HOA rules can bring order to a community, but they can also create petty drama when neighbors don’t play nice.

One avid gardener decided to fight back when a busybody neighbor took issue with his garden fence.

But it was what he did next that made this neighbor never cross him again.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

Don’t mess with my uncle.

My uncle is very much one of the coolest people I know.

He’s also the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, willing to help anybody with anything at any time.

One of his hobbies includes gardening, and he turned his giant backyard into a pollinators’ paradise, with the flower beds enclosed by a small, short, white picket fence.

Remember this fence, because it will soon cause quite the stir in the neighborhood.

The ones that are like 6” tall and used just to keep the garden contained, but they’re more decorative than anything.

Now, having done well for himself in his life, he also happens to live in a snooty, upper-class neighborhood with lots of trophy wife busybodies who can’t mind their own business.

One such neighbor decided to cause trouble with the HOA.

As part of this snooty neighborhood, the HOA rules explicitly state “no fences.”

Of course, they mean large 6–10’ tall fences around your property, not tiny fences around a garden bed.

But this uncle wasn’t going to take this mistreatment lying down.

Either way, my uncle’s neighbor decided to take it upon herself to report my uncle to the HOA for “having a fence,” and he got a letter from the HOA, since I guess their interpretation did find my uncle in the wrong.

His response? To read the entire HOA bylaws to ensure that whirligigs (the lawn ornaments that look like a bird with spinning wings that make an awful constant clacking noise) weren’t prohibited.

So you can guess what happened next.

They weren’t, so my uncle up and replaced all of his garden fencing with these whirligigs. Dozens, if not hundreds of them, clacking at all hours of the day and night.

It was quite a racket.

My uncle is a nice guy, so he took them all down at the end of the season. But I’m sure it humbled that awful neighbor of his.

She never said anything to him or the HOA again, probably in fear of “worse” retaliation. Like wind chimes.

This uncle couldn’t have made his point any more beautifully!

What did Reddit think of this amusing story?

This commenter brainstorms how he could make his cacophonous garden even louder!

There are many different ways to interpret HOA rules.

This commenter also has some bright ideas.

Garden spinners are child’s play compared to these!

This neighbor won’t try her luck again with this guy.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.