tend to plant flowers more conservatively—not ”tall grass and these weird flowers,” as he described it—but says that’s not what he got. 

“We had a town yard sale in May, and a bunch of people came by and told me how much they liked what I had done out front. I had a couple clients in town who said the same, and so you know, I sort of gave up on anybody saying anything,” he says. 

Where he did get pushback was from the town administrator, Steve Bolin.

In May, Ashford received a citation saying that his garden was in violation of a town ordinance. In a subsequent call with Bolin, Ashford says he was told the pollinator garden was the issue, as parts of it had grown above 12 inches. 

Ashford says he offered Bolin a planting list of what was in his yard, and that he believed what he planted and how he planted it met the exception of a cultivated garden. Soon after, a court summons arrived. Ashford’s court date is Sept. 17, 2026. 

Bolin did not respond to requests for comment from Realtor.com. Meanwhile, the town mayor, Jarred Spencer, told local newspaper The Post and Courier that enforcement of the ordinance is happening here because “people are complaining.”

The bones of a strong legal case

Ashford feels confident in representing himself in court and that he will avoid the fines the town wants to levy on him. 

“I have my rights, and you're not going to tell me I can't do something that the law says I can do,” he says. 

On one hand the ordinance seems clear. On the other hand, the exception properly muddles it. So where does that leave this case?

“The town of Cowpens has the right to require homeowners to maintain their property. Someone can't just stop mowing an overgrown lawn and call it a garden to skirt responsibility for it,” says Colin Ram, an attorney in South Carolina. “The problem is that the reported facts fit the ordinance's exception unusually well. Ashford apparently bought specific seed mixes, planted them in a defined area between two trees, and continues to mow the grass around it. Under the town's own logic, that's a hard thing to distinguish from a cultivated garden.”

Ram says the town could struggle to answer the question of, “If this isn't a cultivated garden, what counts as one?” He also notes that the town may be prosecuting this case while missing the bigger picture. 

“In 2025, the South Carolina General Assembly adopted a resolution encouraging local governments and private landowners to use native plants in landscaping to support pollinators. The resolution isn't binding law and doesn't decide this case, but it's hard to miss the contrast between South Carolina lawmakers encouraging this kind of native planting while the Town of Cowpens is prosecuting a homeowner for it,” Ram says. 

Another attorney, Edward Susolik, president of Callahan & Blaine, a firm that handles real estate litigation cases, says that though Ashford’s dictionary definition is a “great sound bite,” the judge’s decision will likely come down to evidence of planting that is “intentional and maintained significantly.” But he also thinks that the most elegant solution won’t require a court ruling.

“These kinds of issues typically get resolved when the municipality establishes a clear standard and does not leave anything up to interpretation through vague terminology like 'cultivated.’” says Susolik. “Cowpens could [create] a percentage requirement, a list of acceptable plants, or an advance registration system for planting native plants.”

What comes next?

Ashford is gearing up for his case. He says he plans to attend the hearing, bringing his credentials and even a proposal for a revised ordinance that would define pollinator gardens. He believes that he may be fined $500 a day for his garden if he loses the case. 

“I’m gonna go down swinging,” Ashford says. “If I have to cut it down, I gotta cut it down. If I have to come out here as a ruler and cut it 12 inches. I guess I'll do that.” 

While it’s possible the case is dropped or dismissed, Ashford says, he’s prepared for any outcome, as well as for what comes after it.

“If you think I'm just gonna take this, and become some like, ridiculously compliant citizen because I'm scared of the town of Cowpens, you are out of your mind,” he says. “And if I have to start embarrassing people in public, I'm gonna start embarrassing people in public.”